Palms and Street Trees: Cutting Transplant Shock With 40 Grams in the Backfill

The avenue outside a municipal sports hall in Almeria was planted with 60 Washingtonia palms in a single week in June, each with a 90 litre root ball and a 1.2 metre clear trunk. By August, nine had collapsed and another fourteen had brown tips on every frond. The contractor had watered twice a week…