A year-by-year care calendar for a newly planted tree, from the day it arrives to its fifth spring

A newly planted tree needs steady water until its roots grow out past the planting hole, and protection while they do. Water it every day for two weeks, every two to three days until week 12, then weekly until it is established. After that, water only in dry spells, through its third summer. Keep a ring of mulch where the grass was and a guard on the trunk from the first day. The first shaping cut waits for the second or third winter. By the fifth spring a healthy tree adds its full yearly growth, and one that does not usually has trouble at the roots.

The five years at a glance, each row a section below:

The day it arrives and the planting week

Open the box the day it arrives, keep the roots damp and out of sun and wind, and plant within a few days. If the wait runs longer, heel a bare-root tree in, as bare-root trees on arrival describes. Blue Whale Trees sells most of its trees as seedlings and young saplings grown from seed, so this calendar starts from a trunk as thick as a pencil or a thumb.

Set the topmost root just under the soil surface and fill the hole with the soil that came out of it. Add no compost and no fertilizer, since both can slow the new roots. Water the hole full to settle the soil. Cut off only dead or broken twigs, because the leaves make the food for the new roots.

Water in the first growing season

Each watering is 1 to 1.5 gallons per inch of caliper, the trunk’s width 6 inches above the root flare. That is 1 to 1.5 quarts for a pencil-thick seedling and 3 to 4.5 quarts for a thumb-thick sapling. Pour it slowly over the roots. Sand and clay change the schedule after the first two weeks:

Before each watering, push a finger a few inches into the soil, and wait if it is still wet. Rain counts only when more than an inch falls in one day. Such a soaking replaces the next watering on the daily and every-few-days schedules. On the weekly schedule, a soaking in the last three days only means checking the soil first.

The weekly watering runs until the tree is established, which the watering calculator puts at 18 months per inch of trunk. That is a year for a pencil-thick seedling, the least the calculator counts for any tree, and 13.5 months for a thumb-thick sapling. The calculator follows University of Minnesota Extension, while Iowa State Extension gives a year per inch in zones 4 and 5. Establishment comes sooner still where the growing season is longer.

Grass, mulch and guards in the first season

Grass competes hard with a young tree’s roots:

“Turf often outcompetes woody plant roots because its dense, fibrous root system prevents trees and shrubs from producing new roots for water and nutrient uptake in the top few inches of soil.” (University of Minnesota Extension, Watering newly planted trees and shrubs)

Clear the grass and weeds from a circle at least four times as wide as the roots, and widen it as the branches spread. Cover it with 2 to 3 inches of fallen leaves, the mulch a forest floor makes for itself, or wood chips. Pull the mulch 6 inches back from the trunk. The ring also keeps the mower and the string trimmer off the bark. Keep it weeded through the summer. Skip fertilizer, since a new tree needs none for one to three years and perhaps none at all if it grows well.

A tube or a welded-wire cage keeps deer and rabbits off the tree, and a collar of quarter-inch hardware cloth stops voles. Protecting trees from animals gives the sizes. Bucks rub their antlers on young trunks in the fall. Unless a cage already surrounds the tree, add a rub guard by mid-August: three sturdy stakes no more than 18 inches apart.

The first winter

Keep watering through the fall until the ground freezes, and after a dry fall give a heavy soaking just before it does. Through the first two winters, water again in a dry spell whenever the ground thaws. In late fall, mow the grass short within 2 feet of the tree, because voles and mice girdle young trunks under its cover. The hardware-cloth collar should reach 2 to 3 inches into the soil and 18 to 24 inches above the snow you expect.

Winter sun can wake the bark on the south or southwest side of a young trunk, and the chill that follows kills it, an injury called sunscald. Wrap the trunks of thin-barked kinds such as American basswood and American plum with a white guard in November. Take it off in April, before the trunk thickens under it. Wrap for the first two or three winters, and longer on the thinnest bark.

“Prevent sunscald by wrapping the trunk with white guards to reflect the sun and keep the bark at a more constant temperature.” (University of Minnesota Extension, Protecting trees and shrubs in winter)

Leave the pruning saw alone this winter, since training cuts start about a year after planting.

The second and third years

Water in dry spells

Once the tree is established, water it only in dry spells, deeply and less often than in the first season. The roots spread about 18 inches a year, so wet a circle wider than the branches. A small tree needs watering for one or two growing seasons, and in dry years for as long as five.

When each guard comes off

• Stakes come off after one growing season.
• A tube comes off once the tree has grown out of its top, and before the trunk fills it.
• A deer cage comes off once the leader and the lowest branches are above a deer’s reach, about 5 feet.
• A rub guard goes up each August and comes off each spring until the trunk is 3 to 4 inches thick. At our growth estimator’s rates, a half-inch trunk reaches 3 inches in about five years on a fast grower, seven on a medium one and ten on a slow one.
• A hardware-cloth collar can stay on all year, loosened as the trunk grows, until the bark roughens after four to six years.

The first structural cut

The first training cut comes in late winter of the second or third year, before the buds break. Keep one leader. Where two stems of equal size fork, cut out the weaker, because such stems can grow together with bark trapped in the seam. Leave the low side branches for now, since they thicken the trunk and shade it from winter sun. Those that will not stay come off over the next few years, before they are an inch thick. Make every cut just outside the branch collar, as pruning at the branch collar shows. Shrubs and clump-forming trees keep their several stems.

An early fruit or catkin

A few kinds flower young by nature. American hazelnut usually bears at two to three years old. Its catkins are the male flowers, and nuts need pollen from a second seedling. On a young fruit tree such as an American plum, pick off the fruit for the first two growing seasons, because removing it encourages shoot growth. A heavy crop is no proof of distress, since the idea that stressed trees seed heavily as a last effort has not found consistent support in research.

The fourth and fifth springs

By the fourth spring a tree planted small is established, with roots spread past its branch tips, and only a drought calls for a deep soaking.

Measuring a year’s growth

Each spring before the buds open, measure last year’s growth. Follow the leader down from its tip to the first ring of bud scale scars, left by the previous year’s end bud. That stretch is one year’s growth. Our growth estimator expects about 1 foot a year from a young slow grower on an average site. It expects 1.5 feet from a medium grower and 2.75 feet from a fast one. Each plant page gives the species’ growth rate.

A tree that has not grown

A tree still barely growing in its fourth spring is telling you about its roots:

“Slow growth over many years points to issues that compound over time, like poor planting depth or root damage.” (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Decline of Newly Planted Trees)

Start at the base: a trunk that goes into the ground like a post, with no flare, was planted too deep or has mulch piled against it. Then look for grass over the roots, a tie or guard cutting the bark, deer holding the top at hedge height, and ground too wet or too dry for the species. The site check tests that last one.

Some trees are slow by nature or held back by shade. A longleaf pine can spend 2 to 15 years as a tuft of needles at ground level while its taproot grows. A striped maple in deep shade may add a foot in ten years, and one released into good light has grown over 3 feet a year. As long as no branches are dying and each year’s growth beats the last, the tree is doing well.

Common questions

How long do I need to water a newly planted tree?

Water on the schedule until the tree is established: a year for a pencil-thick sapling and 13.5 months for a thumb-thick one, less in a warm climate. After that, water deeply in dry spells through the third summer, and in drought for up to five years.

Should I water a new tree in winter?

Yes, through its first two winters, whenever the weather has been dry and the ground is not frozen. After a dry fall, give it a heavy soaking just before the ground freezes.

When can I prune a newly planted tree?

Remove only dead or broken twigs at planting, then make the first shaping cuts in late winter of the second or third year. Keep one leader, take little each year and cut just outside the branch collar.

Why has my tree barely grown in three years?

A new tree grows roots before shoots for its first year or two, so a slow start is normal. By the third year, slow growth usually has a cause you can find: a buried flare, grass over the roots, a tie cutting the bark or a site wrong for the species.

When can I take the cage or tube off a young tree?

A tube comes off once the tree has grown out of its top, and a deer cage once the leader and the lowest branches are above a deer’s reach, about 5 feet. A rub guard goes up each August and comes off each spring until the trunk is 3 to 4 inches thick.

Sources

• Watering newly planted trees and shrubs: University of Minnesota Extension: 1 to 1.5 gallons per inch of caliper, water daily for two weeks, every two to three days to week 12 and weekly after, the one-inch rain rule, establishment at 1.5 years per inch, roots spreading about 18 inches a year, turf against new roots, and a mulch ring that keeps mowers off the trunk.
• Protecting trees and shrubs in winter: University of Minnesota Extension: sunscald on the south and southwest side of young, thin-barked trees, white wraps for at least two winters and five or more on thin bark, a heavy watering before freeze-up after a dry fall, grass cut short within 2 feet, and hardware cloth below the soil and above the snow line.
• Care of Newly-Planted Trees: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach: establishment at about 12 months per inch of trunk in zones 4 and 5, frequent watering for a new tree and occasional deep watering once established, watering until the ground freezes, one or two seasons of watering and up to five years in dry spells, mulch 6 inches off the trunk, stakes off after a season, and wraps from November to April.
• Decline of Newly Planted Trees: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach: reading growth between terminal bud scars, slow growth over years from planting depth or root damage, and the other causes of decline in young trees.
• Pruning Young Trees: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach: pruning at planting limited to dead and damaged branches, training from about a year after planting, one leader, low branches kept to thicken and shade the trunk and removed before an inch thick, and natural multistem trees.
• How to Protect Trees and Shrubs from Animal Damage Over Winter: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach: rub guards up by mid-August, three stakes no more than 18 inches apart, and the 3- to 4-inch trunk past which antler rubbing falls off.
• Planting a Tree or Shrub: University of Maryland Extension: the uppermost root as the depth guide, compost in the hole and nitrogen at planting, no fertilizer for one to three years, leaves left to feed new roots, supports off after a year, and water through the first two years, winter included, but never on frozen ground.
• How to Plant Trees and Shrubs: The Morton Arboretum: a mulch ring four times the width of the root ball, wraps off in spring as the trunk thickens, established trees watered in dry spells, and growth that improves each year as the sign a tree is recovering.
• Tree Care: Illinois Extension, Fruit Trees for Home Gardens: fruit kept off young trees for the first two growing seasons to encourage shoot growth.
• Seedy Maples Make Maples Look Seedy: Ohio State University Extension, Buckeye Yard and Garden onLine: the lack of consistent research support for heavy seed crops as a sign of stress.