Tips For Choosing A Tree At The Nursery

Planting a quality tree is one of the best investments you can make for your home or business landscaping. Healthy trees can outlast your property’s lifespan, and they only seem to get better with age. 

Trees improve your building’s appeal, and you can also enjoy them from indoors through your front window. The key to having a beautiful, long-living tree is to begin with a healthy one.

We will give you a few tips for choosing a tree at the nursery so keep reading to find out.

Choosing The Right Tree At A Tree Nursery

Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, reduce ozone levels and erosion, and provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. The list of their benefits goes on, but apart from that they are just beautiful to look at.

Trees affect the light and shade, offer a variety of leaf shapes and colors, and add another layer of interest to add a sense of maturity and longevity to your garden. Consider a tree an essential part of your garden and treat it like any other plant. 

So, how to choose the right tree for your garden?It takes a lot to choose the right tree.

Professional arborists spend years in school and then in the field learning their trade. These tree experts know how to identify healthy trees that are disease and pest free. 

They also know which trees are most suitable for their location. When you select trees at a nursery, you have the best chance of planting plants that will survive well once planted. 

Nurseries offer you excellent value for money and the best return on investment.

What Is A Nursery Tree?

Nursery was a term used to describe that part of a garden where young plants were raised until they could be transplanted to a permanent place or to a shop or commercial establishment that sold living plant material. A nursery tree is a tree   planted, propagated and grown to a desired size in a nursery.

General instructions for setting up a nursery included finding a site near water, facing southeast and most importantly, fence it off to keep animals out. Several reports also emphasized that the composition of the soil should be as close as possible to the final destination of the plants. 

The nurseries provide the rest of the garden and other plantings with everything from flowers to tall trees. There are three main factors to consider when choosing trees from a nursery. 

First you need to carefully assess the conditions of the site. Then you must specify the function or purpose of your tree. 

Next, you need a long-term perspective on the mature shape and size of the tree. The combination of these three factors gives you the best basis for selecting trees from a nursery.

Site Conditions For New And Healthy Trees

The trick to successful planting is good planning. Take a look at these site conditions for new and healthy trees.

1. Sun patterns and wind direction

2. Interference with underground and overhead utilities. Consider underground or above-ground utilities and design your planting accordingly.

Growing trees can interfere with power lines, building structures, or underground pipes, so leave plenty of room.

3. Must complement the existing landscape and architecture. It’s important to think about the final size and layout of the trees, and how you will use the site as the trees grow. 

4. Property line relationships

5. Soil conditions such as drainage and compaction

6. Water supply and future requirements

7. Availability of light. Avoid planting under existing trees as shade and lack of water severely limit growth. 

8. Corridor indications and obstruction distance 

Your Tree’s Purpose Or Function

The two main types of trees found in the United States are evergreen and deciduous trees. Evergreen trees have needles that remain on the branches year-round. 

They are a permanent addition and do not change from season to season. Deciduous trees shed their leaves seasonally and regrow. 

They provide beauty and shade in spring, summer and autumn and let in light  on dark winter days.

Evergreen trees tend to grow faster and larger than deciduous trees. Due to this rapid growth, the annual rings on their trunks are further apart than in deciduous trees, which develop more slowly and evergreens are known as softwoods. 

Whether an evergreen or deciduous nursery is right for you depends on your overall situation. You need to consider what you want from the tree as it grows and matures.

You can choose to plant a tree to achieve one of the following goals:

1. Trees conserve energy in the summer and save you money. Properly planted trees can cut your air-conditioning costs by 15 to 35 %. 

Trees reduce the amount of re-radiated and reflected heat from streets, buildings, and sidewalks.

2. Trees conserve energy in the winter. Trees can slow cold winter winds and can cut your heating costs down.

3. Trees help clean the air. Trees produce the pure oxygen we breathe, and remove air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration and by retaining particulates.

4. Trees bring songbirds close by. Bird songs will fill the air as trees provide nesting sites, food, and cover for countless species.

5. Trees shelter and nourish wildlife from bears to bald eagles and salmon to salamanders.

6. Trees reduce the cost of controlling stormwater

7. Providing summer shade and winter brightness

8. Offering year-round privacy and security

Making a windbreak or defining property lines

9. For Growing fruit

Tree Form And Size

The size and shape of the tree also affect care. You have to imagine what a newly planted tree will look like decades later, as well as the challenges it will pose with pruning, shedding, and encroachment by other plantings or structures. Equally important for the later appearance is the choice of the right shape of the tree and the size. You also need to know your site conditions before choosing the right nursery tree

Determining the right size and shape for your tree is critical to choosing the best addition to your property. The right height and shape  complement their function when mature. Tree species that grow tall and stay slender, for example, play a different landscape role than stout, stout trees

Nursery Tree Terminology

Before you head to the nursery to select trees, it’s helpful to learn a little tree-related terminology. The tree business practically has its own language. 

The kindergarten staff will be fluent, but they will not expect you to converse at their level. However, it is nice to be able to read the tree labels and understand a little of what they mean. 

Here are the basics you should know:

A family is a group of trees that share a similar appearance. 

Genus basically refers to what each species has in common. 

The species fells trees that have similar characteristics but look different. 

The cultivar reduces the species through small variations. 

Hybrids are crossed trees that do not occur naturally.

Clones are trees propagated by cuttings from a mother plant. 

The caliper is the diameter of the tree trunk.

How To Select A Healthy Tree

Now you have a good idea of ​​what type of tree you are looking for and the conditions under which you will plant it. These are the first questions someone from the nursery team will ask you when you arrive. 

It is useful to get an idea of ​​the species you are interested in. This allows the employee to select trees to look at. 

Here it is important to know how to tell if a tree is healthy. Tree health begins with how the nursery cares for and cares for their new trees. 

The first thing that catches your eye is the general appearance of a tree. A healthy tree has the following characteristics:

Leaf Features

Leaves on a tree are a terrific indicator of health. Leaves need to be the proper coloration for the season, except the tree leaves are clearly yellow. 

They need to not be irregularly formed or stunted. These symptoms and symptoms display nutrient deficiency, harm via means of insects, watering troubles and diseases.

Bare Spots

If the tree is evergreen, look for leafless sections throughout the year. Otherwise, there is no need to worry about a deciduous tree until the leaves appear in spring. 

Bare patches can be caused by: nutrients not reaching the branches, improper pruning, or pesticide damage.

Dead Or Broken Branches 

You should prune dead and broken branches as soon as you notice them as this is a common way for insects and diseases to enter a tree, so these branches should be trimmed as soon as you notice them. Test if a branch is dead by scraping it with your fingernail. 

Healthy living branches are green underneath the bark. Even living branches bend easily while dead branches break.

Signs Of Disease And Insects

Insects and diseases are a key factor in poor tree health. Warning signs to look out for are missing fruit and flowers, holes in bark, branches and leaves, slow growth rate, wilting and bleeding sap.

Nursery Tree Preparation

Root health starts with how a nursery grows a tree and prepares it for transplanting. There are three main methods nurseries use to prepare trees for permanent planting. You have these to choose from:

Read More:

• How To Pick The Right Site To Plant A Tree

• 13 Signs Your Tree Is Dying

Balled And Burlap (B&B) Nursery Trees

The most common method of growing and preparing nurseries is the ball and burlap or jute method. These trees are more mature than bare root varieties and have more established root systems. 

They are grown in fields or land and then dug up with their roots to a sphere proportional to the size of the tree. Wrapping the root ball in damp burlap keeps the root system intact and moist for longer. 

The B&B transplant method has one disadvantage. When the tree is dug up, much of the extended root system is cut away. 

This puts the tree in shock. Be careful when choosing a ball and jute tree if you are considering something expensive, exotic or fussy.

Container Nursery Trees

Container nurseries are often the healthiest species money can buy. This is because the tree began life in a container and its roots have never been disturbed. 

But as long as the included tree doesn’t have roots, it’s easy to transplant to its location. Trees in containers at nurseries are usually healthy as long as they have received adequate water and nutrients. 

If it’s within your budget, go for a potted tree. They cost more  than ball and burlap trees, but probably offer a better return on investment.

Bare Root Nursery Trees

Bare root nurseries are the cheapest but they are also the smallest. The term means exactly what it says: the  roots of the sapling are bare and not covered by soil or media. 

They are dug up shortly after germination and prepared for shipment by keeping the bare, hanging roots moist and enclosing them in damp plastic or paper. Bare root nurseries are often used where there are multiple plantings such as hedges or row farms.

Nurseries spend limited time and effort on bare root trees. This leads to economies of scale for large plantations. 

However, bare-root trees have a high failure rate because the seedling often fails to absorb the shock of transplanting. Most nurseries do not recommend bare roots for single tree applications.

Conclusion

Starting a nursery can be a daunting endeavor, but it can be extremely rewarding if you have a passion for greenery and a solid understanding of how to grow and cultivate plants. There are three different types of nurseries. 

Backyard growers sell plants they grow in their home and typically sell plants in their front yard several times a month as a yard sale. Retail growers rent or buy physical stores where they sell to the public. 

Wholesale growers focus on growing many crops at once and sell them to other traders and shops. We hope that with our tips for choosing a tree at a nursery, you pick only the best ones.

Frequently Asked Questions