Hedges: Cedars, water, dont water, turning brownish

Discussion in 'Gymnosperms (incl. Conifers)' started by nleggatt, Jun 22, 2015.

  1. nleggatt

    nleggatt New Member

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    Hi everyone, a few weeks back I purchased 4-6 foot cedars from Home depot, they were very green when I bought them. The root ball was n thick clay like dirt and so I used a three prong gardening tool to loosen the clay and remove a good portion from the ball before replanting the tree. I dug a whole, about 1 foot deep and 1 foot wide, placed a small amount of blood meal in the whole and then used the natural dirt to fill in the hole. I also covered the surrounding ground in gardening/landscape cloth and then laid bark mulch/gardening top soil on top of that and around the base of the trees.

    I've been watering with a soaker hose for at least an hour every day, and then some days going and spraying the base of each tree for about 3-4 minutes each. The weather has been 27-33 degrees celcius since I planted them with no reprieve. They are in direct sunlight pretty much all of the day.

    Today I spent some time and cleared the base of the trees as some of the trees lower most branches had been buried under the barkmulch. I've cleared the bottom all the way down to what was the original top of the root ball when they arrived.

    Anyways, we have at least another 2 weeks of this crazy dry an hot weather, and I'm trying to find out why my cedars are starting to turn brown... are they a lost hope? Thoughts? Too much water? Not enough water? is this just natural browning?
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  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    If you think it is a moisture problem dig down and inspect the original soil balls and vicinity to see if they are too wet or too dry. Chances are an hour a day has been way too much and they are too wet.
     
  3. nleggatt

    nleggatt New Member

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    How do I know how wet... The soil isn't dry dry..... But it's not like mud pie either
     
  4. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    You just want moist, not dry or wet. And again with recently planted field grown stock you need to check inside the original soil balls to make sure these aren't collecting or shedding water.

    Otherwise this is one of those situations where you may need to have a garden consultant visit the site and study the circumstances in person.
     
  5. nleggatt

    nleggatt New Member

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    Ok so the soil at the root ball is damp, moist. Not dry. Should I let them sit for a day or 2 without water?
     
  6. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    As you are not in a hot climate you probably only need to water these once or twice per week - you will have to experiment a bit and figure out what interval and what volume does the job in this particular instance.
     
  7. nleggatt

    nleggatt New Member

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    Ok but the weather here has been 25-27 degrees every day and no rain for 3-4 weeks now. Sorry but this all new to me and everyone keeps saying you gotta water the snot out of cedar hedges.
     

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