[the Kergan]

I bought a cherry tree from the garden centre at the weekend. It is about 5ft and in a 10ltr pot. I have planted it in the centre of a large new flowerbed and it will get the sun for a lot of the day.

I dug a nice deep hole for it and sprinkled some blood fish and bone in the bottom. I then cut the bottom off the pot and planted it still in its pot to encourage the roots downward.

This tree has been planted for 3 days now and it has been watered well each evening due to the hot weather but I noticed today that about a quater of the leaves have turned yellow.
Any ideas why this may be happening please.

Thanks for any help.

[Trillium]

The watering itself is likely the problem. The plant is already under considerable stress in the hot sun and I suspect at the the garden centre it was partly shaded by other trees.

As for watering, surface watering rarely is long enough and goes deep enough for potted tree roots to benefit. Since your tree is so newly planted, I suggest you carefully dig it up and have a good look at the bottom to see if it's damp or dry. I suspect it'll be somewhat dry. Tree watering is best done by soaking the whole pot in a bucket of water first. The planting hole also needs a full bucket of water to soak in so the roots have something to chase. It's helpful to add some rotted manure in the hole first. BFB meal are fine but take about 3-6 months to break down so the roots can use the nutrition so right now, unless you amended it and didn't mention it, the tree is also hungry. Once the potted roots are soaked right to the top, remove the pot completely, uncurl any curling roots, and put it into the hole at the same depth the plant was in the pot.

If your soil was already moist from the recent UK heavy rains, then extra watering is merely adding to the problem. Again, dig up the tree, remove the pot (even if it's peat or coir), add some manure to the hole, a bit of extra soil and replant the tree, but this time in a raised mound so that water runs off the root area at the trunk. This will stop water pooling and eventually be better for feeder roots to reach. the mound needs to be only 6" or so higher than the original level.