a pic would help ...

are they loose in the hole... can you pull them back.. and then stake them ...

or would you be bending them like a bow???

you might want to dig them up in fall.. and bare root them .. or do it in situ ...

whats the soil type ...

ken

It has happened to me, and I did indeed stake them rather loosely for a couple yrs.

Here’s a picture of the worse of the two.

They’ve grown a ton this year, so I see them as being like a large flag that doesn’t have the pole very far into the ground.

I planted them myself and certainly don’t recall them being root bound. I loosened the outer roots for good measure too.

The soil is relatively loamy. The soils here are excellent and deep. It’s the corn belt.

i can push it back upright with minimal effort. The trunks seem unaffected. The issue is underground.

Thanks for the feedback!

I should also point it its been VERY wet here this spring. I’m guessing saturated soils may have made them more prone to uproot?

Heck yeah, stake them back up for a year or two. You might have to tightly stake them for a while, but make sure you loosen them up after a few months to a year

I would drive a pipe or two into the ground at least 18" at an angle and use a comealong to pull it upright. Or a friend to hold it up while I tied it off. The more you move the tree the more root damage may occur. Is it leaning to the east?

And I would fork in some manure in the grass around those trees. Encourage the roots to spread out.

I plant a lot of bare root lindens and I can tell you it is quite a common occurrence for me to have to stake them straight due to leaning from strong wind in over-saturated ground. The roots just aren't strong enough to fully support the vigorous top after having been transplanted. The key is to stake them straight before the ground fully dries out so you don't end up putting a bow in the trunk in your attempt to straighten. As others have said, you will probably have to leave them staked for a couple of years. Some of my problem trees have to get to be about 2.5" to 3" in trunk diameter before they will quit being prone to lean after heavy, soaking rains.

i would dig on the side away from the lean.. and a bit under if need be ... and GENTLY pull it upright ...

and then i would go to town with some stout tbar fence posts.. about 2 feet out.. in undisturbed soil .... and tie that sucker off on 3 sides ... the ones in the second and third pix : https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tbar+fence+posts.&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

i used to use COTTON clothes line .. so i could untie and retie it every so often .... the plastic centered stuff wasnt any good ...

it will make a mowing difficulty ..

too big for the bare rooting i spoke of above ....

ken

Here’s the end result. I’ll leave these guys staked for a bit and hopefully things will be as good as new.