| [College of ACES] | [University of Illinois] | [Illinois CES] |
The majority of trees found in city tree-scapes are grown in
nurseries. If the nursery grew the stock with mulch one foot
up the trunk then I would see no problem with burrying those
trees in mulch. The current knowledge says to plant the trees
as close as possible to the way they were grown in the nursery.
Another problem that you could run into by burrying the trunk
in wood chips is to encourage nice warm habitat for bark
chewing rodents to hide in.
Keep in mind though, that we are talking in generalities here,
and yes there problably are some trees that have and would
survive having their trunks knea deep in mulch, but this is
not recomended.
Good Luck,
JB