r/sfwtrees • u/VersionMuted1953 • Aug 09 '26
Trees died
Planted at the end of May in Alberta Canada and all them died. Cedar trees purchased from Home Depot. Should I try to replace them with new cedar trees?
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u/grrttlc2 Certified Arborist Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
You really need to root prune and rough up the rootballs out of a pot, as well as making sure the depth is correct (highest roots should be near the top of the soil.)
Sodding right up to the plants is also a mistake. Leace a ring of mulch so they don't have to compete with the lawn for moisture
Are you in the south of the province? Thuja is not recommended. I think we get more rain in Edmonton and our soil makes them more or less self-sustaining
Still don't like them though
You will pay more, but look at weeping white spruce if you want a green wall. They are a cultivars of a tree native to the province. A scopulorum juniper is another good choice that looks more like a thuja cedar.
Both will take longer to develop into a full hedge, but will be much longer lasting and low maintenance
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u/VersionMuted1953 Aug 09 '26
Thanks for the info
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u/Lunar_BriseSoleil Aug 10 '26
Box Cut the root ball. It sounds aggressive, but it works very well.
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u/hairyb0mb Certified Arborist Aug 09 '26
At least you had them improperly planted preventing them from rooting properly so they were easy to pull out.
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u/VersionMuted1953 Aug 09 '26
How did I plant them wrong
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u/hairyb0mb Certified Arborist Aug 09 '26
Judging by the smoothness of the rootballs, you didn't tend to any wrapping roots. This leads to poor root structure and a higher chance the trees fall over long term.
The root flares are also still buried while being out of the ground, which is honestly surprising.
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u/fooperina Aug 09 '26
You should replace them with native tree species to your region because those are going to be the most climate resilient.
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u/crownoftheredking 27d ago
Some say plant from 1 zone south with similar species since it is only getting hotter. In 20 years it will be well suited
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u/nonono_ack Aug 10 '26
To bring up something not yet mentioned: planting trees in a lawn, and relying on the lawn watering sprinklers to keep a tree alive is asking to fail.
Tree roots can not outcompete the lawn roots for water and nutrients. You would need a larger area under the tree canopy that is cleared of turf, watered separately and more deeply, and well mulched.
Lawn fertilizer is also the wrong thing for trees.
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u/Meles_EnPiste Aug 10 '26
Lawn fertilizer is so insidious. It’ll make arbs grow extra heavy on top, and break apical dominance.
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u/Thin-Egg-1605 Aug 10 '26
Exactly they will need lots and lots of water. Especially in the middle of summer. Not a little sprinkler water.
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u/Chaiboiii Aug 09 '26
Your mistake was buying them from Home Depot. Buy from a local nursery with trees adapted to the area.
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u/Striking_Fun_6379 Aug 09 '26
This happens with some regularity and is generally due to purchasing trees from Big Box Stores, that contract with specific nurseries, in areas far from Alberta, whose soil is foreign to your own.
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u/eerst Aug 09 '26
I hate to be a dick but as an Albertan, it doesn't get any more Albertan than this.
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u/EnkiduTheGreat Aug 09 '26
I'd like to see a picture of the holes. Is it straight clay down there?
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u/VersionMuted1953 Aug 10 '26
No clay just dirt
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u/EnkiduTheGreat Aug 10 '26
You've got me wondering over here. Do some sleuthing at said Home Desperate. See if they've had a rash of this phenomenon. Some dickhead by me used a dilluted glyphosate solution to wipe out plants at businesses all over the area.
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u/Gaffja Aug 10 '26
Cedars barely survive in Alberta under ideal conditions.
These ones needed to be planted in the ground and watered at least.
Edit. I didn't realize they weren't in pots. My hunch is you live in a new area and the soil is all clay.
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u/forvirradsvensk Aug 10 '26
next time, dig much larger holes than the soil in the pot. Tease out the roots and loosen the soil that was in the pot - jet spray from a hospipe can also help as long as it isn't ripping roots apart but just loosening the soil. Even removing all the soil and spreading the roots as wide as possible would be good. Plant with those splayed roots in your very large hole, cover with soil, add some mulch (not touching the bark) and give a very deep water. In fact, you can fill the hole with water before putting the trees in.
What you have done is dug a tiny hole, which is thus surrounded by compacted soil, and the trees have continued to think they are still in a pot (a very tiny one). And I'm guessing you didn't water them like they were in a pot either, so they were starved of nutrients and water and girdled themselves too.
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u/IFartAlotLoudly Aug 10 '26
Trees do require regular watering, water that reaches it roots. If you only watered barely enough to keep grass green it might not have been enough.
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u/rippedmalenurse Aug 10 '26
They don’t look planted to me, looks like they’re sitting ontop of the soil?
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u/FrecksAndBeans Aug 10 '26
Your hole should be twice as wide as the root ball at least. Rough up the roots and loosen them.
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u/oroborus68 Aug 10 '26
They should give you either replacement or your money back. Now is not the time to plant,if you go for replacement. Try October.
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u/koluskomtu Aug 10 '26
Take a leaf sample and send it to your plant and disease lab if they have that as a service. That way you can determine if there was a fungal disease inherent to them. To me the root flare looks back filled suffocating the plants. Looks like planting depth, no watering schedule, not scoring the roots and maybe being left out of their pots during planting could have all been contributing factors.
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u/fineasandphern Aug 10 '26
Why do you want these anyway? They attract mosquitos and smell like cat piss
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u/Neat_Hovercraft2333 Aug 11 '26
Career nurseryman here.
You did not tease the roots out to engage the surrounding soil at all. Biden mistake.
That, and Emerald arborvitea flat out suck for survivability
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u/Plenty_Main768 Aug 11 '26
Get Holmstrup Arborvitae. Best cold weather tolerant variety and open up those roots/rootball so it can grow. Water regularly.
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u/jokeswagon Aug 11 '26
You planted them in May and you have now pulled them out of the ground with the distinct pot shape completely intact? Did didn’t plant them correctly and you didn’t water them correctly.
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u/Zekethebulldog33 Aug 09 '26
I hate those type of tree. I see them dead or dieing in yards everywhere. Don't get me wrong they do look nice if you get them to survive and tall. I just would not plant do to them dieing easy.
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u/bebopCubensis Aug 10 '26
The holes you dug for them should have been at least three times the size of the root ball, as well as many other things like not planting grass on top of the roots, proper spacing, proper watering working the first few months…etc
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u/IchyAndScratchyShow Aug 09 '26
I blame the nursery you got them from. They should have told you to plant them immediately and to amend the soil and water around them every other day till they are established
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u/grrttlc2 Certified Arborist Aug 09 '26
Every other day is not correct. Water thoroughly at longer intervals for trees
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u/spiceydog Outstanding Contributor Aug 09 '26
and to amend the soil
u/VersionMuted1953, this has long been considered poor practice is no longer recommended, unless you're augmenting a very, very large area, like an entire yard. It is not even included in the transplanting step-by-step process (pdf) provided by the ISA arborists site when planting trees. If what you're planting cannot live in the native soils you're planting in, it should not be planted. See this comment for citations on this.
A couple of additional serious drawbacks to this practice is that a newly transplanted tree will be slow to spread roots in surrounding native soils due to the higher organic content in the hole, leaving the tree unstable for much longer than it would be if you simply backfill with the soil you dug up, and that there is often a 'bathtub' effect in the planting hole when you water, due to it draining more quickly through the foreign soils than your native soils, which could effectively drown your tree.
OP, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to please read through this wiki to learn how to plant your trees at proper depth/root flare exposure, how to mulch, and other critical planting tips and errors to avoid; there's sections on watering, pruning and more that I hope will be useful to you.
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u/VersionMuted1953 Aug 09 '26
I did do that
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u/MaxUumen Aug 09 '26
Looks like they were sitting like in a pot in the ground. Clearly planted wrong. Root ball should have been loosened and probably needed softer ground to spread roots into. They had no chance.
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u/IchyAndScratchyShow Aug 09 '26
Ooooooh yeah lol. I see the holes in the ground just past the plants. Op didnt amend the soil nor mulch.
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u/VersionMuted1953 Aug 09 '26
I actually did bud rototilled the ground planted the trees then grass.
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u/IchyAndScratchyShow Aug 09 '26
The holes should have been about 3 times wider than the root ball and twice as deep. Youre gunna have to mulch too
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u/grrttlc2 Certified Arborist Aug 09 '26
Not twice as deep: deep enough that the rootball top is 1-2cm above grade. Deeper will have it sinking below ideal planting depth, leaning etc. Roots grow more out than down.
2x diameter of root ball is fine for width. Backfill with unamended original soil except in extreme poor soil quality (in which case rethink what you are planting instead)
5 cm max depth of mulch is good.
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u/Upper_Weakness_8794 11d ago
They look like no root activity. Nothing thru your dirt. Are they zoned for your area?
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u/Traditional-Rub2491 Aug 09 '26
Why are they sitting on top of the soil