Water, water, water. They will likely fill in around the bottom if they get sun.

I watered them thoroughly right after they were planted and we got a ton of rain the following day. Watered them again on subsequent days as well and now when I use a soil moisture meter, it's reading "wet" and you can tell that the soil is wet just by looking at it (no puddles or anything like that but the soul is real soft). Is it possible that I have overwatered?

Stick your finger into the root balls of one or two of them and see if the roots have gotten moist. Unless they were bare root plants, the roots will probably be a squished together from being in a container which may keep them from getting to the water.

planted a bunch of skip laurels a few days ago

==>> you have a lot of expectations within a few days ...

see link on proper watering.. you need to keep the root mass moist.. not just spray down the leaves ...

also see link on proper mulching ...

then relax ... if they dont look better in a month.. contact your seller/installer ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

@ken_adrian ...."you have a lot of expectations within a few days ..."

Yes! I'm very impatient!! It's more of me being concerned that something is "wrong" with them. I'm trying to avoid spraying the leaves....have only been watering down by the root. Once the sprinklers are adjusted they may unfortunately get the leaves

@lisanti07028 The roots were burlapped

They are very large plants to be transplanted and some wilting is inevitable only a few days after planting. Until they root into their new homes they are essentially like cut flowers and need a lot of water.

"The roots were burlapped"

And was the rootball thoroughly watered/hydrated prior to planting? Planting B&B stock with a dry rootball is pretty much a guaranteed recipe for failure. Because of soil interface issues and how water moves through the soil profile, you may never succeed in delivering adequate water to the roots until they outgrow the rootball - if they live long enough to do so.

you mention they need a lot of water but I've watered them plenty with a hose every day (installing soaker hose soon) and my soil moisture meter is saying the roots/soil are "wet" and not "moist" - should I cut back on the watering?

You can water until the cows come home but if that rootball was not fully hydrated before planting, it won't make a bit of difference. It will repel water while the surrounding soil will absorb it.

btw, I have never found any soil moisture meter the least bit accurate - I would prefer to test physically with my fingers or by examining the rootball visually. YMMV

Use your water meter WITHIN the rootball.

The water meter is 8 inches deep and I put it right into the rootball to get that reading.

Do we know where you are located and the general weather these days?

My other comment is that they seem to be planted quite close to each other.

They DO get big if happy and they are NOT that slow.

I'm located in Long Island and they're planted about 2 1/2 feet apart in order to make a full screen.

I've been watering with a hose, with water coming out at 1/4 of the full pressure and applying it directly above the rootball for a couple of minutes per tree. Like I said, the soil is definitely moist. My sprinkler guy said that they need more water and that I am not properly watering them since I haven't done a slow 30/45 min. drip per tree. I told him that I was worried about overwatering them and he said that I can't overwater new trees (despite what I've read elsewhere I guess).

I agree with your sprinkler guy. A couple of minutes is too short. Put the end of the hose at the base of the shrub and leave it for a good while then move the the next one. These are big plants with a huge area of leaf to support. they have just been transplanted and at the moment they have no, or poorly, functioning roots. As I suggested above, pretend they're cut flowers for a week or two.

Also, is it fine to "snake" the soaker hose through the row of trees or do they need to make a full circle around each tree?

Harpua, I am not that far from you ("as the crow flies"). We just had 2-3 inches of rain last weekend and precip overall this Spring is decent. Can they really be that dry? There may be some transplant shock that time will correct. I also use the same variety as a continuous hedge (but still think they were too closely planted). Shrubs take about three years before really becoming established. I would give them a few weeks to adjust before thinking about potential problems. Good luck!

These are shrubs, not trees, and snaking the soaker hose is fine. The deal with soakers is that they will ooze water very slowly and gradually - that's why you need to run them for an extended time - and that water will spread laterally under the soil surface. While you may think you are watering in only one area or on just one side, if you were to slice down into the soil profile you would see how the water spreads pretty uniformly throughout the area.

Thanks for the help. The shrubs are drooping more since my original post and since the dying leaves feel dry and hard it seems like it's from lack of water instead of too much water. I put the soaker hose in yesterday and basically left it on for 18 straight hours or so, as per the advice of my irrigation guy. He said they need a real deep watering to spring back into shape and then I can cut back to an hour a day.

According to my water meter, the soaker hose consumes about 1 gallon per minute and is laid out across 24 new shrubs. This seems like a lot of water as this averages out to over 40 gallons of water per shrub for the 18 hour period I had it on. However, they were on the verge of being in really bad shape and I was told that they needed such a deep watering and not too be worried about overwatering at this stage.

Do the experts on here agree with this?

Now it's wait and see (and pray) that they start looking healthy.

Following up on this I've received some feedback saying that they are overwatered and some feedback saying that they need more water. I'm hoping it's more a heat/sun issue than a watering issue. I left a soaker hose on overnight and there was no noticeable change. If they were underwatered, this should have made the leaves perk up, right?

! gallon per minute seems exceedingly high output for a soaker hose (and I can't quite figure out how one would use a water meter to measure a soaker's output anyway). Typically flow is measured in gallons per hour, with the optimum output in the range of 15-20 gallons per hour at 25 psi. Any harder or faster emission means you running at too high a pressure and risk damaging the hose. Specs may change some depending on the hose, its manufacturer and the length you are running but the above is pretty much the ballpark SOP.

FWIW, a pressure regulator is also pretty much a requirement for using a soaker hose as household water pressure is almost always much too high - around 60 psi. If you do not have a pressure regulator you can fudge by turning the faucet on just a scant quarter turn.......no more.

@gardengal48

My water meter displays consumption rate as gallons per minute so I can simply turn on a hose and see how many gallons per minute I am using. If I just use a garden hose with no nozzle the reading is 4 to 5 GPM. With my garden hose hooked up to a drip line, the reading is about 1.5gpm.

The flow rate of the drip line is listed as 0.9 gph, but I assume that's per emitter. Therefore on a 100 foot line with 100 emitters there would be 90 gallons total going through the hose per hour, or 1.5 gallons TOTAL per minute.

The math works and (I think) it all makes sense.

So I am now one month in and my shrubs fall in three categories:

1) ones that are still wilted and don't look like they will make it

2) replacements for a few that died already and are already thriving with new growth (these were much better looking shrubs than the originals when planted)

3) ones that have not wilted but don't show any new signs of growth

i posted some pics below of the various ones. Do you think the ones that aren't wilted but haven't grown will be able to show signs of new growth? Also, is there any hope for the ones that are still wilted?

With the newly planted replacements I watered them thoroughly when planted and then have applied water every 5 days or so via drip while making sure the soul remained moist in between. I still think the originals shrubs were overwatered.

Any advice/opinions are welcome. Thanks.

Anyone?

@subtropix

What's throwing me off is that the replacements that were planted showed no effects of transplant shock (aside from a handful of yellow leaves) and they became sprouting new growth immediately. Even though it's in the 90s now the past few weeks have been ideal.

Ps. If you still cant figure it out. Call my nursery. Nj. I can explain it to you. Im usually not there but just just say i replied to your post. Leave your name and number and ill be in touch within a few days.

thanks for the help. Yes, these are from Oregon but I'm not sure about the replacements. Those, as you can tell in the one picture, are much more dense and full. I'm not sure why there is such a big difference.

Do you think these have any chance of surviving? The tips of the buds are reddish brown and like I said there has been no new growth yet.

Im sure the replacements are probably from oregon also. Any new tip growth on skips are always a pale green until they harden off to a dark green. Big difference may be due to a different west coast grower. The root balls that are put on them are almost always undersized for various reasons i dont have time to explain. Which is fine if theyre planted in zone 7 Which we are not. So even still they should live here when planted in spring. Stop watering them and go to the watering schedule i explained. Water again in 10 days from now. Mist the foilage in the morning and maybe 2 hrs prior to sunset if you are insistant on giving them water until the ten day period. Once they seem stabilized you can put down plant tone. Espoma product. As per rates on package. When watering. The hose should be at the distance where the rootball meets the original soil. Slowly trickling so its not running off but going into the soil. It will be a very slow trickle of water. The reason for this is so when the rootball starts to dry. The soil around the plant is still damp and the roots will reach out for moisture. Thus expanding the root system. It is ok to let them dry out. That is why you will double your watering period with every watering. !!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember ocd on plants kills them everytime. They are not aquatics. Were not growing lily pads here. Its an evergreen that needs to get its root system enlargended. I hope to God your guy planting them took the polytwine off of the trunk of the plant. Believe me. Ive seen it all. 21 years now of being a nurseryman. Growing everthing and installing everything from impatiens to grasses to coneflowers to maples. Good luck. Dont dissapoint me. Dumd it down. Its a lot more simple than you think.

Thanks, Jack. I do see some politeness sticking out of the soil in spots. You can tell that it was partially untied but it was not all removed from the soil. Will that be a problem?

Also, as for watering, I will follow your guidelines when using my drip hose but I have lawn sprinklers that also hit the shrubs and there is nothing I can really do about that. Is that fine? My sprinklers run in the early morning. Someone mentioned that this can kill the shrubs.

Also, what are your thoughts on misting the leaves during a hot day?

thanks again!

@harpua728 how did this end up?

@Dave N

i had to replace all but 6 of the shrubs. Of the 6 original ones that I left, 3 are still struggling a bit.

any pictures ?

Hi harpua, I’m having the same struggles with my skip laurels.... just wanted to ask how you finally resolved the problem? Or did you end up planting something else? If so, what?

FYI I had fifteen along my fence, then replaced 10 of them, now about 6 are dying. The ones in the most direct light are looking the worst...

bstern87 I am having a problem with some of my freshly planted ones too... but mine are in mostly shade. The ones in the direct sun are all good! They are dying and at first I thought it was because I neglected watering them. It has been very hot and I did not water them but the ones in the sun are fine??? So weird!

Having similar problems with our 3 week old planted skips. Some leaves are wilting and drying up. We are using a soaker hose for 30 min a day. We live in Cold Spring Harbor NY. Any advice is welcome!

These are the most temperamental plants I’ve ever seen. After the second planting we still lost a bunch. I’m waiting until spring to try again bc the ones that lived are really nice

I bought 25 schip laurals and had 11 of them die. schip laurals are too tempermental and would not buy anymore because i have been watering every other day the ones that are alive. The laurals that died were in direct sunlight and the ones in the shade survived. If you give too little water or too much water the leaves wilt and the plant does not recover.

@jryu1 ive had a love hate relationship with these. Many died immediately and had ti be replaced. had a couple

of good years where they were nice and dense. Now they have thinned out and many of the interior branches are brown and dead.

Thanks for the update harpua728.

Sorry the plants didn't work out for you all that well.

@harpua728 If i had known skip laurals don’t do well in alot of sunlight, i would never had bought them. They are too high maintenance making sure they have the right amount of water to keep them alive. I planted hollys as a replaceement as they dont die easily and very low maintenance.

As an experienced nursery person, horticulturist and garden designer, I have trouble imagining a more low maintenance, trouble-free shrub than laurels!! Any kind of English or cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus. Skip laurel is a just a laurel cultivar with slightly increased cold tolerance but otherwise no different than any other cultivar wrt growing conditions. In areas where they are fully hardy, they will grow in both full sun and heavy shade, will tolerate extended dry periods when established but will thrive with periodic deep soakings during those dry periods. In fact, they grow so well here, they are on the monitor list as a invasive species as birds eat the seeds and spread them throughout green belts and native forested areas.

Very little bothers these shrubs - they can be subject to some deer browse and shothole disease but virtually never to the point that the plant fails or dies. They can even be grown successfully in heavy clay as long as they are planted correctly for the conditions. The only observation I can make about the previous posters' issues is that the plants' root system was compromised at time of planting, the rootball was not properly hydrated before planting or they were planted incorrectly. With properly draining soil conditions, it is pretty darn hard to overwater these!!

These are such easy care, low maintenance shrubs, they are used extensively in institutional or commercial plantings that receive virtually NO aftercare.

What she said! Keen gardeners don't often use them here because they are so common, being ubiquitous in carparks, traffic schemes and municipal shrubberies and other areas that get no maintenance other than an occasional run over with the strimmer. Killing them must involve some impressive murderous skills.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) @floraluk2 Well I guess I have some

impressive murderous skills! While the outer branches and leaves on my laurels look healthy, thisis what the interior branches look like on some. Does it make sense that the interior branches look like this when the outer branches appear to be healthy?

Many people are posting here about this common shub without ANY indication of where they are located. OMG, my only "problem" with this "shrub" in Zone 7a/b NJ is how ROBUST and fast growing they are. This is a WET climate all year, I never had any need to irrigate them, even in "dry" years (which still get over 40 inches of annual rain). Mine get TONS of heat and FULL, BLISTERING SUN, no problema. Maintaining pruning and being able to get out the driveway is my only issue with them. Not high maintenance at all in the right climates.

I’m on Long Island. Very jealous of your situation. i did have to trim mine back from my overhanging last year, but this year is a different story.

I am VERY close to LI as the crow flies (14 miles). I have no idea why you are having such an issue with .them on LI. And this year, we had red painted lanterns big time, nest year, they will be in your yard, trust me.

Theyre already in my yard! its horrible.

I doubt it is your location or the perceived "fussiness" of the shrub that is the issue. I believe it was the quality/condition of the plants at purchase and how they were planted and cared for subsequently. It is very difficult for a plant to respond well to planting with a compromised root system. Often, they don't even recover, let alone flourish.

Region (6b/7a) I have been growing - and dealing with challenges with Schip Laurels for a while now (10+ years). What I have observed - they do better when planted small and the root system can adequately support them. Larger Schip Laurels are forced to have a tiny root ball for its size and grown on a watering system at a farm until they are shipped. The buckets they grow in naturally drain ensuring they do not get over watered. When you attempt to plant a large laurel, with a small root ball, it is difficult getting just the right amount of water, without overwatering. It is even more difficult when planted in late Spring/Summer or late fall/winter. In areas of clay soil, where I am in, they do like to be in a slightly elevated bed, with the dirt level 3-6 inches higher than the surrounding lawn. Mulch does help certainly once established to stabilize moisture levels, you certainly don't want to cover the base of the laurel because they do need oxygen. My yard slopes, and I have a wide range of conditions for Laurels, from full-sun to heavy shade. Also in the high heat if they are planted near large trees, the trees pull all the moisture away from the Laurels. The roots of a Laurel are primarily near the surface, so anything with a deeper root system can deprive them of water. I have also learned, don't spray the foliage with risk of shothole disease (i thought it was bugs at first - now going to try Bonide Copper Fungicide). For watering, I now believe a slow watering system - like drip irrigation is key in keeping the large transplanted schip laurels happy until they can grow roots. When you think of it, this is what they are used to on the farms. Like mentioned above by others - water near where the root ball meets the dirt, not too far away, or too close. Make sure the root ball is kept moist, not wet, or dry. Going to try a sensor monitoring system for difficult areas - your fingers might be able to tell best if you have the time to check each one. Set up a drip system on a timer - based on your climate. Important part is not to let the root ball dry out too much while roots are getting established. Also plant in early Spring, or early Fall. Healthy Schip Laurels are a fantastic hedge, when they are happy and healthy - so it is worth the difficulties IMO. In difficult areas Nellie Stevens Hollies can be more drought tolerant once established because they have a deeper root system. More later once I figure my issues out further - good luck!