How to Water Tree Ferns 'Dicksonia antarctica' The Right Way! 

Hi Steve, I'm glad you found it useful. There are more videos regarding tree ferns in our RU-vid library if you are interested. Thanks for watching. Simon

Thank you for your comment, New York Garden. You are very welcome. Kind regards Simon

You are very welcome, I appreciate you letting know that it worked out for you. Kind regards Simon

Spooky timing! I will look out for it. I had a bit of trouble with it this spring, so don’t want to make the same mistake this winter. Just gone and brought straw and winter fleece and was wondering about leaving a gap to water. Many thanks

You are very welcome Stu. There are more videos about this in my RU-vid back catalogue if you are interested. Simon

Thank you for your comment. Your timing is perfect as, assuming it doesn't rain later, I am filming a '5 mistakes to avoid when overwintering tree ferns' video where I will be discussing watering tree ferns over winter. Hopefully, I will publish this Sunday. Simon

Hi Pedro, and thanks for your question. No, I would use single dose fertiliser and water less to avoid root damage from waterlogging. Simon

Thanks! Do you cover the ground in the pot or soil with some sort of tree bark so that water doesn’t evaporate so quickly ?

Hi Susan, this is a great question. I feed about 500ml half dose miracle grow most days. Plus a litre in the morning plus again in the evening. Then once a week the trunk get a full soaking plus a few litres in the crown followed by a litre of a double dose miracle grow. If you check out my old videos I discuss this in more detail. Kind regards Simon

Sorry, to answer the first part yes it is a lack of water and fertiliser.

Hi Rick and that's a great question. Yes the amount of water is important. If you are using miraclegro or phostrogen check what the recommended dosage rate is per gallon and then double that rate. It is possible to over fertilise and damage the rootsystem so kind of stick to a dosage you know. Without knowing the flow rate i would check how much water comes out your rose over a minute using a calibrated container. If you are getting a couple of litres i would say you have it right. Simon

@Walking Talking Gardeners Hi Simon thanks for the reply, currently bought the miracle grow liquid fertiliser, I will measure the flow tonight and see what I get, it's not micro I put a watering can rose on a hosepipe with a 1min timer as I was going away so had to use what I had. I have only had the fern a few weeks and so nervous about killing it , but it does have 3 frongs coming out so far so that is a good sign

Thanks for letting me know. It sounds like you have a great plan there. Simon

Hi Jimmy, in full sun I have the big ones in the video on micro irrigation for 60 minutes each day, then once a week I soak the trunk and feed etc as per the video. The full soaking treatment takes about 5-6 minutes per tree fern. The ones at home are a little smaller and they get 0.5 litre in the morning and again in the evening with a 0.5 litre regular dosage of miracle grow on top. These are not hard and fast rules but they fit nicely round my work schedule. Kind regards Simon

Hi Simon. I have not got an irrigation system, would you recommend giving the tree? Fern about 5 minutes of water each per day

Hi Smesh, yes these are fantastic specimens and these are in full sun all day every day. They just need to be watered regularly to cope. These ones I put on drip irrigation at the crown 60 minutes every day. The ones at home get watered daily by hand at the crown. I have made several videos on how to water, and care for tree ferns if you are interested. Kind regards Simon

@@walkingtalkinggardeners I bought a 7 foot one about 6-8 weeks ago. Been watering it everyday in the crown with God knows how many litres of water and also soaking it's trunk daily. In this current heatwave been doing this twice a day. Bought another one locally about 2 foot/ My 7 foot one came in with 3 fragile looking fronds and since has put out 12+ new ones!

Don't forget to apply fertiliser when watering that much. Keep watering the crown daily but you can probably reduce watering the trunk to weekly. In the wild the fronds should be a dark green so if yours are more a light or yellowing green then increase fertiliser application.