Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Viburnum\'s Dying - Advice on how much to water?, 0 by magnusver4

magnusver4 wrote:
[quote=\"magnusver4\"][quote=\"ViburnumValley\"]10 second watering is nonsense. You should have been given some idea of volume of water to provide, and frequency based on soil texture/condition and weather conditions. Anything else approximates malpractice.

Do you recall whether these plants were in containers or balled/burlapped when planted?

First: show us some images of the conditions which you have provided decent descriptions of.

Second: if you are willing to work with recommendations, and you have one or several plants that are in extreme stress situations, then here is what I would do.

If planted from containers, then I bet you have some really root-bound plants that are not absorbing water from surrounding soils, and the container media drains quickly and doesn\'t support the excessive root system therein.

IF SO: I would pull/dig up one or two of the worst looking plants out of the ground, and begin Code Black resuscitation before the plants are completely dead. Prepare by assembling all the things mentioned below before pulling the plants out of your landscape. Have a camera (or an assistant with it) at the ready to excessively document every step of the process, so you can post here (and provide to your landscape company).

**Once out of the ground, find a shady place to work in, to reduce further sun stress on the plant.

**Find a big bucket, pail, or some other container that you can plunge the whole plant into, so that complete imbibition (uptake of water) can occur.

**Then, you can begin the process of untangling and loosening and spreading out of the circling rootbound mass - which is an indication of very poor quality and plants that should never have been sold/installed for a customer.

**After loosening the roots, which will result in shaking off or removal of most of the container media, prune off any broken roots from this process. Then be prepared to replant your shrub in a new hole wide enough to accept the root system you\'ve loosened up. Make sure the soil from the hole is granulated enough to settle in around the root system - you\'ve indicated that it is pretty decent soil.

**Replant, and thoroughly water in/water-settle the soil around your shrub. Make sure the crown (where stems arise from root system) is at or just above the existing soil level - DO NOT BURY THE CROWN, nor pile up soil on/around the stems.

**After watering in, I would provide two to three inches of granular mulch (not chunks) over the planting area, and again DO NOT PILE MULCH ON CROWN. Keep the mulch an inch or two away from the stems.

**You could also rig up some way to shade these plants while re-establishing them. A couple stakes and a big towel or an old bed sheet can do the job. So can a \"broken down\" cardboard box. It doesn\'t have to be pretty - just effective.

I would love to see what you exhume when beginning this investigation, and the process you employ in saving your plants.[/quote]

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Hi! It has been a while since I have posted on the forum. I was looking at some of my older postings and see that MY response to your original response did not get posted. I must of messed up somehow. But based on your detail response I did not pull any plants up, since I was too nervous. :-|

But like you said the 10 sec watering non-sense was not good advice. Since the time of year I was having the problem was extremely hot. So in some areas that got the most sun/heat I turned up the watering significantly. I also noticed that soil around a lot of the plants was not really filled in very well and just lightly filled in an covered in mulch. It was very deceiving because when I went to do a finger test, in some cases it seemed like nothing was there. So I worked on the soil in those cases making sure that plant had some media to hold water better.

I also called the landscaping company back and worked with them some more on what plants can handle water better and what plants are more tricky. Example was the Clethra in foundation planting between house driveway and sidewalk. Tons of heat/sun! So I just drenched them everyday, since seems you cant over water those.

So all in all (50 or more trees and shrubs, all native), I really had one Viburmum Trilobum (Alfredo compact) that had some trouble snapping back. It looks good now, I had to prune it some this spring, but it is on its way looking good. :-)

I planted two, I guess what I would call \'true\' Viburnum Trilobum\' (not compact) shrubs myself in a different area last fall that seem to be struggling now, but I will save that for another post.

Thanks for the help!