Last fall I bought 99 of the thuja occidentalis. I dug a four foot wide trench, 10 inches deep.These trees had a root ball 10 inches wide and 10 inches deep,and 4 to 5 feet tall. When I planted the trees, I broke up about 2 inches of the root ball, sprinkled less then a handfull of 10-10-10 fertilizer, soked the hole with water and mixed the soil and fertilizer up. Then placed the tree in center of the trench, and back filled. These trees are planted 30 inches apart. After planting was complete, I placed one fertilizer spike (for evergreens) between all of them. They have made it through the winter, but some of them have a few brown branches, on some of them, the whole branch, others just the edge of the branch. I'm wondering if I should trim these brown branches? Also the area has recieved rainfall ever four to seven days consistantly all winter long with heavy winds (25 to 65 mph). Most of the trees are no longer in the same position as when I planted them. (at a angle) Is it posible to push them from the base to straighten them out, without doing damage to the roots, or should I dig them up and replant? Another question I have is how old are these trees if they are 4 to 5 feet tall? On the tags that were on the trees, it said that they would grow to 10 to 15 feet tall, how long do you think it would take to reach that height? These trees are planted in a open area, so they should receive full sun. The soil in which they are planted is loam that is 10 inches deep, many rocks, and good drainage. The history of the land is that it was a corn field for many years. Last question, I'm fertilizing this spring with a combination of horse and cow manure,(aged) is this a good idea? Any information would be great. Thankyou very much for your time. Chris
Yes: cut out any dead sections that appear. If the brown is actually bronze and the leaves are still supple leave them and wait and see if they green up when it is warmer. During any future planting you may do skip the spikes, the way they concentrate all the fertilizer in a column is not desirable and you pay extra to have them formed into a spike - it's a case of pay more to get less. In fact, any unused spikes you may wish to employ should be broken up and scattered over the surface of the soil around the specimens being fertilized. Also the usual nutrient deficiency on garden soils in this region is that of nitrogen, other nutrients may not need to be supplemented and some products are loaded with phosphorus. With any component of a fertilizer it may be possible to overdo it and produce a toxicity, phosphorus is a particular potential problem because it does not leach much - if you put on too much it really can't be gotten rid of without excavating and replacing the soil.
