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Community Tree Buying Program

Every year, CCE Onondaga organizes a bulk order of bare root trees from municipalities, schools, parks associations and other local organizations. A main goal of the program is to encourage and enable these groups to plant trees throughout Onondaga County in a cooperative and cost-effective way.

Why Plant Bare Root Trees?

Bare-root trees are large trees that come shipped without the soil around the roots. Because of this, they are less expensive to purchase and transport than traditional balled and burlap trees. Bare-root trees are also substantially lighter, which allows volunteers and municipal staff to plant them without heavy equipment.
	Community involvement in tree planting is critical because once volunteers plant trees – especially in their own neighborhood – they become vested in the survival of their trees. The savings for using bare-root trees and volunteers can be as much as $250 per tree if you factor in the cost of the tree, its transport and the cost of hiring a contractor to plant it.

What are the Disadvantages?

Because the roots of bare root trees are exposed, they can only be planted when the tree is dormant and soil is not frozen (early November or late winter/early spring). Planting time is most predictable in the Fall after leaf drop, but planting weather can be somewhat unpredictable.

To protect the tree roots from drying out, they are dipped in a thick slurry of hydrogel. This gel will only provide protection for roughly 7 – 10 days and only if the root system in bagged tightly in heavy duty plastic bags, so trees must be planted within a week or so of their being dug up at the nursery. In contrast, ball & burlap trees can remain unplanted much longer if watered.

In addition, bare-root trees greater than 1.5 inches in diameter do not transplant well.

And finally, the diversity of species that can be successfully planted using the bare-root method is limited. Ball & burlap and containerized trees must also be used for a fully diverse and healthy urban forest.