Hello,
My brother-in-law and myself have recently spaded and planted some white spruce on my property (did it in May). We used a 42" spade and got some 4-5' trees with a few larger ones as a gamble. I'm an ex-landscaper and we planted them correctly, made a tree-well and put bark-mulch in the wells for moisture.
They've been great all summer but a few of them have recently begun to 'yellow' in the lower middle of the tree (outer extremities are still green needles) on both the larger and smaller trees. We had a bit of a heat wave and they weren't watered for a week as we were both out of town but they've always retained a decent amount of moisture even if left for a while due to the bark-mulch.
We live in a climate similar to Minneapolis, MN (warm summer, cold snowy winter) and I'm wondering if this is because of the dry spell or perhaps have I kept them too wet? Do they die like this when being drowned?
It's fall here now and winter is coming. Should I rake out the bark mulch and level the treewells for the winter? Let it dry out a bit? I have a picture of the trees and their condition if anyone would like to see. I'm also wondering about putting some fertilizer on them before the winter. Anyone's thoughts?
Thanks,
Steve
