Fall planting, timing

Beginners
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Hi all. I want to put a few trees in the ground to grow for a few years. Specifically, 3 dawn redwoods, 4 Korean hornbeam and a Japanese maple. I am in Southwestern Pa. Do you have any advice on timing ? Any suggestions to set me up for success when I dig them up in the future? Thanks in advance.

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Hi Adam, wait until spring for all of them. There’s no guarantee they will have settled in the event of an early winter (or a severe one). I don’t know what the winter weather is like in your area but if you get a lot of rain, it will tend to rid the ground of any residual heat.

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Hi Adam,

if you want to improve the root formation to get a good nebari i would recommend to wait untill spring. Reduce the roots and sort them as good as possible while put them in the ground.

regards
Günther

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I agree, it’s safer to do any kind of root work in early spring.

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To add onto this, there are various ways to encourage radial surface roots you can look into. Some people plant on tiles. I’ve started mine in root control bags and / or over a heavy piece of felt. Basically the same idea as the tile except it is water permeable. I haven’t had them in long enough to pull them up and see what the results of either are though.

You’ll also want to dig them up every few years to re-work the roots until they are ready to come out of the ground.

Listen to the telperion farms podcast for more information too.

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Is root work necessary? In the landscaping/gardening world, fall is an ideal time to plant trees. If you are simply looking to thicken trunks, I’d say pop em in the ground. I am located in Nashville and still have a few trees I will be doing the same thing with this weekend. If you need to do significant root work, then I’d wait until spring.

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Thanks for all your advice. I ended up deciding to do a little of both. I am waiting until spring so I can do a little root work before I put most of them in the ground. The ones that were blown off their stands and broke their pots wound up in the ground this fall. :man_shrugging: No major losses.