How Fast Do Pine Trees Grow? 5 Expert Tips
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If you’re looking for a fast-growing tree to plant in your yard, there’s a reason that so many people pick pine trees. Their evergreen needles look great year-round, they don’t require much maintenance, and they live a long time and grow extremely fast.
But exactly how fast do pine trees grow, and how can you speed up the process in your yard? While pine trees can grow up to 2 feet in a single year, that’s not a guarantee, so here, we’ll help you understand what goes into pine tree growth.
How Fast Do Pine Trees Grow?
While the exact growth rate of a pine tree comes down to the variety of pine trees that you’re growing and the overall growing conditions, you can typically expect a pine tree to grow between 1 and 2 feet each year.
Since fully-grown pine trees can be anywhere between 50 and 150 feet in height, that means they can grow for up to 75 years after you plant them! Since some pine trees can live for about 1,000 years, they’re considered quite young when they finally reach their massive 150-foot size.
The 5 Tips for Getting Pine Trees to Grow Faster
If you just put a pine tree in your yard or are thinking of planting one, there are a few things that you can do to get the most out of each growing season. Here are five different tips that you can follow to try to push your pine tree up by at least 2 feet every year.
1. Put Mulch Around the Tree
This is one of the easiest and most effective things that you can do to help your pine tree grow each year. Mulching around the tree does two things that help stir growth. First, it helps trap moisture, which enables the tree to use as much of the water that comes down as possible.
Second, it helps keep weeds away. Weeds can significantly hamper the growth of your pine tree, so anything that you can do to keep them away will help your pine tree thrive and grow as much as possible each year.
2. Use a Slow-Release Fertilizer
Your pine tree needs nutrients to grow, but too many at once will actually stunt its growth. But while a quick-release fertilizer is bad for pine trees, a slow-release fertilizer ensures that they will have the right amount of nutrients throughout the entire growing season.
3. Use Well-Draining Soil
Pine trees don’t need much water, so you want to use a soil that will drain out fairly quickly. Mulching and using a well-draining soil will help keep the water around the roots when it rains, but the soil will drain fast enough so root rot and other diseases don’t have a chance to set in.
4. Give Them Plenty of Sun
Pine trees need full sun to thrive, so if you’re still picking out a place to plant yours, keep this in mind. While some pine trees do fine with partial shade, most varieties only thrive with full sun.
It’s not that a pine tree can’t survive and grow in partial sun, but it won’t grow as quickly compared to a location where it can soak up the rays.
5. Limit the Pruning
While some trees respond well to pruning, pine trees aren’t one of them. While you can do very light pruning to help shape the tree, if you go at it with a heavy hand, you’re going to stunt the rest of the growth.
- You might also like: Is My Pine Tree Dying? (7 Signs to Look For)
Final Thoughts
Now that you know more about growing pine trees and how fast you can expect them to grow in your yard, it’s up to you to do what it takes to get your pine tree growing as fast as you can.
Just keep in mind that while pine trees can grow quickly, you do have to let them do their own thing. Too much maintenance might stunt their growth instead of speeding it up.
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Featured Image Credit: Reshetnikov_art, Shutterstock
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