Spring is often thought of as planting season and it’s understandable—after a long, drab winter nothing feels better than putting a blossoming new tree in the ground. But fall is a much better time to plant trees and shrubs, including fruit trees, blueberries, currants, gooseberries, even raspberry and blackberries. In the fall the soil is still warm, temperatures are moderate, and precipitation, in the form of rain and snow, picks up. All these factors help newly planted trees and shrubs settle into their new home. Also, even though you can’t see them, roots grow throughout the winter. This means that fall planted trees and shrubs have larger, more established root systems the following summer, which helps them deal with the stress of hot, dry weather.

We recently planted three maples in our parking strip. I snapped some pictures as we planted and pulled together some tips that I learned at the tree planting workshop the city gave in early October:

Before you start digging call your local utility companies and have them mark any gas, sewer, water, or fiber optic lines. The last thing you want to do is drive a shovel into a pipe! When planting fruiting trees, think about their placement, as dropped cherries can get messy around sidewalks and patios and big falling apples have been known to dent cars.

The planting hole for your tree should be approximately three to four times bigger than the container it is growing in (or the size of the root ball if it is balled and burlaped). This gives the tree’s roots plenty of loose soil to extend out into as they mature. A simple way to determine the size and location of the planting hole is to place the container where you ultimately want the tree to be and then dig an outline of the hole around the container (see above). Shoveling the excavated soil onto a tarp makes clean up really easy.

You’ll want the hole to be exactly as deep as the tree’s root ball, as trees planted too deeply don’t develop well. So, after you have the outline of the hole dug out, stop digging and turn your attention to the tree’s roots.  Take the tree out of it’s container. For balled and burlaped trees, unwrap the burlap and completely remove any wire caging. Rootbound trees (like the one pictured above) will never extend their roots out into the soil. The roots will keep circling round and round. This stunts the growth of the tree, makes it prone to falling over during windstorms, and significantly shortens its lifespan.

It is very important to completely loosen up the roots before planting. We used a hori hori knife and a 3-pronged hand cultivator to loosen and untangle the roots. Don’t worry about hurting the roots—it is much more detrimental to put a plant with coiled roots into the ground.

When you plant the tree, you want the root flare—the point where the trunk flares out into the roots—to be even with the soil line. Many container trees are planted too deeply in their pots. So, if you don’t see the root flare, remove soil from the top of the root ball until you find the flare. As you can see, we had to remove about three inches of soil before we uncovered the root flare on this tree.

Once you’ve uncovered the root flare and loosened the roots, measure the depth of the rootball. Then finish digging the hole, making it the same depth as the rootball.

Place the tree in the center of the hole. Lay a shovel across the top to double check that the depth is okay. Then, backfill the hole with the same soil you excavated. Do not amend the soil. Research has shown that trees planted in amended soil are less likely to send their roots out into the native soil, resulting in small, unhealthy root systems.

Once you’ve filled in the hole, water it well to remove any air bubbles surrounding the roots. Place a 3 inch layer of woody mulch around the base of the tree. Keep the mulch away from the tree’s trunk—you want the mulch to look like a doughnut around the trunk, not a volcano. The best way to help your new tree establish is to keep it well watered during the summer months. The city arborist told us to give the tree about 15 to 20 gallons of water each week during the summer for the first three years.