Transport & Planting Guide

Newly planted trees need consistent moisture for the first 1–2 years. Deep, infrequent watering encourages deep root growth. Avoid shallow daily watering.

Signs of underwatering: wilting, browning needles/leaves. Signs of overwatering: yellowing, soft mushy soil around base.

Most of our species (Arborvitae, Leyland Cypress, Green Giant) prefer full sun to partial shade. Avoid planting in areas with standing water or heavy shade.

Newly planted trees may need staking in exposed or windy sites. Use two stakes and a flexible tie — allow slight movement to encourage trunk strength. Remove stakes after 1 year.

HEIGTH determines spacing.The first question is how tall do you need them to grow? If a 14’ row of Thuja Green Giant will provide the privacy screen you need, you should be sure and “TOP” them at that height. To do that, you must let them grow a foot or so taller than the desired height, then just clip off the central leader, or main trunk. More height above what you need is a disadvantage for several reasons. The first is that during stress times, like a drought summer, or winter, the tree has to “decide” whether to send the moisture it does have to the upper limbs and truck or the lower limbs, it will always send the moisture to the top growth areas and starve out the lower limbs. Many people say their row of Thuja Green Giant was doing fine, then “all of a sudden” this year they started showing brown on the lower needles. This is because the height reached the point relative to spacing that results in stress.RULE of fours.You should space the trees so the target height needed is no more than 4 times the distance between the trunks. If you need a 20’ tall row to block your neighbor’s house or windows, you could space as close as 5’ on center. That is provided you will follow through, and when they reach 21 or 22’ tall, top them back to 20’ height. That means each tree will get the moisture from a 5’ diameter ground area without competition from the tree beside it. It also means there will be enough room for a strong 5’ diameter root system to secure a 20’ tall tree against the wind.ZIG ZAG pattern.This is a super solution if you can surrender some “width” of your property for the privacy screen. Let’s take an example; someone needs a 30’ tall privacy screen. If they use the rule of 4’s, and plant a single file row, they should space at 8’ on center, 4 times 8’ spacing  = 32’ max target heigth. If they are choosing to start with ten’ Thuja Green Giant or Leyland Cypress, they will be 4’ wide at planting time. That will leave them with 4’ of air in between each tree and waiting a long time to close together. If you plant two parallel rows, with each at 8’ on center, but staggered there will APPEAR to be a tree every 4’ you will have closure much quicker, yet still have the trees spaced for strength and low stress. In this case the first row should be 4’ from the property line, and the second row should be 8’ from the first. If tight on space, you could make the second row 6’ back from the first row. One note is that the appearance of a tree every 4’ is only when you are exactly perpendicular to the row. Also remember a ten foot Thuja Green Giant or Leyland Cypress may be 4 foot wide at it’s widest point, but also they get skinnier as they get tall.  In this situation, you still need the 8’ spacing based on the rule of fours, and the zig zag pattern will get you closure much sooner than a straight line row. If they decided on 12 foot trees, they would be 5’ wide at the widest point closure would come much quicker.Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines whereby the original author's information and copyright must be included.

Expect 1–2 full growing seasons for trees to fully establish. Growth may be slow the first year as the root system develops. By year 2–3, expect vigorous growth.

If your soil is heavy clay, consider breaking up the surrounding area (not the backfill) to improve drainage. Sandy soils benefit from organic matter mixed into the surrounding area to retain moisture.