Planting bigger trees

[backyardsugarer]

I am going to buy some sugar maples this year and plant them. The little ones (2 feet tall) are cheap but take forever to get the root system established. Is there anyplace out there that sells trees to plant that are about 8 feet tall? I don't mind paying more to get bigger trees that I can tap in my life time. Thanks

Chris

[DougM]

Chris
If you're looking to plant a lot of trees you don't want to pay retail prices, so I would suggest if you know someone in the landscape business getting in touch with them and trying to get wholesale prices.

I work as a project mgr. in site development, and I have called nurseries trying to get wholesale prices for large amounts of trees, and they won't even talk to me.

Looking on the web, trees in the 4-5' range are $20-$25, without shipping.

Doug

[forester1]

When you plant a big tree you would need to plant a big root ball. Remember trees are more than half underground. A tree eight feet tall should have a root ball at least 4 feet in diameter and still it has lost roots and would need a couple years of very slow growth above ground until the roots caught up to above ground size. Often a small tree in a few years will catch up and pass a larger tree since the smaller tree will have a better balance of roots to the size above ground.