November 2011. Planting trees to last a lifetime all across South Louisiana

“We don’t let the tree know it got moved.”

And that, explains Kurt Ducote, is his company’s secret to transplanting even large trees any time of the year and ensuring that they’ll prosper.

“What separates us from everyone else is root pruning,” he continues. “We can make a tree grow twice as fast as a container tree with our technique. Every year we go through every single tree on our tree farm and trim the roots.”

And that’s when the horticultural magic kicks in. For each root trimmed, the tree re-sprouts three.

“We end up with thousands of roots producing an extremely dense root ball.”

And all those roots can be moved with the tree, which means that it immediately begins to get lots of nutrients as soon as it’s in the ground in its new location. The technique has proven so successful that it’s the subject of a new study.

“We are working with Dr. Ed Bush at LSU’s Burden Research Center to show how the technique works to other nurseries,” says Ducote.

“A cooperative research effort between the LSU AgCenter and Ducote’s Nursery has established a seven-year study to determine the benefits of root pruning. Live oak trees will be pruned and harvested over the period to determine the optimum time before harvest and the root density gained each harvest year,” explains Dr. Bush.

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