Impacts of Wire Basket Retention and Removal on Fraxinus americana ‘Autumn Purple’ Growth Nine Years After Transplanting

The topic of wire basket removal during planting remains an area of contention among nursery growers, landscapers, and arborists who work with balled-and-burlapped planting material. Those in favor of removal fear that the burlap and wire surrounding a tree’s root ball will impede root regrowth and eventually lead to the girdling of any roots that do penetrate into the surrounding soil. Those opposed to removal believe the advantages to tree and root system stability during transplanting and establishment outweigh any negatives to leaving the root ball intact. In 2008, 45 Fraxinus Americana ‘Autumn Purple’ were randomly assigned one of three transplanting treatments: 1) transplanted by tree spade without burlap/wire; 2) transplanted as balled-and-burlapped with only burlap and string removed; or 3) transplanted as balled-and-burlapped with all packaging materials (i.e., string, burlap, wire basket) removed. All trees survived regardless of treatment. In addition to survival, trunk diameter and tree height were measured annually for nine years. Marginal differences were noted for the two growth responses over the course of the trial (min P-value = 0.0599).