It’s not looking great folks. When we moved the tree Wednesday evening, I took a picture of her in all her glory. When I walked out my door Thursday morning I was shocked. So apparently was she. “Hopefully it’s nothing a good watering can’t fix”, I thought as a I climbed in my Uber. Sadly, when I got home nine hours later, after an emotionally draining day, I didn’t have it in me to tromp across the street multiple times with my heavy watering can.
So Friday I watered her multiple times. A big issue, other than me transplanting her in June when elderberries prefer to be moved in the summer, is that the clay in the soil doesn’t seem to be allowing the water down to the roots. Instead it’s been pooling on one side. My second and third watering yesterday were on the leaves, hoping that would have better results. I posted on Facebook about her sad state and Nicole linked a great article from Relocate Plants about elderberry transplant shock. It’s main points:
- Timing is Key. Well we know I already goofed that one up. Not only is it the wrong season, but I’m sure it didn’t love being moved at the end of a hot day.
- Proper Soil Preparation. And by proper, I did none. Derek had asked about this and I had joked that it had thrived in terrible soil and I was worried that moving it into better soil would cause shock. Clearly I was wrong on that.
- Water Wisely. Welp. I’ve been wondering if I should have watered the hole before we placed her in it, in addition to the watering after planting. Too late now. In an attempt to make amends, I tried digging little trenches radiating from the base so that the water wouldn’t pool away from the tree and would possible penetrate those areas better to reach the roots. Fingers crossed.
- Use Root Stimulants. I will never be this fancy of a gardener. I just now this about myself at this point in my life.
- Mulching Matters. Looking back at pictures, I did see that when I originally planted my twig, it was about a month after Steph and I had replanted and mulched. So that may have been more important to the trees success than I realized. I’ve ordered some mulch that should be here shortly. Hopefully she makes it that long.
- Prune Carefully. I think by now gentle reader, you know that I really don’t know what I’m doing. Chaos gardening is probably a good term for it. But I took my pruners out with me today and tried to “reduce the demand on the root system”. There was already some leaves that had turned brown but the rest was my best guess. I then tore it up into smaller bits and placed that around the base of the branches as a mulch/ something for the water to cling to.
- Avoid Fertilizing Immediately. No worries there, I don’t ever want to have to fertilize anything. That has been one of the big attractions for me of native gardening – you don’t want to plant anything that would need to much amendment to survive in your planting area.
- Provide Shade. Though it seemed to love the full sun spot it was in before, it’s new location enjoys the shade of a nearby tree and building.
- Monitor for Pests and Diseases. Right now the only pests seem to be the biting flies but I’ll keep an eye out.
- Patience is Crucial. Well that was never a strong point of mine.
Before pruning I had given her two gallons of water, then waiting until I was done weeding and watering the rest of the garden to add two more. I am starting to worry about drowning the poor thing but I do feel a bit damn if you do, damned if you don’t.
Hopefully the next tale in this saga will be full of good news.
Birchwood Butterfly Corner 