Habitat preparation

• • Silva Cell
  • Root Barriers
  • Tree Trunk Protector
  • Tree Anchoring
  • Irrigation
  • Aeration
  • Service products
    • Fauna Panels
    • Pond and Roof foil
    • Substrata
    • Myccorhizae
    • Injection
      • Habitat preparation
      • Habitat improvement
    • Up By Roots

 

Planting trees requires a solid preparation. In a well-prepared planting hole trees will root much easier and produce a more direct growth. In many cases planting holes are prepared by replacing the existing soil with ‘good’ tree soil.

However, this method has several drawbacks: for instance what should be done with the present soil, should it be sampled, removed or mixed and reused? And what should be done with the cables and pipes on site? In addition, more problems may occur after a number of years: a planting site may become a drainage site, because compaction is found to occur after all in the ‘good’ tree soil and interfering layers with a ‘flower pot effect’ are created by the transitions between the present soil and the one added later. These habitat problems cause stagnation in growth and reduce the vitality of trees.

As a result of this reduced vitality the trees are attacked by pests like lice and leaf miners, which in turn reduces photosynthesis. This sends the trees into a downward spiral. In addition, compost is often used in traditional tree soil, in which the soil life has for the greater part died as a result of the high temperatures that occur during the composting process. Therefore the organic matter is not or poorly converted in the habitat and there is hardly any symbiosis of soil life with the root system.

The principle
The principle of our habitat preparation system is both simple and effective. Low-pressure aeration is used to create numerous soil cracks in the current soil layers. These cracks are filled with organic matter, lava pellets and living biological preparations. To the roots of the new trees it seems as if they are taking the place of the dead and already decomposed roots of their predecessors. As a result they grow easily in the created cracks (forest situation) and absorb the injected substrate.

Through the application of lava pallets the cutting could be recompacted. Despite the compaction the lava pallets ensure that the cracks remain rootable for trees and that the active roots continue to have a good oxygen exchange. The living biological preparations consist of numerous tiny organisms that provide trees with nutrients in particular in the longer term. These preparations have been supplemented with soil fungi (mycorrhizae) that fuse with the roots (symbiosis).

The cracks created with the GDI method imitate a forest situation, as a result of which the roots develop easily and the ‘flower pot effect’ is avoided.