Here Are Your New Sapling Summer Care Tips
If your spring included planting a new tree, you’re probably wondering what you need to do to care for it through the hot summer months. Between the summer heat and harsh sunlight, newly planted trees can become stressed and damaged if they are not properly cared for. Having proper summer tree care is vital in ensuring your new tree continues to grow which is why we have several summer tree care tips for you to keep your newly planted trees healthy throughout the summer and beyond.
Water Your Trees Consistently
When it comes to summer months in Minnesota, the weather can change at the toss of a coin. During dryer months, it’s important to water your newly planted trees consistently. Now you may be asking yourself, can’t the rain water the trees for me? While rain is a great way for your saplings to get water, it’s not guaranteed to rain. When you mis watering you newly planted trees, you risk their roots dying off. Water also evaporates easily heat, which is why it’s crucial to water your trees in the later part of the day when it’s cooler. This helps not onlyl prevent evaporation but makes sure that the tree’s roots are staying moist and taking hold properly.
A big thing that should be taken into consideration as well is the drainage of your property. By knowing how your property drains and holds onto moisture, you’ll be able to learn how often you need to water your trees. Not sure what your property drainage is like? This can be checked by examining your soil roughly 6 inches below the surface when the ground appears dry. Is it moist? As dry as the surface? By knowing how your soil drains and/or retains moisture, will help determine ow often you need to water your saplings.
While this may seem like a lot, it’s important to remember that these saplings are in their infancy and they need extra nurturing and care just like any other living thing.
Use Mulch for Your Trees
When you put mulch around your new trees, it can help create and provide an ideal environment to protect the roots of the trees. When you use mulch for summer tree care, it provides the optimal environment for moisture to stay within the soil and helps insulate the roots of the trees from extreme surface-level temperatures. However, if you over-mulch your trees, it can cause issues like pH imbalance in your soil or even starve your trees of oxygen. When this happens, the roots of your tree will start to die. To avoid suffocating the roots of your tree, you’ll want to make sure you’re using the correct kind of mulch for your soil. If your soil is poorly drained (meaning it retains moisture for longer periods of time), you’ll want to use less mulch and even less if you’re using finely textured or double shredded mulch. If you think you have over-mulched your trees, you can correct this by removing a portion of the mulch so only 2-4 inches of mulch is left.
Fertilize Your Trees
During the summer, new trees may need to be fertilized to get the extra nutrients to continue to grow. Using the appropriate kind of fertilizer is crucial in providing the correct nutrients to keep your trees healthy. Contact us to talk to one of our certified arborists to schedule a soil test to see what fertilizer would work best for your trees.
Condition Your Soil
If you’re concerned about your yard’s dirt, conditioning your soil not only helps improve nutrient availability, but it also helps provide appropriate drainage and aeration. It can even help deter pests and diseases that are lurking around your trees. While It’s best to condition soil before planting a tree, you can always add new soil to the base of a newly planted tree as well.
Minnesota summers can be rough on new trees, and that’s why it’s important to use these summer tree care tips. By following the steps above, you can better prepare your saplings to stay healthy and protected throughout the summer months. No matter what your questions are, our tree specialists are here to help you ensure your trees remain healthy through a variety of tree care services in Minnesota.