If the sock fits, wear it.

But seriously, I have never seen this but my opinion would be to score the sides and bottom in several areas with a box cutter once you set the tree in the hole then snip the twine .. that would provide the roots with an escape hatch should the sock not biodegrade as fast as you would want. This is just my common sense opinion and helping you to brainstorm ... not based on experience.

I got a ornamental cherry tree this year also with a sock on it. I got mine from Aldi. I though it was strange also that it says to not take off the sock. Presently I have it planted in a 5 gal bucket in the garage waiting for spring to make up its mine on if it is going to show up. It is doing well and starting to leaf out.

Joe Blow, that was my basic hedging-my-bets idea as well.

functionthenlook, are you planning to keep or remove the sock?

That would make sense, yeah. But only the plumcot trees were socked. The peach trees, etc were not. Same nursery of origin.

I would also understand if the language were something like "you don't have to remove this biodegradable sock", but by saying "do not take this off" it sounds like someone thinks it's critical to keep it on. Perhaps something about the container mix is different for these trees, somehow less cohesive?

To tell you the truth, I don't know. All I can find on the internet is a company that makes them. http://www.rootsocks.com/  They don't give you much info thought except that you can open up the bottom if you want. Since I have mine in dirt in a bucket I am going to see what the root ball looks like when I plant it. If the roots are still contained in the wrap I just might make some slits in the sock.

Lucky, I say put the tree in the hole and cut the sock away. By putting it in the hole first you make certain nothing weird happens if you try to move the tree while holding a loose heavy rootball.

By cutting away the sock you take away one barrier between the roots and the natural soil around them. You also get to see what kind of root system it has like whaas mentioned.

It's making me think that the tree isn't well-rooted so they want the sock to stay in place to hold whatever is there together!

I would also disregard the label. The tree in a sock is possibly a present from Santa Claus, but there aren't any good nurseries at the North Pole!

Lucky, I would definitely remove them before planting, they have no purpose after the tree is planted (in my view ).

I would treat it like you would a bare root tree.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate it. Sound like consensus is bare(f/r)oot. ;)

Lucky, please let me know what yours looked like and what you did to the sock when you plant it. I'm zone 6 (pittsburgh ) and it looks like I will not be able to plant for at least a week or two. Old man winter doesn't want to go home home this year. I hope mine lasts that long sitting in the garage before i can plant it. There isn't much light in the garage.

Greetings:

The large nursery that I work at has on occasion received in small trees for lining out in our fields to grow on to larger sizes (harvest ball and burlapped). We just harvested some nice 2" caliper trees planted this way last fall.

I had a client call back that when planting them on their site they found what looked like strips of elastic around the roots? That is when I found out these trees originally were planted with the "sock on" as they were supposed to be biodegradable.

I must say the remaining "strips" found at harvest 3 years later were too small to cause any damage or girdling to the trees. I am not sure how long it actually takes for 100% decay of these socks.

I too would suggest carefully removing the sock when planting. Put the tree in the hole first and then carefully cut the sock off so you do not disturb the rootball as little as possible.

Super interesting! So glad I posted about this. It's warm enough here to plant, so as soon as I find a suitable spot in my yard, I'll do it. I'll be sure to report back on how it goes.

Next time spend a couple extra bucks and get a potted tree. Usually the sock doesn't even have real dirt in it, more like saw dust. Trees do not establish as quickly as a potted tree.

I peeked inside the sock out of curiosity - definitely potting medium, not sawdust. Also, not sure if you can see in the pic, but the tree/sock is in a container as well. It just has that extra sock layer.

Spring finally came and I got to plant my sock tree. I had mine in a 5 gal bucket with the sock on and dirt around it sitting in the garage. It was in the bucket for about 2 weeks. I was surprised that when I went to plant it the sock was just shreds of fabric. So it does degrade rather quickly.

Still deciding on a location for mine.

lucky_cloud - where did you find the plumcot in a sock? I live in NC too. I want a plumcot and would rather not pay the shipping from an online vendor.

Liz, I actually found it at Kroger! They always have a selection of small fruit trees, blueberries, and, for some reason, hops. It's not a huge tree but I feel like these types of trees are fairly fast growers.

if you've gone to all the effort to plant a tree ... i dont understand why you wouldnt simply be done with the sock at planting ... its like doing 99.9% of the job properly .. and then not finishing it ...

that said.. in my sand ... i HAVE TO plant in native soil ... or there is the possibility ... the the sand will wick moisture out of the peat media ... and once dry.. a peat based media can be very hard to impossible to rewet ... and if the plant does not grow out of the media part .. before this happens .... then it might die ... i would think its the same in clay ... with the highly divergent media ... if you have drainage problems in the clay.. a gob of peat isnt going to help drainage ...

that said ... i i can also see if you were in wholesale production ... you might not bother removing it.. as a certain loss is expected ... and may or may not be assignable to the sock ...

ken

Associated concern about root disturbance misplaced, actually counterproductive.

The Myth of Fragile Roots

https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/fragile-roots.pdf

This thread socks ... but, we now know if you get a tree like this to knock its socks off. I just hope none of you sock me in the head for this silly post ...

your name seems apropos .... lol ..

you should have wrote for laugh in ... sock it to me ... lol

ken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71VEfPEG_RE

That was funny Ken ... blast from the past ... and a reminder of how much more simple things used to be ... getting old socks, huh ?

Ok ... thinking this thread is done

Update: finally decided where to put my tree and planted it today. Much like functionthenlook, I found that the sock had begun to degrade quite a bit already inside the pot. The medium was a tree/shrub-like mix with small bark chips and some smaller organic matter. The roots were amazingly not circling at all, in fact they had just barely reached the edges of the pot. So, who knows. I cut away the rest of the sock because, while it was degrading, it was still in the way. Sorry no pics of the whole thing, but the tree is happy and growing nicely since I brought it home. Hopefully it likes its new spot.

Beware of 2 metal twist ties on these socked trees. I couldn't resist the discounted price ($7) for one of these sock puppet trees (Ayers Pear) so bought it. When planting, it had 2 metal twist ties, 1 for the plastic bag container and another one tieing the sock to the trunk. The sock hid the 2nd metal tie very well and if I had not decided to remove the sock before planting it the 2nd metal tie would have choked the tree in due time.

You must live somewhere with alkaline soil where I live the acidic soil would have eaten through a twistible metal wire before the trunk got big enough for it to be an issue. My native soil pH is about 5.7

These twist ties aren't of the loaf of bread type, closer to a #10 gauge electrical wire, almost used pliers to remove them with my old fingers. The tree trunk was a bit less than an inch, small tree, tight.