- 1). Choose your planting location carefully. Poplars like plenty of sun, but their roots can be very invasive so do not plant any closer than 20 feet to any buildings or sidewalks or underground utilities.
- 2). Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball of your tree and approximately 1 foot deeper. Fill the bottom 1 foot of the hole with a 50/50 mix of garden soil and organic manure and then place the tree into the hole, burying it the same depth that it was previously, filling in the hole with your 50/50 mix of soil and organic manure. Water well, soaking the soil to a depth of at least 4 inches for the first watering.
- 3). Plant hybrid poplars approximately 20 feet apart if planting for a simple privacy fence. Since a mature poplar has a canopy of approximately 30 feet, a spacing of 20 feet will provide an overlap of approximately 10 feet once the trees are mature.
- 4). Measure the distance between your trees at 15 feet if planting for a windbreak. Since a mature hybrid poplar has a canopy approximately 30 feet wide, a 15-foot spacing will create a very tight 15-foot overlap.
- 5). Water your poplar trees well, especially for the first year. Apply at least 1 inch of water per week to your trees, double that if the weather is extremely hot or if there are drying winds. Do not allow the ground to become dry and hard around your trees.