Can these trees make it ???

[Pilot]

Keep the mulch off the stem--it will heat up in the sun and the heat it captures can kill the stem. Don't bother pruning; if the tree can't support a leaf, the leaf will die. Unless you know how much leaf area the tree needs to keep and how much it needs to shed, you can't do better than the tree itself. It will drop what it has to.

 

[pharmvet]

Watered today. Made sure the mulch was off the stem. Noticed that although many of the mature leaves were brown / black on the edges, there were lots of new little red leaves coming on. So far so good.

Also, I decided to go with 2 buckets for each tree (10 gallons) I will try to get by with watering once weekly or until I can get water and drip irrigation.

Do you guys/gals think it would be OK to use some Round Up weed/grass killer around the little trees to eliminate grass. Round-Up is not supposed to be harmful to trees, but I thought I would ask if any of you have differing opinions / Personal experience, etc. thanks

 

[rsewill]

Watered today. Made sure the mulch was off the stem. Noticed that although many of the mature leaves were brown / black on the edges, there were lots of new little red leaves coming on. So far so good.

Also, I decided to go with 2 buckets for each tree (10 gallons) I will try to get by with watering once weekly or until I can get water and drip irrigation.

Do you guys/gals think it would be OK to use some Round Up weed/grass killer around the little trees to eliminate grass. Round-Up is not supposed to be harmful to trees, but I thought I would ask if any of you have differing opinions / Personal experience, etc. thanks

Round-Up can and will kill your trees.

 

[ToadHill]

I made my living for many years as an arborist. Trees that get too much water will have leaves that look the same as those that got too little water.

You can tell which it is by crumbeling the leaf, it it's had too much water it will not fall apart.

It's just as easy to kill a tree with over watering as it is with under watering.

These roots are very sensitive and they need 3 things to survive, water, nutrition, and air. If you overwater, you drive out the air and the roots die.

I never recommended fertilization the year of planting. The roots need to establish themselves in the new home first. I did use some of the water retaining granules in each planting hole. They do 2 things, suck up any excess water if you overwater, and retain moisture for any dry spell.

Keep an eye on them, and don't overwater them.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

You can improve seedling survival by pruning. Definitely remove all dead wood, and up to half of the upper growth. It's a good opportunity to shape the future tree at the same time.

 

[GGB]

I'll second Toadhill's point about overwatering being just as bad as underwatering. I've been guilty of both. And yes, it's sometimes harder to know when you are overwatering, especially on spruces and pines. Most of the time I know when I'm guilty of underwatering.

I've had folks a lot smarter than me tell me that if you planted a bare root tree, a 1" caliper tree, a 2" caliper tree, and a 3" caliper tree all at the same time, that they will often all be the same height in 10 years due to transplant shock. Ask me in 10 years if my experience bears that out, but after planting all the above, what I know for sure is that I loose far fewer small trees than the large impact specimens. And the small trees are a lot easier on the wallet, and allow me to plant more of them. But it's still nice to get the immediate impact from the larger trees.

Also, I'm just about ready to quit trying to plant non native trees-too many problems with diseases and bagworms. I just made a trip to our county extension office with branches from one of our spruces to try to find out what is causing the needles to fall off.

Regarding the OP's pictures, the leaves look to me like a classic case of transplant shock, and if so, the tree will take care of itself by dropping off the dead ones
in due time. My experience is that it may be best to wait till next spring to see for sure what trees or branches are dead.

 

[Pilot]

Why remove dead wood on seedlings this size? It's dead. It's not doing anything.

Keep the Roundup off the trees and spray, spray, spray. Grass is a powerful competitor. Roundup does not have any activity in the soil, so as long as you don't spray the trees it won't hurt them.

 

[Western]

.

Do you guys/gals think it would be OK to use some Round Up weed/grass killer around the little trees to eliminate grass. Round-Up is not supposed to be harmful to trees, but I thought I would ask if any of you have differing opinions / Personal experience, etc. thanks

I used an inverted 5 gal. bucket placed over my trees, then sprayed round-up, of course my trees where only 12-16" when I got them from the forest service.

 

[Jstpssng]

You say they were in gallon buxkets until you transplanted them; were they in water, or soil? If soil, had they been there for a growing season, i.e.; long enough to establish a root system? Asyou know, it's important when transplanting to put the stem in the ground at the same depth it was originally growing.

Comments about pruning and feeding are valid on an established tree; but new plantings are stressed enough just from having the root system disturbed. To give them a head start we used to dig a hole about 3 times the width and depth of the original root system , and place mix of topsoil and organic matter in... then water.

An in of water a week is a good guideline... preferably all at once to promote a good root system.

 

[pharmvet]

I now have two 5 gallon buckets by each tree. I examined them closely today and many of them are putting out little red buds and leaves. Do you think 10 gal per tree once a week is too much or just about right? thanks

 

[jocww]

Why are thse gator bags so expensive 20 a piece geeze. Seems like a 5 gallon bucket would be cheaper. Anyone know how to make these or any other cheaper suggestions?