Can You Still Plant Trees In The Fall?

Key takeaways

• Root growth keeps going well past leaf drop, continuing until soil temperatures fall below 40°F, giving a fall-planted tree several more weeks of root growth even after the canopy has shut down for the year.
• A new tree needs at least six weeks of mild weather before freezing temperatures arrive to grow enough root to hold it through winter.
• Dig two to three times the width of the root ball and no deeper than the ball itself, with the root flare visible at the soil line when you finish.
• Not every species wants an autumn move. Oak, birch, beech, magnolia, tulip tree, and most evergreens do better waiting for spring.

Nursery lots in late September have a picked-over, end-of-the-party look, and the trees still standing around in black plastic pots are often the best value on the property. Soil that spent all summer warming up stays warm for weeks after the air turns cool, and those are the conditions a young tree needs to put its energy into roots rather than leaves.

"Planting in the fall is much less stressful than springtime planting," Gary Wade, a Cooperative Extension horticulturist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said in a university report. "Roots don't go dormant. They keep growing all winter."

Can you plant trees in the fall?

Across most of North America, autumn planting beats the spring rush. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation names the two best windows as "late winter/early spring prior to buds opening, or late fall after the tree goes dormant but before the ground freezes," and warns that the height of summer is the worst time to try, since heat and thirst are the biggest threats to a young tree's survival. The University of Maryland Extension lists fall, winter, and early spring as the good stretches, with the caveat that the soil should not be frozen.

"Tree root growth continues late in fall, until soil temperatures drop below 40°F," Sarah Browning, a Nebraska Extension educator, wrote in a guide to fall planting mistakes, putting the midwest window at early September through late October. Cooler air and steadier rain, she noted, let trees build root systems quickly and get a jump on spring. "When spring does come," Wade said, "the plant will be able to pop with growth."

"Fall is a good time to plant trees in your yard because we have cooler temps, weather conditions that reduce heat and water stress on trees, and this is the time of year when trees are focused on root development," Jenna Nees of Purdue Extension wrote. That root development, she added, buys the tree protection from the following summer's heat and drought.