Oak tree in florida question ,please.

[bali]

MY NEICE IN FLORIDA ASKS THIS QUESTION OF YOU PROS.......HELP/

I have a question about flowers that maybe you can ask your flower friends about. I want to fill in dirt around the base of my Live Oak tree and plant a bunch of flowers in the bed. I asked someone and he said he heard that if you do that it will not let the tree have air. Can you ask around and see?


AUNT BALI REPLIED. More soil around the roots, with flowers should make a better mulch like effect for the flowers. There for the tree will make a much needed shade for the tree.........I never heard if cutting air off..The trees are deep rooted things......They say there is more of the tree under then ground , then on top......

Ok lets hear from those who know...........

Becky wants to know.

[trudy]

I would advise her to add NO MORE than 2 inches of soil or mulch for that matter. The trees roots do need air. You can add 2 inches one time a year, by adding more soil than that can cause the the roots to surface more than they would normally in search of air/water an nutrients. An I have seen where these roots that surface start to sprout (better known as sucker growth) which can be aggravating to control. By adding to much soil around the roots can also cause a slow death to the tree. And let me add to that oaks are not use to having a lot of water once they are out of the first year stage, so by her putting a flower bed under it means she will need to water this bed to keep the flowers alive an in turn will harm the oak. I hope all that makes sense. I would advise her to plant in containers of various sizes an place them under the tree.

[gone_tropical]

Oaks don't mind having understory plantings around them, as long as you don't pile soil and mulch up around the trunk (tenting). this will cause problems like with any other tree.

Good plants for under oaks here in FL that come to mind, are hydrangeas, azeleas, bromeliads, camellias.

[ok_nurse]

I have planted very large flowerbeds under my trees-even with tarp under the soil to keep weeds out. The only problem I've had is with a young apple tree. What happened is that I put too much soil above the "surface line" on a smaller tree and caused it to rot. On larger trees, the surface line is not as important but the smaller ones need to have soil added gradually. I know it was not a problem with air to the roots because the apple tree was at the very edge of the flowerbed and the roots of the tree clearly on one side were not covered by any added soil. The base of the trunk rotted and killed the tree. Hubby was upset. Won't do that again with a young tree. The older ones I've piled 6-8 inches on top. No problems.

[PlantSwap]

I would advise her to add NO MORE than 2 inches of soil or mulch for that matter. The trees roots do need air.

[zuzu's petals]

I'm voting with the add-no-more-than-2-inches group.

Underplanting is fine, but adding too much soil or mulch is not a good idea.
Trees send some roots very deep and keep others very near to (or even above) the surface for a reason,
they need both.

[bali]

Thanks all......Sounds like majority is against.......