Should I pull the new trees out of this mess? They were just planted on Wednesday (Bare root). The ground is saturated and with more rain for today I’m fearing the worst.
First time this has happen …not sure how to handle it. All trees are on citation.
Thank you for your advice as always!
Jennifer
Picture to follow…
If the water is still standing this Friday morning (i.e. 4 days in saturated soil) I’d be concerned about the health of the tree roots. Further, I’d be very concerned about the nature of the planting holes in general.
I’d be concerned about the long term prospects in that location. In winter with cold soil trees can stand under water many times longer than in summer.
How wet does that spot stay at other times of yr? How does the soil drain? Mounds might be in order.
First time this has happened…thought we took care of this by digging big ruts In between the rows of the trees so they would sit higher… well ruts are full and have water has encased some of the trees. Came home from work on Friday to standing water it had drained when I checked Saturday morning. Sunday we had HUGE amounts of rain …ruts filled back up and over and remained that way all day (Rain non stop all day)…as of now the water has drained but is holding a lot of water and we are to have more rain today so was just thinking the new trees may need to come out until things dry up a bit? or just pull back all mulch and let them dry out. After Tuesday we look good for no rain for a while.
I think you’ll be alright unless the internal drainage of your soil is really poor. I know some of those CA soils are pretty sorry. But shoot it might not get really wet again for years.
I always thought our yard drained well before this happened…lol. Going to have to divert some run off. Just not prepared for all that rain at one time. See how things look when I get home today.
I cannot get the photo to load for some reason?
Thanks for your advice.
Here too we are getting a lot of rain, It’s not drainage as much as it is the fact it won’t stop raining. I’m worried about plants leaving dormancy too, or at least losing hardiness.
A few more days of fairly warm weather to make it through.
As long as the roots aren’t in standing water (puddle depth), they’ll be fine.
Elevation of your planting (berms) is always a good idea. But back East here, the soil can stay saturated for months, and plants pull through fine. Citation will probably be fine. If it were Mahaleb, I might be worried.
Yeah, soil here can be waterlogged for at least a month in the spring. Plums seem to benefit from it, but peaches suffer. I’m not sure how it would affect Citation, since it has some peach in it.
LOL!
She just had nearly 10" of rain in the last 10 days. That’s more than the annual rainfall she gets in some years!
Ya…roots are under :(. Went and tried to get a pump…what a shocker…all sold out! Came home today and everything was under again. Sucks.
Finally got it to upload…this was from yesterday. Tonight was about half of this.
You’ve got to get out there and build some quick-and-dirty mounds. Then dig up the trees in standing water and immediately replant them in the mounded native soil.
How badly do you want those trees to live? The clock is ticking. Roots need to oxygenate periodically or they will literally drown. Don’t forget to wear your booties! We’ll expect a full report. Ready, set, go!
Gee Matt I’m not sure I agree with that advice. Citation is tolerant of wet feet. It’s cold and the roots aren’t growing. They can take wet much better now than in summer.
If the trees need to be dug up don’t throw them back in mud, mounded or not. Wait to replant until the soil dries out. Working wet soil ruins the soil structure and it runs together like muck. That’s just making the matter worse when or if it rains again.
move trees immediately. I planted 40 peach trees and this happened. 5 survived.
Good. I think you’ll be fine.
Exactly. And the soil is exhibiting some percolation so I doubt it’s to the anaerobic phase.
No one can be sure what’s the best thing to do. The trees might be safer pulled out if they can be removed without damage. If removed then I’d wait until it dries out to build higher mounds. Meanwhile the trees could be held in pots.
Soil drainage is key. It would be nearly impossible to drown trees in my soil. But if the water just sets there they will drown at some point.
Update,
Dug a little trench to detour some water…raked away some mulch and let the wind and warm weather do the rest. So thankful for the break in rain. Hopeful everything will survive. Thank you everyone for your help.
Wishing your trees the best of luck!