How to Plant a Potted Tree

To get a healthy tree started on your property, follow these basic tree planting tips and steps.

By Carla Emery
Updated on September 7, 2022
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by Adobestock/Roman Milert

Try these tree planting tips for how to plant a potted tree. Consider light, spacing, and soil consistency to ensure long-term growth.

In general, the best time to plant a tree is in the early spring or the late fall, but research your specific plant in case of exceptions. Where to plant is the spot where the tree will have the amount of sunshine it needs — full or partial, as specified; full if not specified. And, if it isn’t hardy, plant it where it will have shelter from the wind. Plant big deciduous (shade) trees on the south side of the house where they will shade in summer and let warming light enter your windows in the winter. Conifers do well as winter windbreaks on the north or windy side of the house. (Wisely placed trees can improve your home’s heating/cooling situation a lot!) When considering how to plant a potted tree, aollow these tree planting tips for best results.

Tree Planting Tips: Start with Good Soil

Dig planting holes wide and shallow, no deeper than the rootball’s size, and make them wider than needed to accommodate the tree’s spreading roots. The larger the area that you dig up around the hole in preparation for planting the tree, the easier it will be for its roots to spread and find food and water. Remove any grass for three feet in diameter.

Testing for Clay or Compacted Soil. Dig a hole about 10 inches deep (a shovelful), and fill it with water. Check it again in 10 hours (overnight). Is it empty? If it has drained less than an inch an hour, you have a serious drainage problem.

Soil. Any kind of tree that needs “well-drained soil” is at risk to drown within two years if it’s planted in compacted and clay-type soils — those that are poorly drained. Instead, plant tree varieties that are adapted to poor drainage — hardy plants that don’t specifically need “well-drained soil.” Or else rebuild the soil in a very large rooting area for your tree by working lots of organic material into the top 12 inches of dirt; or bring in better soil from somewhere else and create a large planting mound out of it.

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