Trees add tremendous beauty, value, and environmental benefits to our natural and man-made landscapes.

April is the month when Missouri and our Nation celebrate Arbor Day by planting trees.

Trees and woody shrubs require special care during the critical period after they are planted and before they are fully established in the landscape. Transplanting is a stressful event in the life of a woody plant.

Roots should be kept from drying out after being dug from a nursery bed and planted into a new landscape. This is true for bareroot seedlings, container-grown trees, and balled-andburlapped trees.

Bareroot trees are dug from the nursery after they go dormant in the fall and placed in cold storage until they can be planted in the spring.

Container grown trees are available from spring until fall and come with 100% of their roots. They can be planted anytime weather conditions permit but the best time is between April-June when temperatures are ideal.

Evergreens can also be planted in late summer- early fall.

Balled and burlapped trees come with 20-25 prcent of their roots intact. For that reason, you must keep the planted root ball evenly watered until the tree extends new roots into the surrounding soil.

A rule of thumb is that for each caliper inch one year of proper care is needed. In other words, a 3 inch caliper oak tree requires 3 years of attention to watering, insect and disease monitoring, and preventing mowing or weed eating damage to become established into a new landscape.

Nothing slows down tree growth and development faster than the slicing and dicing of a weed eater string! If trees are continually damaged by weed eaters they may remain small in size because their maintenance chemicals are continually used for sealing over this damage instead of for growth processes.

Plastic wrap guards, plastic cages, and maintained mulch rings should be used to prevent this damage.

The amount of water newly planted trees need varies. Trees planted into sandy soil will require more water than trees planted into clay soil. Too much water is often as bad as not enough.

A 3-gallon container grown tree can survive with 1 gallon of water twice a week in early spring, but by the middle of a hot summer it may require 3 gallons twice a week.

Balled and burlapped trees may require 10 gallons applied twice a week during summer. When it is possible to use drip irrigation to supply water to trees you can use a battery powered timer to set the frequency and duration of watering.

The commercial drip irrigation system providers have tutorials online that are easy to understand. Drip irrigation doesn’t waste water. The water goes right where it is needed.

If drip irrigation isn’t possible, you can drill a 3/8-inch hole in a 5-gallon bucket and use that to slowly water a container tree. Larger trees require 3 buckets placed around the root ball.

Tree Gators are also available that wrap around the tree and zip up. You fill them up with 5 gallons of water. Slowly releasing water around a tree’s root system allows water to be fully utilized on the area rather than the fast gush of water from a “quick dump,” where half the water ends up flowing away from the root ball.

Mulch should be applied 3-4 inches deep in a donut shape around the tree with the tree in the donut hole. Natural mulches help retain moisture in the root ball while also providing slow- release fertilization similar to what is available in a natural forest.

Skip Easter is a forester with 44 years experience, certified arborist, member of the Barry County Master Gardeners and may be reached at treegal@sbcglobal. net.l