There was a large thread here a few days ago that talked about amending soil in the planting hole. it included pictures of what can happen if your disturbed soil is substantially different from the ground soil. the consensus was don’t do it. Dig your hole only as deep as the roots on the tree and 2-3 times wider. Backfill with native soil. If it’s heavy soil don’t tamp it down too much. Just water it in.
I don’t think adding that much fert to the hole is a good idea either but I’m no expert.
Yeah I don’t add anything with trees, With other plants yes. I dig holes elsewhere, steal the soil mound up my trees and fill the holes with top soil. This year I have a few currants coming so i will dig out a nice hole, use the dirt for my trees, and fill the hole with compost for my currant. You should not use anything, not even starter fertilizer. Fertilizer burns tree roots when first planted. Compost decomposes and the tree sinks. So do deep holes so wider than deeper. I barely cover roots, but water them a lot. Deep planted trees are not a good thing.
City,
I used to dig big holes, you know the old saying,“Dig a 10 dollar hole for a 5 dollar tree”. I think that makes sense if someone is digging in very hard soil the roots will have a hard time penetrating. I keep mulch on top of my soil, so even if I’m digging in soil which has settled, it stays moist enough with the mulch that the roots can push through fine.
If you mulch around the trees, or if the soil is loose because you’ve built a mound, I wouldn’t waste my time digging a big hole. As I mentioned, for peaches I pretty much trim the roots for the size hole we dig. For apples and plums, I try to keep more of the root. To make the hole easier to dig, we dig a “slotted” hole (it would look like an oval, instead of a circle). I then “part” the roots (like you’re parting hair) and half the roots go on one side of the slot, half on the other. That way no roots are wound around the hole. A slotted hole is faster to dig than a large diameter hole.
As Drew and Speed mentioned, I would not add anything to the hole. You want those roots to search out their nutrients and give the tree a well developed root base. Place all your amendments on top of the soil. They will still feed the tree, but will spread out in the soil where it will encourage better root spread vs. placing the amendments in the hole.
When I used to dig huge holes, I would mix some composted leaves into the dirt before refilling. I also did a layer of composted leaves on top of the soil and below the wood-chip layer. In most cases, I don’t think it hurt, But now, I don’t bother with such elaborate preparations. It’s too bad I didn’t do some side-by-sides at the time.
With yesterday’s holes, I didn’t dig all that deep. Just enough for most of the roots. To cover the top roots and make a slight mound, I took some soil from another part of the yard and mixed it with pine bark. The pine bark can buff up the volume a lot without adding much weight.
But for the Opal on K1, I felt too guilty to cut it back or to dig an insufficient hole. I was lucky where I put it, as it had been partially dug several years ago as a garden. I still didn’t dig a super-big hole, but it was enough to lay all the roots out flat, even though in a few cases I had to widen the hole a bit in a spot for a root. I remember Alan mentioned doing this in a GW post- digging a trench for a particularly long root.
THanks, all. I don’t know how I missed the thread on amending dirt in holes/planting trees that speed refers to, but I’ll go look for it. Otherwise, it sounds like I may not have to do all the work and elaborate amendments that I’ve been doing, which is good to hear. But I still like that phrase (first time I’ve seen it) “dig a 10 dollar hole for a 5 dollar tree”! ha. I’ve definitely been doing that-whether I had to or not.
I believe that this is the post:
Thanks bob…you are the King of finding old posts. This is like the 3rd time you’ve helped me in that way! Thanks.
Didn’t plant much last year so I figured that I’d make up for it this year a little. I never see a thread anywhere that says what did you plant or order for this fall so I’ll include mine in this post.
Fall 2014
Stark Bros.:
Tasty Red™ Urban™ Columnar Apple
Stark® HoneyGlo™ Miniature Nectarine
Spring 2015
Stark Bros.:
Elberta peach
Red Anjou pear
Raintree:
Nadia Cherry plum
Isons:
Spring Satin plumcot
Cummins:
Opal plum
Harglow Apricot
Southmeadow:
Oldmixon Free peach
Fall 2015
Honeyberry USA:
Romeo cherry
Juliet cherry
My order from Orange Pippin arrived yesterday and was planted this morning. Enterprise on G-41, Liberty on G-16, and Zestar! on G-11
I did notice the address on the box said Cummins Nursery. I’m still waiting on my delivery from ACN.
My order just came last Friday. unfortunately I was out last weekend. I have someone took the package and check the condition. On Sunday I got the package and open it up. It packed very well with some gel inside to keep the roots moisturized. Each plant is labeled. I rated them overall excellent
Packing: 5
roots: 5
size 4
overall: 4.5
The only drawback is they short shipped me one plant and the blackberry was not in dormant.
After Henry Fields sent me a Kolomitka male kiwi, I sent the following:
“Earlier today, I received a kiwi labeled “Actinidia Kolomikta”, which is actually an Arctic Kiwi, not a Hardy Kiwi (Actinidia Arguta). From everything I’ve been able to find online (I don’t have any Artics, just Hardy), the Kokomikta blooms earlier than Argutas (like Ken’s Red, the female you sell) and isn’t generally compatible. Can you please send me a compatible male hardy kiwi (Arguta)?”
They immediately responded by scheduling another shipment. It arrived today and of course it is another Kolomikta…Sigh.
Maybe I should just plant them and try to graft a kolomikta female onto one of them next year.
My first post here, but I just bought a house this winter and am starting out with some gooseberries and currants from Whitman Farms and strawberries from Nourse Farms. Most of these are based off of recommendations from here and the old gardenweb over the years, so thanks to all. Lucile was great to work with from Whitman Farms. The plants were all packaged well and all were extremely healthy and are all leafing out.
Gooseberries
Poorman
Black Velvet
Jeanne
Currants
D-8
Minaj Shmyrev
Belaruskaja
Crandall
Pink Champagne
Strawberries
Mara Des Bois
Earliglow
Welcome aboard Patrick! Good to have another Marylander here, we are giving the other states a run for their money. All those things look like good choices to me. I got D-8 several years ago but its taken the plants a long time to establish. I should finally get to taste the fruits this year.
Here are some pics of the opal plum and harglow apricot I received from cummings this spring. What a set of roots on the harglow!
opal plum
harglow apricot
Drew,
I saw these at the organic market and had no idea what they were.
Now I suspect they are ground-cherries, yes? What do these things taste like?
Yes, they could be? Ground cherries taste more like tomatoes, than cherries. I grew them for a few years, but kinda got sick of them. Made pies, used in salads, only so many salads one can eat. Some people hate the taste. The plants are so prolific you get hundreds of them off of one plant.
To me, ground cherries taste like a cross between a tomato and a pineapple. Reminds me of the tomato salsa that has pineapple in it, but not spicy. I like them fresh, but I don’t deny that they’re kinda weird. They’re also really good dried, a bit like a crunchy golden raisin. Not sure if the Colombian golden berries are exactly the same or just related. I took a year off from growing them last year but probably will plant one this year since I still have some seeds. They don’t grow tall, but spread out to quite a large radius for a garden plant. 4 to 5 ft.
waiting, and hoping, for either a rootstock sale or another $5 sale at Starks like last year…
Bob I think you’ll be waiting a while for Starks prices to come down again like that. That sale is usually end of season clearance. Last year it was practically June.
yah, ciderworks rootstock sale was late April as well…debating white-knuckling it vs paying more now and knowing I am safe
