Difficult Concept?

Notice that this tree planter has his head down. He is looking at the top of the root, and the top of the planting slit so he can place the root in the ground properly. It sounds simple, but putting all of the root in the ground is a concept that first time tree planters cannot seem to get their fingers around. Stacks of handouts, pep talks, and slide shows help, but some would be planters never do figure it out.

This doomed pecan was in the third planting project of one of my clients a few years ago. He killed pecans by the hundreds. Pecan seems to be the most difficult for landowners to separate the root from the top. I inspected a project yesterday, and every pecan was planted high; some as much as six inches high. It seems so simple to me--identify the top of the root; put all of the root in the ground. Oh Well, or words to that effect.