Time To Get Bare Root Planting

By RACHEL BUDD Horticulturalist, IRD Duhallow

Bareroot season started in mid November and signaled the start of the winter season in the garden. Bareroot plants are trees, hedging and some shrubs that are raised in a field then lifted when they are dormant, between mid November and mid April. They are usually significantly cheaper than plants raised and sold in pots.

Bareroot plants are environmentally friendly; producing a bareroot plant uses less resources, ie. less fertilisers, less compost, less water, less plastic and less transport costs than a pot grown plant.

More varieties are available as stock can be bundled together to be held in nurseries, taking far less space than pot grown plants

By the same token they are economical to send by mail order they can be bundled and packed into each other - several hundred small trees can be delivered in one parcel!

Bareroot plants often get settled in and grow faster than pot grown plants.

However, it is very important not to let the roots dry out. If your plants have arrived before you are ready for them, you must ‘heel them in’ until you have time to plant them. This means that you must dig a hole and place your plants in it up to the soil level on the stems. You can put hundreds of trees into one hole so it is not too arduous. Make sure you back fill the hole with soil. Trees can be left like this for several months but must still be planted within the dormant season or they will not establish well.

Here at IRD Duhallow, we have a wide selection of bareroot trees, hedging and fruit bushes available for community groups as part of our Communities Planting for Biodiversity Project. For more information, please contact Rachel or Rowan at duhallow@ irdduhallow.com or on 02960633