14 City Trees
rience, size trumps season and species and production meth-
od," Bassuk says. For this reason, she recommends that city
foresters, whether in spring or fall, consider planting B&B and
bare root trees at 2-inch (5-cm) caliper or less; research shows
they have higher establishment rates and catch up with or even
outgrow their larger-caliper, more stressed counterparts.
Bare Root
Thanks to Nina Bassuk's research and extension efforts in bare
root transplanting technology, tens of thousands of trees have
been planted in the Northeast U.S. that would otherwise not
have been. In 2014 alone, 8800 bare root trees were purchased
by 93 municipalities across 11 states from Schichtel's Nursery
in Western NY.
Schichtel's Sales Manager Jim Kisker, who has partnered with
The Cornell Woody Plants Database is one of many resources available through the UHI website.
Webinar Subjects
Creating the Urban Forest: The Bare
Root Method
Tough Trees for Tough Sites
(about Site Assessment and Plant
Selection)
Soils in the Urban Environment: A
Long-Term Evaluation of the Scoop-
and-Dump Remediation Strategy
Woody Shrubs for Stormwater
Retention Practices
Support Your Local Tree (about
Cornell Structural Soil Mix)
Excavation of Tree Growing in
Cornell Structural Soil (Root study)
Locating Tree Roots with Ground-
Penetrating Radar, a Ground-Truth Study
Modeling Street Trees on a
Statewide Basis in NY State
Modern Plant Hunting for Urban
Plants
Planting Sod on CU-Soil
Bassuk on bare root and other research since 1990, says the
vast majority of the nursery's bare root sales go to munici-
palities that are using her bare root technique. Kisker says,
"Municipal customers report that with bare root, they're up in
the 93-96 % survival rate with Nina's dip-and-bag method. We
know it works, because the same municipalities come back
every year. Some have been buying from us, with this method,
for 10-15 years and in some cases, 20-plus years."
If your municipality is using the bare root method, Bassuk would
love to hear your stats and observations; please send an email
to her care of
citytreeseditor@gmail.com. For those communi-
ties looking to get into bare root planting, they should start with
the award-winning, free publication, Creating the Urban Forest:
The Bare Root Method, which can be found on the UHI website.
In Ithaca, the vast majority of street trees are planted bare root
in the fall, with high rates of success.
UHI Webinars
Bassuk would like SMAers to know about the additional webinars on the UHI website, on topics as listed below. You may
wish to begin with a webinar she gave, "Tour
of the UHI website," which includes tips on how to get the most out of the very
useful
Cornell Woody Plants Database. Many more resources of global interest are available at the UHI website, including a
page on community forestry.
