Planting new trees on your property has many benefits. Trees create much-needed summer shade, create privacy, filter contaminated air and increase property value. Everyone should plant trees.
Once full-grown, trees are pretty easy to care for: another benefit! Trees are hardy and tend to grow despite minimal care. However, if you want to ensure your trees reach their potential, they need more effort.
Lack of care for growing trees could lead to rotting, disease, under watering or pest issues.
The good news is that tree care isn’t very difficult, but you do need a little information to do it right. Research the new trees you plant in order to know what they need to succeed. Then properly care for them and watch them flourish.
Below, we’ll explain the five best tips for planting a new tree and seeing it grow. You probably are aware of the basics, so let’s dive deeper and detail how to perform each step correctly.
Tree Care Tips for New Trees
These five tips will not only help keep trees alive, they’ll help them grow faster, resist extreme winds, fight off diseases ,insects and pests and create more leaves, buds or fruit.
Water Your Tree
New trees need a lot more water than older ones. The trees you plant on your property are no exception.
The root ball of the tree and the soil surrounding it have to be kept moist, but don’t let it get soaked, as this can cause the roots to rot.
The popular recommendation is 4-10 gallons of water each week. This includes rain water, and although it’s hard to get an exact reading, a rain gauge can help get you close enough to supplement the remaining gallons. Your trees will need this much water every week for the initial 2-3 growing seasons.
Mulch Around Your Trees
Mulch is much more than an attractive lawn care product. It actually helps protect new trees, especially the roots underground. But laying mulch the wrong way can sometimes lead to rotting and decay – so much so, that it’s possible that the tree will not survive.
Place mulch exactly 3 inches away from the tree trunk and spread it out to cover the ground under the longest horizontal limb. For brand new trees, this won’t be very far, but as the tree continues to grow, your mulch area will continue to grow as well.
Keep the mulch 2 to 4 inches thick in all areas. Be vigilant in keeping it spread out consistently and far enough away from the trunk of the tree so it does not limit air flow around the trunk.
Fertilize Around Your Tree
Fertilizer provides the nutrients that your land’s soil may not naturally have. Most young trees will benefit from fertilizing, but you have to be using the correct products and doing it at the right time for fertilizer to be most beneficial.
The best season to fertilize is early spring. Sometimes early summer provides good conditions (mild temperatures and moist soil), but don’t count on it.
If you are uncertain about which type of fertilizer to use, speak to a tree care specialist for advice. Slow-release fertilizers are usually a good idea because they feed trees over a period of time rather than all at once.
Follow through with these things in the first growing seasons after planting a new tree, and then reconsider your watering, mulching and fertilizing as the tree grows larger. As time goes on, there will be additional tree care projects that are more important for your young trees.
Prune Your Tree
Tree trimming is very important – yet very challenging – in the first years after you plant a new tree. As the tree grows, you may see several little branches take off, trying to become the trunk of the tree. While you may think this shows that the tree is healthy and that it is growing well, but it can actually result in a weak tree as time goes on.
Early pruning shapes the tree into what it will look like when it becomes much larger. As little branches emerge on the lower trunk, they have to be cut off so they don’t steal water and nutrients away from the upper branches.
As long as you have trees somewhere on your land, they need to be pruned regularly. When the tree gets too large for you to trim them safely, you can count on AK Tree Trimming to do it for you.
Monitor Your Tree
Growing trees are at the highest risk for damage, disease and insect issues. But you’re never truly safe from these things. As your tree gets older, monitor it closely for signs of disease or poor nutrition, including the following:
- Leaf color changing out of season, especially leaves turning yellow or brown
- Premature leaf falling, despite whether these leaves appear healthy or diseased
- Wilting, even with proper watering
- Single limbs dying
- Bark peeling
These signs likely mean a health problem. The tree is likely going to require professional maintenance if your hope is to save the tree. A certified arborist can usually identify the problem by simply looking at your tree, although they will perform testing if deemed necessary.
If you identify the problem early enough, you will probably be able to save the tree. Being proactive is the best course of action to protect your younger trees.
The tips above are basic but effective. Don’t underestimate the value of the basics! When your new trees have pruning, fertilizer and more,, combined with some sunshine and barring severe, damaging weather, the chances are good that they will survive and look wonderful!
Of course, you could already have a very busy schedule and don’t really want to take on these additional tasks. In many cases, homeowners don’t have the ability or the tools to give their new trees the necessary maintenance.
No matter the situation, it’s a good idea to seek the help of a tree company for the care of new trees. A professional arborist in Alaska can consult with you about the best course of maintenance for each tree species you plant. Arborists love sharing their expertise and skills with homeowners planting new trees on their land, and can be the difference between trees that struggle and trees thriving.
Call AK Tree Trimming now for information on routine tree maintenance in Alaska – including tree trimming – for newer trees and old trees. A local tree service can determine the best plan for your trees! Locate your city in our service area here.
