Hopefully if planting in October, the trees will not require much in the way of additional watering. A good slow soaking after planting and then only again if the weather remains dry. I would just use a hose on a slow trickle......you don't need any fancy equipment :-)

And no fertilizing now and probably not necessary in spring, either. Trees in the ground need very little additional fertilization, ever, provided you have reasonably decent soil.

Probably the most important thing you need to deal with is if the landscaper knows how to plant correctly........that is not always a given :-) How to plant trees and shrubs.

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) - thank you for the helpful link! I will bookmark it and check it out later today :-).

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 - I realllllly would love to see them in color this year...I'm hoping to take another trip to the nursery to visit the trees again before they come to our house :-). Is that weird? LOL. I literally feel like I searched EVERYWHERE for these trees...I had landscapers calling growers in a bunch of states, and I called more nurseries than I can count in our surrounding states as well. I had no idea this cultivar would be so challenging to find!

That is very helpful information about the fertilizer. I had a feeling it may not be necessary (and may do more harm than good), but wanted to ask here since everyone here knows so much more about this than I do! I want to make sure I don't inadvertently do more harm than good to these beauties!

We'd prefer to have something where we don't have to manually water each tree, given that there are 10 trees...so leaving the hose on a slow trickle for a long time per tree would take a very long time!

The trees will absolutely be mulched as soon as they are planted...I'm hoping this also helps give them a good start. Would I need to water them through the fall? Or mostly only in spring/summer if it's hot and dry?

Our soil is definitely not sandy...this much I know. It definitely has clay content, but I wouldn't say it's solely clay or anything like that. I'll try your perk test idea and see what I come up with!

And thank you for your link - another one I will bookmark and keep as a reference! :-)

ken's first link is exactly the same as mine :-) I just dislike looking at long lines of html so use the opportunity Houzz provides in the linking process to title them properly.

Presuming good care, a general rule of thumb is, you need one year per inch of caliper for your tree to establish in the ground.

I transplanted a 1" caliper oak and dawn redwood last fall, that appeared to barely miss a beat this summer. Granted, rainfall has been above normal.

I've planted 30 or so (haven't counted in awhile) trees since moving here in 2005..all kinds..all sizes..never fertilized them but we're faithful about water..we used watering cans..the lot is too full and too big to drag hoses..we have a high success rate..you won't be doing it long since winter will be coming..buy several cans and it doesn't take long..forgot to say we do NOT plant too deep..good info about planting properly..

"We'd prefer to have something where we don't have to manually water each
tree, given that there are 10 trees...so leaving the hose on a slow
trickle for a long time per tree would take a very long time!"

You don't have to do it forever, just until they are well established.

Getting them off to a good start is the single best thing you can do for their long term health. It would be a shame to spend all this money on larger trees and then allow a little bit of watering to stop you from giving them the best start possible.

If nothing else, drill a small hole in the bottom of a five gallon bucket, fill it with water, and set it next to a tree. When it drains move it and fill it again- it's not as if you have to stand out there the whole time. That or even a slow trickle hose can easily be moved by you, or even a neighborhood kid who wants to earn a buck or two.

Thank you all for the help!

cearbhaill - If I were to go the route of the 5 gallon bucket, how often would you recommend that I water the trees, given that they will be planted in October and are 2" caliper? Would once per week be sufficient? When would I need to stop watering for the year? And how early would I start watering again in the spring? Apologies for all of the questions - we don't have a single tree on our property right now, so I want to make sure I know what to do to keep these happy and healthy!

you're asking a question that has no way of being able to be answered without a lot of qualifications that change according to variables and getting your fingers dirty.

if fall develops and is absolutely dry, the answer is a lot different than if wave of storms follow waves of storms as tropical storms break up and follow the coastal avenues inland and upland. How are we, on the other side of a computer screen, to know what kind of soils you have, drainage, weather two months from now, and a host of other factors?

it's possible you could plant your trees, water them in, and be done. Period. It's also possible they could use extra water for a couple of years...depending on weather.

With parts off the shelf from home depot, you can establish an automated drip irrigation system for about $100...perhaps a bit more, depending on how long the total run is.

Five gallons may sound like a lot of water. to a petunia in a cell pack, it is. To a 2" tree, it's enough to wet the burlap. Planted, no way to know without knowing soil moisture. My guess? plant it, water it, let nature take it's course. The real question is the weather next summer. If spring is dry and summer is hot, you'll be watering more than you are going to want to think about. If spring is normal and summer is above average precip, you're good to go.

And if I could successfully predict the weather with that kind of accuracy, I'd put my skills to better use.

Generally when I install new plants I water them every day for a week or two (depends on temperatures and the plant) then three times a week for a couple of weeks, then twice a week for a month, then once a week for a month and so on depending on rainfall. For the entire first year I have anything new in the ground I pay really close attention to watering. Now some things I might not treat this way, but I do check the soil daily to make that call. But I know my soil, how it drains, what each plant wants, and how to identify drought stress.

I water in the fall until I am certain the ground is frozen (but less so than in the heat of summer) and I start up again in spring when I see new growth.

These are generalizations. Just watch the trees, learn the signs of drought stress, stick your fingers into the soil often, pay attention to the temperature, keep an eye on rainfall (I actually note every substantial rainfall on my personal calendar as I can't remember anything anymore), and keep your fingers crossed. You'll figure it out. We all did, so can you :)

You could set up a hose that goes by all the trees and poke a hole in the hose near each tree. Or you could set up a schedule...water one tree every other day. They don't need to be watered every day.

Sugar maples don't like root interference and are trees that are supposed to grow in shade in their youth. So if you ever plan on expanding the driveway set them far back from it. Plan on browning their first August.