Gravel Bed Tree Planting Series – Growth Data by Planting Date

Timing of out-planting trees from a gravel bed has been shown to have an impact on diameter growth. Out-planting later in the growing season allows bare-root trees to establish root systems through fall, giving the trees a head start on diameter growth the following growing season compared to trees planted during the winter months.

Small trees grown in gravel beds form abundant root systems after growing several months in the bed. In the South, trees removed from gravel beds in full leaf can be out-planted as bare-root trees during later parts of the growing season. Timing of planting has been shown to have an impact on diameter growth. Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia ‘Bosque’) planted in August 2011, in Athens, GA, had 50 percent greater diameter at the end of the 2012 growing season than those planted in February 2012. For the 2013, 2014, and 2016 growing seasons, trees planted in August trees had 47 percent, 36 percent, and 36 percent greater diameter, respectively, than the trees planted in February. Out-planting later in the growing season allows bare-root trees to establish root systems through fall, giving the trees a head start on diameter growth the following growing season compared to trees planted during the winter months.

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