Expert: Jim Hyland - 11/7/2005

Question
Jim,  I am in the process of maintaing some trees which were planted at my place here in NJ.  The trees are 6-8' easterns planted in poor soil conditions.  The soil mainly being bankrun appears to be the issue.  When planted the hole was made 2x the root ball size and filled with a top soil/peat moss mix.  Trees are in the ground for 2+ weeks with one showing sign of drooping needles.  Possible over watering issue on my part but otherwis other 7 appear ok.  I do realize soil conditions are not ideal but any input would help to assure proper tree growth

Best Regards,
Tony

Answer
They maybe under going a shock from the planting process.  I would back off the watering--They only need about 1 inch of water once each week--If it rains do not water. I place a pan under the tree and when I water and the pan has about an inch of water in it I stop. I assume the balling material was removed before you planted the root ball, every thing else you did was correct.