Leaves are turning yellow on my new River Birch Tree?
Question:I have just planted a 15 ft. tall River Birch Tree.. I water it about every other day, but my leaves are turning yellow. Can someone let me know why. I paid a lot of money for this tree and I don't want to loose it. I live in the KY area. Please Help.
Answers:
You may be over-watering the tree. I've had this happen with a couple of trees and when I removed them to replant them I noticed there was a pool of water in the hole I removed the tree from. Planting trees too deeply and/or over-watering them are common problems. Until the roots can grow and spread in the native soil (and not the soil utopia they grow in at a nursery) you have to be careful. Poorly drained soils (especially clays) can act as a bucket when you dig a hole in them. The water fills that bucket in the soil and saturates your tree's roots and then they're starved for air and the leaves begin to yellow.
Try check the soil around the tree at different depths too see if it's saturated.
You can always go to http://www.1800topsoil.com to see if they have a local pro servicing your area. They're national.
RIVER birch need more water than five minutes every other day. put the hose on it for a trickle for at least an hour a day to give it a deep soak. also if you did not cut the roots before planting it dig it back up and cut then about 2 inches deep all a round. this will force the tree to send roots out for water. do it quick yellow is just before brown and brown in the summer is dead.
todds right more water. Water long and deep. the trees will shed off the yellow follage but the will put out again. More water please.
Watering your tree every other day is probably too much water. Especially if you have a clay soil. Your smothering the tree. Its not uncommon for a transplanted tree to drop leaves. Perfectly healthy birches will drop leaves most of the summer. Are the edges of the leaf brown? That would also indicate smothering from too much water. Planting the tree too deep will compound the problem, Can you see the top of the root ball? If not you may need to raise the tree or it will be weak or not live. It sounds like you are loving this tree to death.
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