To get the most out of your Bigfoot Hybrid Willows, one has to understand that these fast growing trees like to be pushed and can be pushed harder than any of the common trees that exist today.
Mulching is one of the best ideas you need to remember. Mulching helps keep the soil moist and usually eliminates the need to water beyond the first year, but also allowing your Bigfoot Willow Hybrid to keep growing and growing. Mulch also neutralizes sod that tries to grow close to the trunk.
Sod does two major negative things: it robs your Bigfoot Hybrid Willow of moisture and when fertilizing, it is greedy and uses a lot of that also.
Since the Bigfoot Willow Hybrid is a heavy feeder, you may have to alter how little or how often you fertilize. A general guideline is to fertilize in spring and summer. Depending on your soil's fertility and length of growing season, even up to three or 4 times a year in a fairly infertile soil. Just make sure you aren't fertilizing in late-summer to fall, when the Bigfoot Willow Hybrid is slowing down its growth and hardening off for winter.
These fast growing trees will grow the fastest in their first 3 years, average of 10' a year is possible in these years. As the years go by, the Bigfoot Willow Hybrid will grow less and less until it hits the mature height.
In its early years of fast growth, it will be fairly narrow, but this hybrid willow starts to fill out as it gets older. Do not prune off the tops of Bigfoot Willow Hybrids when they are young, hoping to have them fill out sooner. This does create a bushier tree in the short-term, but will have caused future problems to develop with a poorly-formed adult tree.
Each spring, you can look over your Bigfoot Hybrid Willows and make sure to cut out any multiple trunks and weakly-attached branches. These may compromise your Bigfoot Willow Hybrid's structure and durability in the long run.
