Re: Hostas in the woods
- To: hosta-open@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Hostas in the woods
- From: j*@sentex.net
- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 07:25:51 -0400
>The competition between roots of the hostas and the brush will not be a
problem
>since I have a nice little Troy Built roto tiller that fits nicely between
the plants and will eliminate the roots from the brush.
>IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED THAT ROTO-TILLING UNDER TREES.....GET
>THIS.....STIMULATES THE TREE ROOTS.....IN A YEAR YOU WILL BE FURTHER
>BEHIND......
>
>OUR CANADIAN BUDDY, JOHN KEE, HAS SUGGESTED THAT YOU SIMPLY DIG A HOLE....NO
>AMENDMENTS.....USE NATIVE SOIL.....AND WATER GENERALLY [NOT JUST THE
>PLANT].....
>
>AM I INCORRECT JOHN????
We had a discussion about this last year with the AHS group and several of
us have found that you can minimize root competition by the method Ken has
suggested. Any time you add any type of soil improvements you stimulate the
roots of all the surrounding plant material to come to the new food source.
Tree roots will win every time. Planting with the native soil doesn't seem
to encourage this process. Also try and plant a large multi-division plant.
Rototilling the soil around the plants would be OK if you can go down to
about 18" in depth all the time and eliminate the roots but this isn't
practical for most gardeners and does a lot of damage to the trees.
Happy Gardening
John Kee
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