What to Do After Planting a New Tree in Your Yard?

Planting a new tree can be one of the most exciting experiences for a gardener. However, it could also be intimidating, and new or inexperienced gardeners might even shy away from the task. However, if you’ve just sunk a new tree’s root ball in your garden, the care process doesn’t stop there. It starts a whole new journey between the gardener and the tree. Do you know what to do after planting a new tree in your yard?

What to Do After Planting a New Tree in Your Yard?

Here’s a quick care guide that tells you everything about tree planting and caring for newly planted trees in your yard.

Test the Soil

Soil testing kits are a trick for professional gardeners and farmers, but something that most enthusiastic tree planters could also use. They’re electronic and available from Amazon. It can measure the pH content of the soil in just a few seconds.

Once you accurately measure the young tree’s conditions, you’ll know which changes to make. For example, your fertilizer mix or water per week schedule.

Soil tests can also be done with pH strips. However, electronic gadgets give a quicker and more accurate figure.

Most importantly, if you want the tree to have the best care, don’t guess: measure.

Watering the Tree

Trees that have just been transplanted should be treated with extreme care. Use extra care to be considered as sensitive as a patient who has just been woken up from surgery.

A tree can tell when it’s been moved. Some trees will respond by going into a form of shock – however, this can be fixed. Shock has taken many trees too soon for gardeners who didn’t know what to do.

Start by watering newly planted trees straight after planting. Focus on the root system and surrounding area. Use a soaker garden hose or drip irrigation system to deliver water directly to the root zone. This helps minimize water waste and reduces the risk of diseases.

Watering can be the first step to counter the “shock” process plants and trees undergo. Most importantly, it helps it better adapt to your garden’s new conditions.

Mulch Around The Tree Trunk

Mulch right after the watering process for the best results. Adding mulch around the new tree in your yard can provide several benefits that contribute to the tree’s health and establishment. Here are some ways in which a layer of mulch helps in the planting process:

• Temperature Regulation: Mulch acts as insulation, therefore, it helps to moderate soil temperature.
• Moisture Retention: Mulch helps retain moisture by reducing evaporation from the soil surface.

A layer of organic mulch such as wood chips or shredded bark, is preferred. Decomposition over time enriches the soil.

Feeding the tree with water and the best nutrients can get new trees to grow from the first moment. The most important thing, however, is getting it right.

PH testing is considered important at the start and during the mulching stage, it remains just as important! Keep testing the soil as the tree grows, and adjust it as necessary.

Fertilizer

After a human patient has woken up from surgery, restoring the nutrient balance in their bodies is crucial. There’s no reason why trees will feel any different after they’ve been planted in new and unfamiliar soil. Use a slow-release fertilizer for the next step of the process. Be sure that it’s enough to feed the tree, but not enough to burn the roots.

Introduce a mix of fertilizer that’s appropriate for the tree and environment.

Getting the mix wrong will burn the tree’s structure and is one of the worst yet most common mistakes for planting new trees.

Pruning the Tree

Pruning is slow tree maintenance. Dead growths are removed to create the chance for new growth to occur. Pruning your tree too soon or too much will waste a lot of the tree’s energy. However, the effects could be the same if you leave pruning too late.

Proper plant pruning must be done with care, preserving new growth and leaving enough room for the tree’s best growth in the new growing season.

Arbor Hills Tree Farm & Nursery Omaha

We provide the Highest Quality Field Grown Nebraska Trees and Shrubs – directly to our customers, at the lowest possible price.

Whether you are looking for trees for:

• new home landscaping
• wind blockage
• commercial or residential

Simply select the tree(s) you want and they will be ready for pickup or delivery the following Saturday Morning. The trees are easy to handle and plant. Click here for more information.