hi

you need to water.. when it NEEDS WATER ..

take a hand trowel.. and dig down.. 3 to 6 inches.. until you can learn how to gauge moisture in soil with your finger..

you really should let it NEAR dry .. in between DEEP waterings ...

the entire thing you planted.. needs to be kept MOIST.. but NOT wet ...

whether 1.5 gallons is good or bad.. or gets deep.. no one but you and your trowel can figure that out ...

i have had trees... moved in the wrong season ... drop every single leaf.. but if properly watered... releaf.. and go on with life ...

i suspect your nursery guy knows all this.. and has given you a warranty ... as he sounds fully interested in your success ...

if there is a next time... i would suggest you limit yourself to no bigger than a 5 footer.. smaller trees get re-established.. and outgrow larger transplants.. within the first few years ..

and in fact.. if he offers to replace it.. offer to take a smaller one ... he gets a gold star for the warranty .. and you get an easier tree to succeed with ....

i simply can not guess.. if you will succeed or not.. i wish you luck..

ken

ps: with trees that lose leaves.. the PROPER PLANTING TIME.. is when its leafless ... so if by fall.. he will give you a warranty.. take delivery at leaf fall .. or early next spring ...

Can't keep the leaves because of the root loss. Might have tried shading the foliage after planting, but too late now. As indicated main thing is watering. Although looking bad now sprouting of replacement leaves later is what you will be expecting - there may be some time before this starts to happen.

Your main problem is that it was sold to you as a combination of circling? roots inside a pot and escaped roots growing in the ground. It is possible that the combination of both being cut has killed the tree, different kinds of trees vary widely in their tolerance of adverse impacts to the roots.

1.5 gallons of water is no where near sufficient for this size tree, even on a daily basis. The rule of thumb is 5-6 gallons per watering for every inch of trunk caliper. While there are many variables in determining how much to water and how often, you want to focus on infrequent but deep and very thorough watering. Generally, this is accomplished through a low emission process (soaker, drip, even a hose left at a trickle) over an extended period of time. You want the water to penetrate to the full depth of the rootball or better yet, 12-18 inches into the soil.

If the root damage did not cause permanent injury as bboy alluded to, watering carefully and adequately is the best thing you can do for your tree.

Thank you for your followups. I usually try to buy any new trees before leaf out but this year I had a 10 year old Cimmaron Ash that I hoped would pull through from borer damage and gave it until June to push a leaf. It didn't so I cut it down and did a web search for a tree that is hardy, has few pests and has multiple season appeal. I saw the Parrotias at the nursery and decided this could be "the one". The tree was very full and healthy looking so I purchased it. When the nursery loaded the tree on my trailer I noticed the three 1 inch main roots cut flush with the container but i still felt confident as did the nursery owner that it could establish itself. I planted the tree after cutting the container from the root ball and only noticed 2 circling roots about 1/2 inch in diameter. I cut them with pruning shears as per instruction, teased out the smaller root fibers on the ball, and planted the tree in composted soil amended with the Tree Tone. After reading some internet posts, I expected some leaf loss and it has, but the remaining leaves seem pretty healthy. I'm not too concerned about the leaf loss as long as the tree can pull through. This spot has very good drainage and I do check the soil for dampness. I water as I think is needed but I also have the fear of over watering. The tree has a one year guarantee so hopefully it'll perk up by then. I place no blame on the nursery for this and the owner seemed confident it would establish itself. I was just concerned about the remaining leaves being able to sustain the tree until the roots catch up. I'll up the water dosage per gardengals instruction and hope for the best. Thanks again for the followups and "get well soon" wishes for the parrotia.

This post was edited by starving_gardener on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 0:07

There may, in fact be few, if any active roots in the part that was still inside the container, because roots migrate outward from the center as they grow, with the new feeder roots being on the outermost portion. When roots "escape" pots for a long enough period of time the feeder roots end up being pretty much all in the ground and no longer in the pot - blithely cutting off the escaped roots and passing the tree on to you with assurances was not based on how trees and roots actually function; you may have, in effect, been sold a big cutting that will not be able to rebound without being treated as such.

Parrotia persica is a tough tree. With adequate watering, as noted above, it should rebound.
I have two.
Mike

* Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 12:02

...if there is a next time... i would suggest you limit yourself to no bigger than a 5 footer.. smaller trees get re-established.. and outgrow larger transplants.. within the first few years ..

..and in fact.. if he offers to replace it.. offer to take a smaller one ... he gets a gold star for the warranty ..

..and you, a gold star for pointing this out! You mention it almost in passing but it's some good information well worth passing on.

On several occasions I've purchased, at the same time, several large and smaller trees of the same type. At first I thought it a fluke but, so far, in every instance, in a relatively short time, either the smaller caught up to and (in both health and size) surpassed the larger tree or the smaller simply survived while the larger did not.

Its counterintuitive. We think we'll get a head start and save a few years buying the larger plant but, so far, for me it never pans out. To be clear, I'm talking about 6" versus a 3-4 footer not a seedling and a tree in the 10-30' foot neighborhood!
...though, with a few additional years, maybe...?

The reason is the smaller plant has a larger proportion of roots left.