General rule of thumb would be water twice a week for 6-8 weeks then cut back to once a week unless it rains significantly. Water at rate of 10 gallons per inch of tree diameter. For a 7" diameter tree that equates to about 70 gallons. I would doubt that 5 or 10 minutes of bubbler is doing that. This works well for potted trees, if roots were cut on these large trees, they will need even more water than the general rule of thumb.

If it were me, I'd leave bubbler on for an hour every other day in this heat. Recommend soaking the trees thoroughly so water goes down deep. I've planted hundreds of trees, but no longer deal with big ones like you have. It is so much easier to get 5-15 gallon trees to establish.
Add nothing but water and mulch the first year.

Okay, so water every other day..just once, I assume at early morning (4 or 5 AM?) for like an hour? I'll just flood out my empty flower beds for a little while (the bubblers are on the same station as the flower beds...wish I would've caught that).

Thanks very much for the help!

were you there when they were planted???

how big were the root balls ...

you need water thru that whole root ball.. every time the root ball dries ...

it is not an automated sprinkler thingee ...

put the hose on trickle.. for an hour.. then go dig a small hole in the root zone..

and find out how far down the water got into the rootbabll ... and then turn it back on.. until you have water 6 or 8 inches down into the soil ...

and then dont water again.. until its dry back around one inch ...

we can not tell you how that all works out.. in your garden.. in your state .. in your soil... plus the soil delivered with the plant itself ...

if you have been relying on the sprinklers.. i hope your trees are guaranteed ...

ken

Gee whiz. It's like your tree farmer actually wants your trees to die. He's given you some bad advise.

Planting those trees in your climate this time of year was obviously unwise. A bubbler watering 5 minutes is nowhere near the volume and duration of water you need for trees that size. Heck, even for small trees from the garden center that's probably not enough. OThers have posted good rules of thumb. New trees should not be accepted if they have insect problems or injury. You can't repair injuries with some kind of spray. That makes it worse. Root stimulator is also not a good idea in my view. Mulch them well, water them and hope for the best.

Okay thanks for the responses all. I realize i've made some mistakes. One of them being they were installed when I was not there (I was there when they were brought in, and he started to dig...but I had to go back to work). The reason we had them on an automatic bubbler is because we werent' moved in the house yet and I was not able to be over there everyday to water them.

I'll change up the watering schedule to water less frequently but longer, deeper watering. I'll keep them mulched and just cross my fingers.

Thanks again all!

Good luck! I also recommend watering more.

I just planted one here, too, at a new house. I'm in south/central Tx.

It was good for about a week, became VERY stressed for about 3, now it's starting to look a bit better. I also wasn't there for the planting (kicking myself now), so my bet is they just dropped it in a clay hole the size of the pot /sigh.

I've been watering it every other day (temps high 90/100's) for 2,3-4 hrs with the hose on a slow drip. It's got mounded mulch around it, so it sinks in.

My plan is to keep that up until sept/oct, when the weather begins to back off a bit.

personally, I'm not worried about establishing deep roots/etc with the heat and dry weather we have going on; I'm just trying to keep mine alive and healthy, and let it establish itself once the weather becomes more temperate.

Boy that puny amount of watering wouldn't satisfy my maples in my sandy loam that has a lot of gravel in it. I give my maples 1200 gallons ( I know my gph rate of water) of water 2 times a week and they drink it right up. My soil drains so fast that even with all that water it all goes down the soil instantly. Ive dug a hole right nearby and even with all that water, the soil is only moist, all the water has gone all the way down, probably all the way down to the aquifer. lol

2 years ago I planted some trees and watered 10 gallons 3 times a week like many people say, and every tree went into transplant shock, lost all their leaves, came back and went right into early fall foliage. So I started watering based on what was right for our soil. I learned right away that what may be right for some soils is not at all right for others. These 3 maples I planted just this year have grown over a foot and a half, and are luscious and green, not a hint of shock to be found. The next day the soil doesn't even look like it's been watered at all. Good grief, it's just crazy here.

Trees need more water than I think a lot of people realize. 5 minutes of water 2 times a day is starving the poor tree.

I'm also concerned about when these trees were dug.
Did I read that right... 6-7" caliper?!
Those are some really big trees. I doubt anybody would have those laying around a nursery.

Hey all just an update. Since the first response to my thread, I've reprogrammed my irrigation system to water an hour every other night about 4 AM. So far, the three stressed trees are looking much better. There still is one red oak that is not looking as good as the others...still has a lot of dead leaves, but no more sap and still has a good bit of green leaves around the top and close to the trunk.

The tree that was looking the worst (oozing sap, covered in bugs) is now looking SO much better. It has shed all of the dead leaves and just has green leaves now. No more sap, and no more bugs.

So I think they are getting enough water now. Like I mentioned, they are getting watered every other night for an hour a piece...plus they get a little spraying three times a day (we just laid sod and watering three times a day). So, needless to say, i'm going to be very nervous to look at my water bill this month.

And yes gardninggrandma, they are 6-7 in caliper. I would guess 16-18 ft tall? They were all container grown in a tree farm, not a nursery.

Thanks all for the help, I think it saved my trees!

Wow. 6-7" caliper.

Combined with the planting time, they will be stressed for years and it should be very, very easy for a 2.5" caliper to catch up and surpass them in just a few years.

That is: smaller trees are almost always preferred. For several reasons evident in this thread.

I hope the trees recover and leaf out fully next year - if not, do not hesitate one day to get this marginal outfit out to fix the problem.

Also, don't expect good growth for several years while they establish. They will sit there and do little while their poor roots recover. No fertilizer. No root stimulator. Just water and mulch and patience.

Dan

If the soil's deficient they won't benefit from not being fertilized. With stock in good condition at planting stunting of top growth due to cutting of roots at transplanting lasts only until the second spring after planting, roots having been restored sufficiently to support normal shoot length the first fall after planting. Lingering slow top growth is due to plants not being handled successfully, either before being installed on the final planting site or after. Or both.

This issue comes up enough that I oughta bookmark my Harris et al Arboriculture so I don't have to paw thru it every time.

From 3rd Ed. pg 163: Following planting, it is clear that the larger the tree is at planting the longer the establishment period...differences in initial size are generally lost following establishment... trees from larger stock may grow more slowly following planting and be smaller in size after several years.

And I'm not sure why you would fert a stressed plant, and if the soil is deficient it was corrected before planting (right?) because roots extend far beyond the planting hole and trees must make do in native soil, adapted to the site or not.

Dan