"Restore us, O God Almighty;
make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
You brought a vine out ... and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
... O God Almighty ... watch over this vine,
the root Your right hand has planted ...
Restore us, O LORD God Almighty;
make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."
(Psalm 80)
make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
You brought a vine out ... and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
... O God Almighty ... watch over this vine,
the root Your right hand has planted ...
Restore us, O LORD God Almighty;
make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."
(Psalm 80)
New Year's Blessings, my friends! Many of you are aware that the Lord recently moved us to Flower Mound, Texas, and that the repositioning has been more difficult than I anticipated, especially for our normally adaptable and resilient 14-year-old daughter. As I prayed with her and for her last night, the Lord said to me (among other things!), "Transplant gently."
This morning, as I researched "transplanting", I stumbled across a couple of articles that seemed applicable to people as well as to plants. I've morphed the two together in one narrative below. :-)
More often than not, new transplants will experience some degree of shock. This is simply reaction to having been moved, and it is generally caused by damage to the roots of the plant during the repositioning.
It seems to be a straight-forward process, but please appreciate that plants don't typically move of their own volition; once they've germinated in a particular site, they tend to stay put. That's the way nature works, so that's the way plants were designed, with very few mechanisms to deal with the shock of being moved--very much against their will.
Consider how disruptive this process is: you've been told all your life that you will grow in that one spot where you sprouted. You were born and raised there, accustomed to that amount of light, that degree of moisture, that soil type, and that climatic condition. All your life, this is what you've known, and no one ever told you that it would suddenly all change one day.
Now, you're being asked to grow in a completely different spot, with different light patterns, different rainfall, different soil, and and a different--possible dramatically different--climate. Your branches that once faced south, branches which had grown in a particular manner to buffer against prevailing winds, now face north, and the prevailing winds are now from the west! Your roots, which feed your entire being, are either wetter or drier than they have been all your life, and they've probably been severely damaged when you were dug up, since they were not designed to survive being ripped out of the ground by force. Major roots were inevitably cut as your root ball was dug out, and fine, moisture-gathering root hairs (actually the most important ones, but which are farthest away from you) were torn apart during transport. In losing these little "feeder" roots, you're not able to draw the required amount moisture and nutrients to thrive and grow, and the resulting imbalance manifests as transplant shock.
Transplanting is quite hard on a plant, no matter how big or small it is. As a result, almost all transplants go into some degree of transplant shock, where normal growth patterns and biological processes are upset, with varying degrees of resultant symptoms. In minor cases, this might just be a slight disturbance of its growth processes, which return to normal shortly after the plant has settled into its new home. In more severe cases, ... (NOTE: I'm choosing to leave out what happens in more severe cases. I cancel severity!) :-)
Transplant shock is not something that can be completely prevented, even in the best case scenarios, but it can be managed to minimize the negative impacts. The best way to manage it is to pamper your plant through its readjustment, which typically ranges from one month for a perennial to a year or even two for a tree. Make your transplant as comfortable as possible, as close to its ideal growing conditions as you can recreate, so that it feels a minimum of disturbance and takes to its new conditions with relative ease. Make its new home a place it wants to live.
Many factors that disturb a plant during transplantation are beyond your control. For example, you can't control its new climate and weather conditions. You can't control the rain, and you can't control the wind. One thing, however, that is fully within your control is the earth in which you are setting your transplant. You can control the characteristics and quality of the soil in which it will start its new growth, and you can control the foundation on which it will sit.
This can not be repeated enough: a successful transplant is utterly dependent on how it is planted in its new home. The eager gardener is often tempted to force the plant into a growth spurt as soon as it is transplanted, which can be disastrous. A transplant's roots have been compromised, and the last thing it needs is to be driven into vigorous growth without having the root system to support it.
So, devote the first growing season to developing a healthy root system. Beside feeding plants, roots also anchor them into the ground. It is wise to stake a new transplant until it has developed enough roots to anchor itself against the winds. Your new transplant is likely stressed to begin with from the move alone, the last thing it needs is other troubles to add to its misery. Keep a close eye on it; patience is your best course for transplant shock, but deal with other unexpected and uninvited stresses immediately.
The ideal planting foundation is geared towards giving the plant its best new living conditions. It has soft, pliable, high-quality soil surrounding the root ball, to give the plant an easy time of regrowing the roots lost during the transplant. The space should be sufficiently wide to give the plant an easy time of forming new roots before it has to encounter generally tougher soil. The soil should be a balance exactly between what the plant wants and the type of soil immediately outside of the hole. The allows the roots a smooth transition between soil types with so sudden shocks or surprises.
When placing the plant into its new home, pay careful attention to the height at which you set it. It is critical to always try and match the level of the soil on the root ball to the final level of the soil in the new hole. The key here is the location of what is known as the crown of the plant, the spot where the roots meet the trunk or above-ground stems; this must never be either too high or too low relative to what it was in the plant’s original growing site.
Finally, consider applying some kind of mulch to the finished planting hole, at least for the first while. Mulch serves a few purposes; it keeps the root area moist in between waterings and prevents it from drying out. It also discourages weeds and grass from trying to grow into the new soil, which will happen! Discouraging other things from growing in your transplant's new home lessens the competition for your transplant's needed moisture and nutrients, which will help it through its reestablishment period.
Face it, plants were never intended to be moved by nature, so they don't respond well to it, even in the best of circumstances. Transplant shock should be expected. More often than not, your transplant will take a full growing season, or even more, to adjust to the new surroundings and to compensate for the stresses of transplanting. Allow it this time, and don't try to force it to grow and perform as soon as it gets to its new home! Your plant may not look happy for a year or two; just accept this, and do your best to help it out. That extra effort you give it in the early stages will be rewarded with a happy and healthy plant, which experiences a minimum of transplant shock and gets back to growing as quickly as possible. In time, it will recover from the transplant and get down to the business of doing what it does best.
So, this novice gardener, so inclined to unceremoniously plop my transplant down, expecting her to root and thrive right away, is being gently apprenticed by the Master Gardener. And, I, in turn, can gently nurture the precious one that He has purposefully repositioned. Thank You, Lord.
This morning, as I researched "transplanting", I stumbled across a couple of articles that seemed applicable to people as well as to plants. I've morphed the two together in one narrative below. :-)
"Minimizing Shock for Successful and Gentle Transplanting"
More often than not, new transplants will experience some degree of shock. This is simply reaction to having been moved, and it is generally caused by damage to the roots of the plant during the repositioning.
It seems to be a straight-forward process, but please appreciate that plants don't typically move of their own volition; once they've germinated in a particular site, they tend to stay put. That's the way nature works, so that's the way plants were designed, with very few mechanisms to deal with the shock of being moved--very much against their will.
Consider how disruptive this process is: you've been told all your life that you will grow in that one spot where you sprouted. You were born and raised there, accustomed to that amount of light, that degree of moisture, that soil type, and that climatic condition. All your life, this is what you've known, and no one ever told you that it would suddenly all change one day.
Now, you're being asked to grow in a completely different spot, with different light patterns, different rainfall, different soil, and and a different--possible dramatically different--climate. Your branches that once faced south, branches which had grown in a particular manner to buffer against prevailing winds, now face north, and the prevailing winds are now from the west! Your roots, which feed your entire being, are either wetter or drier than they have been all your life, and they've probably been severely damaged when you were dug up, since they were not designed to survive being ripped out of the ground by force. Major roots were inevitably cut as your root ball was dug out, and fine, moisture-gathering root hairs (actually the most important ones, but which are farthest away from you) were torn apart during transport. In losing these little "feeder" roots, you're not able to draw the required amount moisture and nutrients to thrive and grow, and the resulting imbalance manifests as transplant shock.
Transplanting is quite hard on a plant, no matter how big or small it is. As a result, almost all transplants go into some degree of transplant shock, where normal growth patterns and biological processes are upset, with varying degrees of resultant symptoms. In minor cases, this might just be a slight disturbance of its growth processes, which return to normal shortly after the plant has settled into its new home. In more severe cases, ... (NOTE: I'm choosing to leave out what happens in more severe cases. I cancel severity!) :-)
Transplant shock is not something that can be completely prevented, even in the best case scenarios, but it can be managed to minimize the negative impacts. The best way to manage it is to pamper your plant through its readjustment, which typically ranges from one month for a perennial to a year or even two for a tree. Make your transplant as comfortable as possible, as close to its ideal growing conditions as you can recreate, so that it feels a minimum of disturbance and takes to its new conditions with relative ease. Make its new home a place it wants to live.
Many factors that disturb a plant during transplantation are beyond your control. For example, you can't control its new climate and weather conditions. You can't control the rain, and you can't control the wind. One thing, however, that is fully within your control is the earth in which you are setting your transplant. You can control the characteristics and quality of the soil in which it will start its new growth, and you can control the foundation on which it will sit.
This can not be repeated enough: a successful transplant is utterly dependent on how it is planted in its new home. The eager gardener is often tempted to force the plant into a growth spurt as soon as it is transplanted, which can be disastrous. A transplant's roots have been compromised, and the last thing it needs is to be driven into vigorous growth without having the root system to support it.
So, devote the first growing season to developing a healthy root system. Beside feeding plants, roots also anchor them into the ground. It is wise to stake a new transplant until it has developed enough roots to anchor itself against the winds. Your new transplant is likely stressed to begin with from the move alone, the last thing it needs is other troubles to add to its misery. Keep a close eye on it; patience is your best course for transplant shock, but deal with other unexpected and uninvited stresses immediately.
The ideal planting foundation is geared towards giving the plant its best new living conditions. It has soft, pliable, high-quality soil surrounding the root ball, to give the plant an easy time of regrowing the roots lost during the transplant. The space should be sufficiently wide to give the plant an easy time of forming new roots before it has to encounter generally tougher soil. The soil should be a balance exactly between what the plant wants and the type of soil immediately outside of the hole. The allows the roots a smooth transition between soil types with so sudden shocks or surprises.
When placing the plant into its new home, pay careful attention to the height at which you set it. It is critical to always try and match the level of the soil on the root ball to the final level of the soil in the new hole. The key here is the location of what is known as the crown of the plant, the spot where the roots meet the trunk or above-ground stems; this must never be either too high or too low relative to what it was in the plant’s original growing site.
Finally, consider applying some kind of mulch to the finished planting hole, at least for the first while. Mulch serves a few purposes; it keeps the root area moist in between waterings and prevents it from drying out. It also discourages weeds and grass from trying to grow into the new soil, which will happen! Discouraging other things from growing in your transplant's new home lessens the competition for your transplant's needed moisture and nutrients, which will help it through its reestablishment period.
Face it, plants were never intended to be moved by nature, so they don't respond well to it, even in the best of circumstances. Transplant shock should be expected. More often than not, your transplant will take a full growing season, or even more, to adjust to the new surroundings and to compensate for the stresses of transplanting. Allow it this time, and don't try to force it to grow and perform as soon as it gets to its new home! Your plant may not look happy for a year or two; just accept this, and do your best to help it out. That extra effort you give it in the early stages will be rewarded with a happy and healthy plant, which experiences a minimum of transplant shock and gets back to growing as quickly as possible. In time, it will recover from the transplant and get down to the business of doing what it does best.
So, this novice gardener, so inclined to unceremoniously plop my transplant down, expecting her to root and thrive right away, is being gently apprenticed by the Master Gardener. And, I, in turn, can gently nurture the precious one that He has purposefully repositioned. Thank You, Lord.
"... blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."
(Jeremiah 17:7-8)
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."
(Jeremiah 17:7-8)
(Excerpts from "Digging the $100 Hole" by Jim Kohut, Staff Writer, and "10 Tips for Minimizing Transplant Shock: Secrets to Successful Transplanting", www.northscaping.com)
Copyright 2010. Kathryn B. Wells. All Rights Reserved.
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