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GardenLine Profile: Maas Nursery 5511 Toddville Rd. Seabrook, TX www.maasnursery.com Here it is -- a lecture and a visual HOW-TO about deep root watering/feeding of trees. Plus, it may never get any easier than it is right now to poke-auger-drill those holes than it is right now following the rains of March 10th. So, if you are already a GardenLine Disciple and know all about deep root feeding/watering of trees, then pass this week’s email tip to someone who you know needs such help. On the GardenLine radio program I probably hammer home the point and importance of Deep Root Watering/Feeding of trees at least once every hour. People call because their trees aren't growing much since they planted them two years ago; people call about older trees and their roots coming out of the ground etc. etc. These are all examples of trees that are in dire need to Deep Root Watering/Feeding. This email tip could go on forever. However, since I'm limited on time and space, I hope the artwork that will follow at the end of this tip will give you more of a concept of these fundamentals.  I talk about developing holes that go down 18 inches into the soil. These can be developed many ways. With Ross Root Feeders, Soil Augers, Post Hole Diggers, or your own tool fashioned with something; ala a piece of steel rebar. The bigger the holes that are augered the fewer holes you will eventually need. The smaller the hole with tools like the Ross Root Feeder, the more holes you will need to develop. If the holes are bigger than an inch wide, you will need to fill them with pea gravel or organic matter, like mulch or compost. The smaller the hole, the apt we are to let Mother Nature fill the holes gradually and naturally.
Now, here's where it gets real simple. Yet, it's also where many of you will want to complicate it. The holes are developed to make it easy to Deep Root Feed and Deep Root Water. Mother Nature and your irrigation system will provide plenty of moisture to trickle down in the holes. You don't necessarily have to water each individual hole. (I'm sure there are some people breathing a huge sigh of relief) The same concept holds true for feeding them. If you have holes that are 2 inches wide or bigger (such as the post hole sized ones) you can soak those areas specifically with Organic Foods or Soil Activators to Deep Root Feed a tree. The smaller the holes, you will just have to soak the entire area with something akin to a spray-on organic liquid. Or you can even allow compost as "fill dirt" on the surface to slowly work its way down.  A couple of other concepts are worth noting to bring this Deep Root Water/Feeding together. First, remember that these holes need to be augered both "inside" and "outside" the drip line (as you will see in the artwork below. Plus, you should start them at least two feet away from the trunk of the tree. Secondly, and probably most importantly remember how tree's roots want to grow. The picture below will show you what I mean. We tend to think of them as growing only laterally, when in fact they like to grown down in well-watered, organic soils. Finally, remember that this process is an on-going idea. Even when you've got a healthy tree, remember that years later it will be helpful to come back and auger some new holes.
Words of warning: • Just feeding with granular synthetic foods actually eats up the beneficial microbes that we are trying to increase down in the root zone - that's why I emphasize organic foods for the roots of trees. The second-most-often-asked question I get is "what organic fertilizer?" My answer has always been – "As long as it is truly "organic" I don’t care what brand or name you use. • If you're augering with a drill bit bigger than 2 inches wide, it's often wise to have gas, phone and other utility lines marked prior to drilling. • Again, don't forget to increase your holes outside the "drip line" as the tree matures. • Hire a tree company if you think this is too much work, for they have helped pioneer the concepts of which I speak. And now for the picture that you've all been waiting for to bring this full-circle visually… Here is a deep root grid plotted inside and outside a drip line of a fully-grown tree, a drip line and a logical look at how roots are trying to grow down in the root zone.   5511 Toddville Rd. Seabrook, TX www.maasnursery.com "Worth the trip no matter where you’re coming from." "No one visits Maas Nursery just once." "If you can’t find it at Maas, it probably doesn’t exist."  These and many more sayings apply consistently to Maas Nursery, one of "the" destination garden centers of Houston. Much like many of the other GardenLine Profiles we have done in the past year, this write-up will never do it full justice. However, we will try!
While we know and love Jim Maas, and he is the face and the voice of Maas Nursery, it was actually a nursery/garden center started by his own father. Jim’s father and grandfather actually owned a feed store/nursery/pet store on Travis in downtown Houston. But when their neighborhood changed the decision to locate in Seabrook close to the water then happened. And that, my friends, was actually in the year 1951. So, growing up and working as a child around the nursery and feed store combo it was almost a forgone conclusion that Jim was going to end up working in the family business. He did consider several careers from medicine to law to engineering, but ended with a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University in 1973. Jim eventually bought out his father out in 1989, and that’s when the face of Maas Nursery really began to change. Or put another way – Jim had such a low "boredom threshold" as he called it, that just selling plants was never going to satisfy him. And I’m not just talking about unique landscape art and pottery. Over the years, Jim has dabbled in selling everything from antique guns to stamps to minerals & gems to ethnic artifacts from the Far East and south of the border. Maas also used to be home to a reptile house full of snakes and lizards. Thursdays was a great day for kids to stop by, and watch the feeding day commence. When I first started visiting Maas in 1995/96 they were also well known for their exotic animal collection from kangaroos and wallabies to peacocks. They even owned a couple of longhorn cattle back in the day (I know, how is the heck does an Aggie end up with longhorns in his care??? It’s a whole story for another day). And Jim was known to go out and heckle those two longhorns whenever the scoreboard sided with the Aggies. And while they still have a wild animal or two left, Maas Nursery still is all about the plants. We say Maas is 14 acres big, and while that’s true for the grounds as a whole, specifically 8 acres are dedicated to the plants. And if it grows along the gulf coast they probably have it in stock at Maas.  Because they are so close to the water and because they service so much of the Clear Lake, League City, Seabrook, Kema and Texas City communities, they also carry not just the right fruit trees for this area, but the hard-to-find exotic fruits such as Guava, Avocado, Leeches, and Mangos. Jim has also become the local authority on all things bamboo and all things Japanese Red Maple.
 And when it comes to decorative accessories for the landscape, for the patio, heck, just for the home in general, no one can compare to Maas Nursery. They have planters and pots and urns in all shapes and sizes from the four corners of the earth and as big as you can possible imagine and as colorful as you can dream.
 Maas Nursery is also a great landscape-design firm. However, while they do specialize tropical setting designs, being that they are well-versed in such material and being so close to the coast, they do offer standard landscape design ideas as well.
My best advice for anyone visiting Maas, is to take a comfortable pair of shoes, because you will want to walk the entire property looking at plants and pots. And if you aren’t sure where it is, there is a map below showing how to get there from everywhere. Maas Nursery 5511 Toddville Rd. Seabrook, TX 77586 281-474-2488 www.maasnursery.com Hours: Mon. – Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.   Until next issue, here's to Great Gardening from the GardenLine, heard exclusively, 6-10 a.m. Saturdays and 7-10 a.m. Sundays, only on NewsRadio 740 KTRH. |
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