Atlas Cedar

Atlas Cedar Care

Cedrus Atlantica

What is the plant

Cedrus atlantica are distributed in Morocco (Rif, Middle Atlas, and northeastern High Atlas) and Algeria (Aurès, Belezma, Hodna, Djbel Babor, Djurdjura, Blida and Ouarsenis) at elevations of 1300 to 2600 meters above sea level. It is hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 5 to 9. Atlas cedar is a large coniferous evergreen tree which reaching up to 30 m tall with to 1.5 m in diameter trunk and pyramidal crown when young.The branchlets are pale yellow-brown, pubescent in 1st year, thereafter dark gray. The leaves on short branchlets in apparent fascicles of 19-28, dark green, linear, quadrangular in cross section, 15-35 cm x 1 mm,. Seed cones tinged purple before fertilization, pale brown at maturity, 7 x 4 cm.

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Lighting

Full Sun

Hardiness zone

min 6a

Difficulty

Easy

How to Care for the Plant

Water
Water your tree immediately after planting. During the tree's first year, water it as often as necessary to keep the soil around it moist but not wet. After the first year, this drought-resistant plant should do fine without watering.
Pruning
Removal of the lower branches of Atlas Cedar is a serious mistake, and, if healthy, they should be retained to the base. Pruning or disbudding can be intelligently performed to add much to the natural symmetry. The extraction or removal, early in spring, of the central or terminal bud, will tend to compel the branches which start from the side buds to spread apart and form a much denser growth. Cutting back the previous year's terminal growth to a strong bud or branchlet on the main limbs over the tree, if the plant is inclined to be thin in its branching, always produces a much denser lateral growth.
Fertilizer
Mulching with ordinary well-rotted barnyard manure in late autumn affords much stimulus to growth. By the following spring the manure will be in a desiccated condition and can be incorporated with the soil. A heavy mulch of old straw, rotten hay, or any similar material over the roots, and this was maintained throughout the entire growing season is benefit to the plants in a more or less juvenile condition. In many cases manure is not obtainable. In such event, newly moved plants should be heavily mulched with rotten straw, rotten hay, or any similar rubbish for a few years until they become established. The frequent stirring of the ground over the roots subsequently will conserve sufficient moisture. An area extending from the stem to one to two feet beyond the branches, stirred up with hoe and rake perhaps five or six times throughout the growing season, is very beneficial in conserving the moisture around the roots.

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Sunlight
Plant these cedars in the sun or in partial shade.
Soil
Cedrus atlantica prefer a well-drained porous gravelly subsoil, overlaid with a light sandy loam. They seem to be particularly happy in a soil underlaid with a porous glacial drift. In cultivation, however, they succeed very well in ordinary well-drained soil. When the plants are set in clay soil, which is often done, the soil should be thoroughly loosened by trenching or subsoil plowing, and well underdrained. Any available humus, woodashes, and well-rotted manure incorporated in the soil greatly aid in rendering it friable and porous for the roots.
Popularity
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