Fall Tree Planting Checklist

24 items · Home · Medium difficulty · 2 hours

Plant a tree in fall: choosing the spot, calling 811, finding the root flare, digging the hole, mulching, and watering until the ground freezes.

• Choose a tree that is hardy in your zone and suits the spot

  Check how much sun the spot gets and how well it drains. Then look up how tall and wide the tree grows.

• Make sure it will clear the house, the driveway and overhead power lines when fully grown
• Call 811 before you dig

  In the US the call is free, and the utilities mark their buried lines. They do not mark lines you own, such as sprinkler pipes. Allow a few working days.

• Water the tree in its pot or root ball the day before planting
• Find the root flare and remove any soil piled above it
• Measure the root ball from the flare to the bottom, and across
• Dig a hole two to three times as wide as the root ball and no deeper

  Leave the bottom firm and undug so the tree does not sink later.

• Rough up the sides of the hole if the spade left them smooth

  Smooth, glazed sides in clay soil can keep roots from growing out.

• For a container tree, take off the pot and loosen or cut any roots circling the outside
• For a balled-and-burlapped tree, set it in the hole and then cut the twine
• Cut away as much of the burlap and wire basket as you can reach
• Set the tree so the root flare sits at or slightly above ground level
• Check that the trunk is straight from two directions
• Backfill with the soil you dug out

  Break up the clods. Roots that start in heavily amended soil can stay in that pocket instead of spreading.

• Water when the hole is half full to settle the soil

  Water fills the air pockets without packing the soil the way stamping on it does.

• Water deeply once the hole is filled
• Spread mulch 2 to 3 inches deep in a wide ring around the tree

  Mulch holds moisture in the soil over winter, and the ring keeps the mower and string trimmer off the trunk.

• Pull the mulch a few inches back from the trunk

  Mulch piled against the bark keeps it wet and gives voles cover while they chew.

• Stake the tree only if it will not stand on its own

  Use wide, loose ties and take them off after one growing season.

• Prune only dead or broken branches for now
• Remove the nursery tag and any wire or plastic ties

  A wire left around a branch cuts into the bark as the branch thickens.

• Until the ground freezes, water once a week unless a soaking rain has done it for you

  Push a finger into the top of the root ball, and water if it is dry a couple of inches down. The root ball dries out faster than the soil around it.

• Fit a trunk guard if deer or rabbits visit the yard

  Bucks rub their antlers on young trunks in fall, and rabbits and voles chew bark through the winter.

• Write down the species and the planting date

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