Can I Plant Texas Rangers Now?

Q. I recently purchased some Green Cloud Texas Rangers from a building supply store and was wondering if it is safe to plant them now since our weather is turning colder.

A, Since you emailed this question to me it froze in parts of the valley this past week. But not to worry. This kind of weather can be freakish this time of year. It normally does not freeze until the second week of December. But the ground is still warm. After you plant you want the roots to grow but you should not care about the top growing yet. The best planting time for woody plants is from late September until mid-November. You can still plant at other times but its just not as good because of root growth.

            The ground is still warm enough to plant. The magic number for landscape plant root growth is about 50F. Of course, roots of plants grow faster in warmer soils, but they will still grow at 50F. The ground never froze or was even close to freezing. The soil temperature rises up and down mimicking the air temperature, but these temperature swings are much smaller compared to air temperatures. For instance, in some areas vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and squash froze, but the ground never did. The soil in the ground was much warmer than the air.

            If you want the soil to warm up fast then keep it dark, fluffy, dry and in the sun. Those kinds of soils have wide temperature swings from very warm to very cold but still not as cold as the air. Landscape plant roots like to grow in those warm temperatures during the day. Soils that are not fluffy, wet and instead are covered by a surface mulch or in the shade stay cooler and don’t swing up and down as much.

            Surface mulch keeps soils warmer in the Fall and cooler in the Spring.