Last spring I planted a birch tree, about 15ish foot tall, maybe 3.5" dbh. It was harvested from in my backyard and put in my front yard at the end of my driveway. (have one on either side now) Dug it out with my Bobcat, plenty of roots. Dug big enough hole, good soil, fertilizer, etc. Grew fine all summer and fall looked ok, though the leaves seemed to fall off a bit earlier than the other birch. BUT another birch I had planted did the same. That other birch is budding, but the big one I planted isn't. There seems to be some buds on the branches, but don't really have signs of leaves coming out. The ground seemed dry around it so I watered it today, put about 15 gals of water (use 5 gal pails with a small hole in the bottom to slowly drain out) and a dose of Superthrive. Ideas?
I'm still waiting for my catalpa to show signs of life, but I think it may be a litteral late bloomer. It was the only tree I planted last year that wasn't chewed up by rabbits.
No deer here. I have a feeling it didn't make it through the winter. I'm about ready to give up planting trees.
Break off a branch with buds on it...is it green/live? If no, check a couple others. If yes, leave it be and wait some more. If still no, get the bobcat back out.
planted around 35 spruce (did a sort of live fence between my 2 neighbors... Tree every 8 ish feet) and those seem ok. I did loose a few during the summer but I think the guy helping me burned the roots with too much fertilizer) The spruce replaced about $1000 worth of maples. ($50 each) They did fine till winter. Lowes did warranty them though. Front yard has had 3 different trees planted, I forget species but one was good sized from a local high end nursery "will survive in AK" and so I paid the $300 for it. Yup... It died. And they renigged on the warranty. I replaced it with a birch last year and is growing ok. Funny cause the guy gave it to me as a freebie when I bought the spruce because it was half dead. I pruned the dead stuff off and it grew over a foot last summer. Driveway area is 2nd birch planted. First one died last winter.
Don't know about the bigger birch but I just dug & planted 40 small birch. (4 to 10' ) Right now is the time to move them, just after the leaves come on. Some I pulled up by hand, some I used a shove. Water frequently for about a month, usually do real well. Planted along property line & side road.
We've had good results planting small whipling trees, 'lil 1/4" dia. 14" tall baby trees. Of course ya wait a few years until they get big and we have to fence them from the rabbit hoards. A study shows that the babies have a slight edge over transplanted big trees for survival. It said that the whiplings can establish a serious root system before they have to support big top growth. In future years, they surpass the transplanted large trees.
The tree I had before this one was a "whipling" and it didn't make it. I even built a box around it for winter to shield it from the wind but it was a waste of time.
Best time to dig/move a birch isright now. Narrow window for moving birch trees. Sugar is up & out of the roots, leaves have just formed & will feed the new forming root if kept wet. I get 90% success rate this time of the year. I just did 75 trees, water them , so far all the ones with leaves look good. Don't bury them deep, birch are close to the surface roots.
Do like Lukem says see if you have any life in them branches , if you do you should also cut them back . When you transplanted the tree you lost some of the root system , so you have less roots trying to support the same amount of canopy . Hope this helps.
