How often and how much should I water my newly planted ( June) 10 foot Blue Spruce? I am loosing needles on the first few branches of the tree, but the rest of the tree is fine.

Thank you for any advice. The tree has a 500lb root ball and was planted with an auger. And I live in Southern Ontario and my soil has clay.

For a newly planted evergreen of that size and at this time of year possibly daily or every other day depending how much water you can give each time and how much it rains. The water also needs to penetrate far enough to get down to the roots, so it's best to check soil moisture by digging down with a trowel a little away from the rootball. If you can, run a hose out to the tree and leave it running slowly for a while. It's difficult to give an exact amount and frequency without being there, you need to monitor the soil moisture and irrigate accordingly. The weather has been very hot and dry here in Eastern Ontario, if it's the same there it's a tough year for transplanted trees.

Edited to add, here's a rough guideline recommended below, one gallon per inch of trunk caliper per day.

http://grounds-mag.com/mag/gro...