Advice on planting little gem magnolia? Did I do it right?

[maskedmole]

So I bought it and planted it and asked on another website and they said the root flare wasn't visible so I dug it back up and brushed a bunch of dirt off until I saw some bigger sized roots and I assumed that was the root flare. The tag said to plant one inch above grade but the best I could do was 2 or 2 and half inches above grade. I could spend another 3 hours through trial and error of making it one inch lower but I would rather not over one little inch and I don't think it will matter all that much but I will replant it again if I have to because this is such a beautiful tree and I want it to have the best chance it can to flourish here. I've also heard of people saying that it is normal to plant 2 inches high. I hope I didn't brush too much dirt off. I did clip a few roots that looked like they were about to girdle. The person on the other website told me to expose the root flare and plant just above grade. What constitutes "just above" though? Would that be half an inch or 1 inch or 2 inches? What do y'all think I should do - leave it be or try again?

[Merlyn]

I only have two Magnolia, a DD Blanchard and a Bracken's Brown Beauty.  Both were already 10-ish feet tall in the 15g pots, so I was concerned about roots girdling the pot.  I didn't notice any significant issues, just one root in the Blanchard that was starting to loop around the outside of the pot.  If I recall correctly I just pulled it out and aimed it out into the surrounding dirt.  In my case the soil is about 75% sand, so digging a 2 foot deep hole 5' in diameter literally takes about 3 or 4 minutes. 

For your tree it honestly looks fine to me.  I think being slightly high is better than low, because you can always backfill with soil around it and mound it up around the whole area.  As long as you don't have it hanging way out in the air or several inches too deep then it'll probably be ok.  The best way I found (after screwing up a bunch of palm planting depths) was to dig the hole a couple of inches bigger than the pot, and a couple of inches deeper.  Then put the potted plant into the hole and put your head down at ground level and eyeball it.  If it's pretty close then take it out of the pot and put it in the ground...eyeball it from ground level and adjust the bottom as needed.  Then once you are happy just fill in the sides.  A minute or two of extra digging to begin with makes it a whole lot easier to plant it, and it loosens up the dirt around the rootball.

Of course, having said that, I bought a 30g Arenga Engleri and then proceeded to plant it about 4 inches too high.  My hole had too much taper compared to the pot.  I managed to lift the 200lb pot back out, dug it bigger, dropped it in...and it was 3 inches too low.  Durrrrrrr. 

[maskedmole]

3 hours ago, Merlyn said:

I only have two Magnolia, a DD Blanchard and a Bracken's Brown Beauty.  Both were already 10-ish feet tall in the 15g pots, so I was concerned about roots girdling the pot.  I didn't notice any significant issues, just one root in the Blanchard that was starting to loop around the outside of the pot.  If I recall correctly I just pulled it out and aimed it out into the surrounding dirt.  In my case the soil is about 75% sand, so digging a 2 foot deep hole 5' in diameter literally takes about 3 or 4 minutes. 

For your tree it honestly looks fine to me.  I think being slightly high is better than low, because you can always backfill with soil around it and mound it up around the whole area.  As long as you don't have it hanging way out in the air or several inches too deep then it'll probably be ok.  The best way I found (after screwing up a bunch of palm planting depths) was to dig the hole a couple of inches bigger than the pot, and a couple of inches deeper.  Then put the potted plant into the hole and put your head down at ground level and eyeball it.  If it's pretty close then take it out of the pot and put it in the ground...eyeball it from ground level and adjust the bottom as needed.  Then once you are happy just fill in the sides.  A minute or two of extra digging to begin with makes it a whole lot easier to plant it, and it loosens up the dirt around the rootball.

Of course, having said that, I bought a 30g Arenga Engleri and then proceeded to plant it about 4 inches too high.  My hole had too much taper compared to the pot.  I managed to lift the 200lb pot back out, dug it bigger, dropped it in...and it was 3 inches too low.  Durrrrrrr. 

Thanks for the reassurance and advice. I will probably leave it be then. I can relate to having a tree be too high and then trying to correct it and it be way too low. I don't want to have to deal with that again lol. I would rather it be a little too high than a little too low in any case.