MFB Landscaping Plant Care Recommendations
New, as well as transplanted plants should be watered as soon as possible with the initial watering done during the installation to ensure contact of the root system to the surrounding soil. After installation, you should continue to water on a regular basis up to 1 year for perennials, 2 years for shrubs, and 3 for trees. After this time, the plantings should be well acclimated to their new surroundings and you should begin to notice significant new growth and your landscape should start to take shape as you have imagined.
Soil conditions may affect the amount of watering needed. If your soil is sandy, it may allow water to pass through more readily and therefore require more water. On the other hand, if your soil contains a lot of clay, which is more commonly the case, it may retain moisture and require less. Soil amendments may be used to help amend soil conditions for better planting.
Weather also plays a large part in watering your plantings. If the weather is either hot, sunny, dry, or windy, it may dry out your soil making it necessary to soak your plantings more often. You may help prevent this by applying the appropriate amount of mulch to protect the soil and help retain moisture. Appropriately applied mulch helps to conserve water moisture in the soil by blocking the heat of the sun and the drying effect of the wind. This will allow you to go longed between watering. Make sure not to mulch right up against the base of the plant. This may keep the joint union moist, which can result in disease or rotting of the plant. Also, be careful not to over water, as this may cause your plantings stress by making oxygen unavailable to the root system, which may result in death.
If the weather is cool and / or wet, it may be necessary to cut your daily watering back a bit. Shallow watering, as is common with a sprinkler, soaker hose, or rainfall can actually be detrimental to a plants establishment and survival. This will encourage a plant to develop a shallow root system and in turn will suffer more readily from drought or lack of water. Make sure to water deeply, leaving the sprinkler on for an hour or two. If you have a rain gauge, measure about 2 inches of rainfall. It mat be necessary to water even if you have had rain that day.
It is always a good practice to water early in the morning. Watering in the middle of the day can cause sun scorching (yellow or brown spots on the leaves). Many people believe they should water at night. Watering at night most times leads to problems with fungus and sometimes insects like slugs. This can in turn require you to pay the high price of fungicides and insecticides and its application for something that could have been prevented.
Daily inspection of the plantings will help to determine the amount of water needed. Simply check the moisture levels around the new plantings at a depth of 6 to 12 inches or at least half the depth of the root ball. DO NOT disturb the plant. You may remove a portion of the back filled soil just outside the root system to determine whether or not it requires watering. Most plantings suffer from too much water than not enough.
The following recommendations assume mulched is used to retain moisture. Recommendations may change pending soil and weather conditions as described above.
Bare root and Container Trees – every 5 – 7 days 1 to 1 ½ hours. Balled and Burlap Trees – every 10 – 12 days, 1 to 1 ½ hours. Large Shrubs – every 4 – 5 days, ½ hour. Small Shrub – every 3 – 4 days, ½ hour Perennial & Groundcover – every 2 – 3 days, soak to a depth of 6 – 12”
To water, place a hose at the base of the plant with the water coming out at a slow trickle. A ring of mounded soil should be made around larger shrubs and trees to act as a basin to hold the water in place for the root ball to soak up. Make sure the water pressure is low enough so as not to wash away your mulch or disturb the soil.
Keep in mind that you must continue to water your plantings until the ground freezes. Cut your watering schedule down in early fall when the weather is mild as to not promote new growth. This new growth would suffer as soon as the frost rolled in, possibly ruining next year’s growth or even killing the plant. As the weather starts to get cold, and until the soil is frozen, be sure to soak your plantings, especially conifers and broad leaf evergreens as recommended above. With the weather being cold, the plants will be dormant and will not show any new growth and instead will store its energies until the weather warms up. Because evergreens do not loose their leaves, they continue to transpire, or give off water vapor, throughout the cold months. With the ground frozen it is impossible for the plant to replace this moisture loss. This requires a good amount of reserved moisture going into winter to avoid drying out. Antitransparents like Wilt Pruf may help, but should not be used in place of regular watering.
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