Practice pralinage on your bare-root plants.

Question: What is the major cause of failure for bare-root plants?

Answer: Lack of complete contact between roots and surrounding soil, and subsequent dehydration.

Sometimes the best gardening tricks are deceptively simple, as simple, in fact, as making mud pies. To protect your bareroot plants from the above problem, use the old French truc of pralinage. No, we're not talking pralines here, it's pralinage.

Pralinage is simply the practice of giving your bare-root plants' roots a mud bath before planting. The mud bath forms a protective coating on the roots that minimizes the damaging effects of any air pockets around them after you plant. In addition, the layer of mud on the roots provides a nutritive boost and a perfect environment for the emergence of all-important new root hairs.

Here's how to praline the roots of your plant. First get a bucket or basin large enough to comfortably accomodate the roots of your plant. In the bucket, mix a 50-50 quantity of cow manure (bagged stuff is okay) and soil (preferably clay), and add enough water to make a thick slurry. The resulting soup should be thinner than what you made pies with as a kid, but should have a semi-solid consistency. To test, immerse the roots of your plant in the mixture and pull them back out. If they emerge evenly coated with mud, you're mixture is perfect. If most of it drips off, add more soil/manure. If it is too thick to penetrate among the roots, add more water.

Once you've achieved the perfect mud bath balance and your plants' roots are coated, lay the plants on some layers of newspaper out of direct sun. Leave them there until the coating is dry.

Now you're ready to plant. The praline coating around your plants' roots will assure a perfect bond with the surrounding soil, and help protect them from dessication. Meanwhile, the manure in the mix will provide a light dose of fertilizer. Just what the doctor ordered. As always, water your new plant in thoroughly.

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Products of Interest:
'Jardinier' garden spade
Provençal garden and transplant spade
Artisan watering can--Perigord copper