I planted this bareroot Salish Summer Peach tree in early April. The landscaping company who planted this tree used some topsoil to make a mound. I noticed the buds which were swelling started to dry out and figured the mound was hard as concrete and not absorbing rain water. I chipped away the mound, put a tree ring with some potting soil and watered the tree. It leafed out within 2 weeks, but hasn’t shown much vigor compared to other barrooms I planted personally a month and half later.
The tree is facing west and gets good afternoon to evening sun. I guess there isn’t much I can do now. Any idea if this tree will make through the winter? or do I need to dig this up when it goes dormant and replant?
Thanks @Richard, I have applied 1 TBS Stark Tree Prep (22-24-12) mixed in 2 gallon of water 3 times. Do you think the strawberries are taking up all the nutrients? can I inject the fertilizer to the tree root ball directly? the tree is in my front yard so I can’t take out the lawn. Appreciate if you have any other suggestions?
Edit: it also seems like having bacterial spots, I have sprayed Zerotol 2.0 couple of times and I don’t see it spreading to new leaves.
Agree that I don’t think it looks very concerning. The buds initially breaking and then drying up points to a limited root system. But since it looks nicely leafed out now, I’d call it a success! Moving it to a new spot will just set back the root growth further, I’d leave it be. Possibly the top soil your landscapers used isn’t very high in nutrients. So you could add some compost and/or a bit of organic (or synthetic slow release) fertilizer, but don’t overdo it with the fertilizer especially while the roots are still establishing. The strawberries will steal some nutrients and water, but you can compensate by adding a bit of compost/fertilizer once or twice a year. I have many small ornamental plants growing at the base of fruit trees- they grow just fine. Just don’t let the strawberries grow up against the trunk of your peach too much, you want airflow around the base of the tree to prevent disease.
I’m not sure what your weather’s been like.
So planting trees in a mound is good in wet areas to keep the roots dry and happy.
In a dry spring, mounds compound an already bad problem and in Pa (on the opposite coast as you) we’ve been running pretty dry and my new peach trees look like yours, probably a little worse.
@thebentonpeach I am in Portland Metro and when I planted this tree there wasn’t any scarcity for rain. You can see in the videos the mound was solid like a concrete. I had to take a cultivator and chip-away the mound. It’s the same soil/concrete which is covering the roots down below for a foot or two.
Usually bare root peaches push 2-4’ the first year for me. The fact that this one has not tells me that perhaps the root system is weak or too much was cut off when dug at the nursery.
That said, the leaves look healthy so I think it will end up fine, but maybe need an extra year to get going.
I removed the strawberries and noticed that the tree is sending out a ton of hair size roots from the concrete mound into the soil int he tree ring. No wonder the Strawberries were gigantic. Thanks for the suggestion.
