I dug the 6 holes I need to plants my 6 trees. 3 of them have pretty heavy soil and 3 have better soil that will likely have better drainage.
I have 2 apples on m106, 2 cherries on G5, a asian pear on OHxF333 stock , and a hardy Chicago fig that I have no idea what kind of rootstock it’s on.
I know m106 needs pretty decent soil but how would it compare to G5 and OHxF333? What 3 trees shield get the best soil?
Put the cherries and pear in the good soil.
Put them all on a raised bed if possible. If some areas have poorly drained soil at that shallow depth they may all have a poorly drained subsoil. Planting on a raised bed will help everything but the 106 is the worst about rotting.
Pears can take heavier soils than apples on 106, but what you want to do is plant on mounds if soil is excessively heavy and wet.
Pears and plums generally function best of all species in wet conditions.
Ditto on the suggestion to elevate.
Here’s a good vid on the subject:
I plan on planting them on mounds. I dug all the holes and turned over all the soil. Right now the disturbed soil level is about even with my lawn. I plan to set the tree on the soil and then mound additional soil up on the tree until I reach the original soil line. I was going to take soil from each hole to create the mounds. I’ve read so much saying not to amend soil so I thought I’d just plant them higher. I could buy some top soil to mound the trees but I thought I should use my regular soil.
If I were to build raised boxes what type of dirt should I add to raise the level?
Use your native soil in the beds too. Watch the vid.
Thanks, I must have been typing my reply when you posted the video. I really like the Tom Spellman videos. That is a guy that’s not afraid to cut a limb. I did notice that he just threw that bag of mulch in the raised bed and from everything I’ve learned you should not put mulch against the trunk of the tree.
Take a look at the size of mound needed for a tree. If I remember correctly it had to be pretty large and will wash away if not properly protected. That’s one of the reasons I went with raised beds. Helps keep the dirt in.
For what it’s worth, the Hardy Chicago is probably on its own roots. Figs are very easy to grow fro cuttings, and there isn’t much reason to graft them, except for the joy of doing so. All of my fig trees are ones I started from cuttings.
I think figs are fairly flexible regarding their soil. Their roots are pretty agressive.