The present body of knowledge tells us that newly planted trees need one year per inch of caliper to establish. Colder climates requires an extra year. For example, a 4” caliper tree may take 4 years to establish in Alabama, but needs 5 years to establish in Illinois. That is for trees planted in decompacted healthy soil with sufficient volume. The main reason is that farm-grown trees lose 80+% of their root system during transplanting process. Container-grown trees may retain 100% of their root system, but there are many other issues.

However, landscaping companies commonly offer 1-year warranty. This warranty ensures the quality of the plants, workmanship and landscaping materials. For small plants that establish in less than a year, it can be covered. But it doesn’t cover the establishment of large trees and shrubs. This is why we see the newly planted trees may be fine in the first year, but die more often in the successive years.

The above pictures were taken in Ashland Virginia (near the intersection of England St and N. Washington Hwy). When I discovered them in 2021, three of the four ~8” caliper (~30-foot tall) trees lost the top halves of their canopy. Google Map Street View images showed that these trees were planted in 2016. They did fine in the first year, but constantly growing downward. By 2023, two were removed and one was trimmed down to about 10-foot. The fourth one seems fine, but it didn’t grow taller compared to the 2016 Google image. By 2025, the fourth tree finally grew slightly taller than the original height. What it means is the fourth tree took 8-9 years to establish itself. The other trees were mismanaged. From the early pictures, one can see that each these trees were offered a watering bag. But the bags were zipped up tight on the trunk and it is almost impossible to fill the bags. Even people want to use watering bags, they should consider double- or triple-up the bags. The fact that these trees were offered a single bag indicates the landscape contractor never provided proper watering. It is lucky to have one healthy tree left.

Unfortunately, this is a very common scene, especially when large trees are used in landscape. This gets to the main point of today’s blog:  

Don’t plant large trees unless you have a plan and the budget to water them at least 1 year per inch of caliper.

Keep in mind, the cost of keeping newly planted trees alive and growing them to maturity an be much more than the "planting" part with conventional watering methods. Unfortunately it is typically not budgeted properly.   

TreeDiaper® technology makes distinctive difference in watering costs. From the case studies, we found TreeDiaper® technology saves 90% or more of the costs of keeping newly planted trees alive, provided the recommended sizes of TreeDiaper® treemats are used. Below links to a few case studies showing the cost comparisons:

1. Houston Texas during the 2022-2023 drought: https://treediaper.com/case-studies/how-often-do-i-need-to-water-my-plants-with-treediaper

2. Richmond Road Median Trees (2013-2019): https://treediaper.com/case-studies/roadside-trees-in-richmond-virginia-2013-2019

3. Chesterfield County Urban Orchard (2013-present): https://www.treediaper.com/case-studies/urban-orchard-program-2013

4. Ashland Home Depot (#4653) Parking Lot (2017-present): https://www.treediaper.com/case-studies/home-depot-4653-north-richmond-va

We also created a new case study showing why Size Matters: https://www.treediaper.com/case-studies/size-matters