Q. Three days ago I dug eight 3-ft. by 3-ft. holes for trees. These holes were made in hardpan. I used a jackhammer to get down as far as I could tolerate before collapsing in a heap of protoplasm. I amended the soil properly and planted the trees, properly watered afterward to moisten, not drown. The tree leaves are drying up. I don’t know the tree type, my wife purchased. Next I planted crape myrtles, four of them in another area of the yard where the soil was not hard pan but was very moist. I still added amender. Alongside the crapes I planted rose trees, and now all of these crapes and roses are dying. What to do?
Fair Oaks, California
A. Hopefully, when you say “amended”, you don’t mean adding fertilizer to the hole before planting. That will burn the roots in a heartbeat. Only organic fertilizer like Organo, manure, or Milorganite should be added to the bottom of a planting hole.
If you planted in hardpan, the hole you dug had to be at least three times the width of the rootball, or the tree will die when the roots hit the hardpan. We have a hardpan here in Florida called Marl that is like that. The problem with hardpan is that the water stays in the hole you planted in, and doesn’t move out to the surrounding soil, so the roots eventually rot if you water too much or don’t expand the hole with time. I would have to know what kind of tree it is to tell you why it is dropping leaves. Some trees, like ficus, naturally drop leaves if they are moved from one place to another. Some other trees drop leaves when their watering is changed. You might have an air pocket in the hole where you planted it. Scatter a cup of Epsom salts around the top of the tree, out to where you dug the hole. This will help the roots get established. ONLY ADD EPSOM SALTS ONCE. Take your shovel handle and go around the tree poking as many holes as you can to make sure all the soil has settled in around the roots. Stick the hose down into the soil around the tree in several places and let the water run into the ground. Do this every other day for two weeks, and you should see some improvement.
About the crepe myrtles, they need well-drained soil. They are drowning. Crepe myrtles cannot stand boggy soil. They grow here wonderfully well in our native sand.
Deborah Aldridge
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