Planting Guides General Planting Guide
For the first month, give your tree a good soaking twice per week. Set your hose to a small trickle and allow your water-holding basin to fill up with roughly 30 minutes worth of water. Your specific soil conditions will vary as well as your growing zone. You want to keep your tree watered but not soaked; damp but not bone dry. After one month, you can pull back your watering to once per week.
If you haven’t already done so, take a few minutes to choose where to plant your new tree or shrub. General needs to consider for your specific plant are: sun or shade requirements and soil moisture.
Dig a hole 3 times as wide as the root ball but not quite as deep. The goal is to have your tree rest in the center of the hole and have the root collar level with the original ground height.
Being careful not to damage any branches, hold your tree trunk near the base and tilt at a 45-degree angle. Gently tap the sides of your container all the way around to loosen the root ball from the container. You may lay your tree down if necessary (just be sure not to damage any branches) and gently slide the tree out from the container.
Examine your root ball for roots that have begun to circle around. If these roots are left untreated, they will continue to grow in a circle around your root ball and never fully anchor your tree, restrict water and nutrient uptake and may eventually cause your tree to perish.
Loosen the root ball with your hand and break up any roots that have begun to circle around. Continue to rough up the root ball on all sides, using a handheld garden rake if necessary. You may also use a 2-inch box cutter to cut 4 vertical slices down the sides of your root ball if you encounter roots you cannot redirect.
Cutting an “X” on the bottom of the root ball is another technique used to encourage the roots to grow outward.
Stand your tree up in the center of your hole. The goal here is to get your tree to stand up nice and straight and have the root collar be about the same height as ground level.
If your tree is sitting too low or too high, use soil beneath the tree to raise or lower it to its final height.
Fill in the hole around the root ball with the surrounding soil. Bring the soil height to just at the root collar. Continue to add and manipulate the soil to create a water-holding basin surrounding the tree. Think of this as a 6-inch high berm surrounding the canopy of the tree.
During the first year, your tree will require more water than normal to get established. When you water, simply fill the basin and the water will slowly percolate through the soil to the root system.
Create a mulch bed by layering 2 inches of wood chips or shredded bark on top of your soil (be sure to maintain the shape of your water-holding basin). And now that you’ve successfully planted your tree, give it a thorough soaking.
