Extreme Tree Planting

[Barndog56]

Watched some videos on the Ellen White tree planting method, and adapted it a bit. The trees I'm planting are 3yo seedling apples that will be grafted over to some of my existing varieties that perform well.

Started by digging a 3' x 3' hole, 30 inches deep. You can see from the pic I've got about 8 inches of topsoil, with sand below that.

These are most of the rocks from the hole.

In the bottom I put a bunch of organic matter, in this case some red spike amaranth, a cousin of pigweed. I use the main trunk, the branches, leaves, and flowers. This works as green manure.

After that I add several inches of horse manure.

Then I put in all of the rocks I had set aside from the hole, except for a couple of the largest ones. Supposedly there is a study showing that this rock layer helps with the electrical conductivity in the hole, which will encourage the tree roots to go deeper.

Then another layer of several inches of horse manure. On top of that I put the large rocks that came from the hole. Supposedly, the tree roots will grab these rocks, using them as an anchor to hold itself firmly in place. The empty coffee can is meant to provide air to keep things aerobic.

Then a few inches of well composted manure and whatever soil amendments I have. I added coffee grounds, pelleted lime, Redmond soil conditioner, and some chunks out of a protein tub used as a cattle supplement.

And finally the tree itself, with more compost to fill up the hole.

I sprayed water after every layer of manure or compost to make sure everything was saturated. There was probably 5 or 6 dozen earthworms in the manure and compost. To finish everything off I used a bucket with a couple of small holes at the bottom to add another 5 gallons of water. Into that I added a cup of my own liquid fertilizer.


We'll see how well this works. Just have top them off with some mulch and a cage. Took several hours to get 4 trees planted.

 

[Native Hunter]

Wow, that is putting forth a lot of effort. Let us know how these do compared to other trees not given that much attention. Good luck.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I admire the effort and attention to detail described above

Any concerns with horse manure being "too hot" and burning roots?

How fresh is manure? Straight from pasture, last night MSNBC,?

Thanks for sharing your techniques

bill

 

[Charles Clear]

I admire the effort and attention to detail described above

Any concerns with horse manure being "too hot" and burning roots?

How fresh is manure? Straight from pasture, last night MSNBC,?

Thanks for sharing your techniques

bill

I wondered the same thing. Horse manure is pretty hot unless its composted for a while. Then it becomes black gold.

 

[Troubles Trees]

God Bless you sir, that is going big.
I basically have that many rocks in about 4 shovels lol

 

[Tree Spud]

WOW! A lot of work per tree. Interesting on the rocks and root formation.

 

[cavey]

Well one thing is for sure it will either take off or die, not sure there will be any middle ground ...

Another concern is all that organic material makes a heck of a lunchroom for voles to camp out in versus the surrounding ground.

Let us know how it goes.... I can appreciate the size of the hole, I have a number of large apple trees Im going to bare root out this coming spring and some will be that big, some bigger and Im not looking forward to it.

 

[cavey]

and who in the heck is Ellen White? I had to google it ....

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

My neighbor used a large amount of fresh horse manure to fertilize his garden one year and it killed everything.

I'm impressed with your effort though and I'm interested to see how this turns out.

 

[H20fwler]

Very interesting.
It was a potted tree right?

At first I thought you were prepping for next spring, interested to see results. Wish I had a good horse manure source, I should check out at our fairgrounds they board horses there.

 

[b116757]

I’ve never tried it but they say a dead fish buried under your tree works well also

 

[TreeDaddy]

I’ve never tried it but they say a dead fish buried under your tree works well also

I dunno.....

too many of my baby trees “ sleep with the fish” already

bill

 

[yoderjac]

That method would kill a tree at my place. The difference between infiltration in my native clay soil and the back fill material used would create a pond and drown the tree with the spring rains. If it did survive that, it would die from lack of water in the heat of summer when the backfill where the roots are dries out and the moisture is retained feet away in the native clay.

Different soils and locations dictate different planting techniques.

 

[Barndog56]

No fresh manure was used. The newest stuff was at least 4 months old. It's already broken down enough that you can no longer see any uneaten hay or pine shavings(bedding) in it. This stuff had worms galore, with some shovels of it containing at least a dozen. I use that stuff in my garden and get sweet corn with 2 or 3 ears per stalk.

It was a lot of work, but after digging that big a hole I now understand why several of my previously planted trees are so sluggish. There were no signs of worms in the stuff removed from the hole.

The trees were moved from my nursery. I left as big a rootball as I could on them, with as much intact soil as possible.

 

[Tree Spud]

No fresh manure was used. The newest stuff was at least 4 months old. It's already broken down enough that you can no longer see any uneaten hay or pine shavings(bedding) in it. This stuff had worms galore, with some shovels of it containing at least a dozen. I use that stuff in my garden and get sweet corn with 2 or 3 ears per stalk.

It was a lot of work, but after digging that big a hole I now understand why several of my previously planted trees are so sluggish. There were no signs of worms in the stuff removed from the hole.

The trees were moved from my nursery. I left as big a rootball as I could on them, with as much intact soil as possible.

Without a manure source, i will have to use store bought compost. Should still be a really good add to my tree planting next year.

 

[SwampCat]

I’ve never tried it but they say a dead fish buried under your tree works well also

Not here - coons after the fish will dig your trees up

 

[Ruffdude]

At first I thought you were prepping for next spring, interested to see results.

Me too. I think this would be a great system for planting next Spring but I can never find the time or energy to do it myself. Good luck! If that tree survives you certainly gave it a good start.

 

[brushbuster]

Any follow up pics? I was instructed to prune the trees way back, give them plenty of water when planting, but make the tree root out in search of nutrients and water. It worked well for 200 apple and pear trees although we did lose 5-10 trees a year to critters barking them, getting under, thru or over screen mesh around the base

 

[Lucky_P]

Good luck with that.
Here, that method would result in a big, sodden, mucky mess - not at all unlike the stuff in the plastic bucket in that last photo- that would not drain, but would be held in place in my good clay soil and rot the roots of whatever tree you put in there. Ask me how I know...
In a REALLY sandy soil, maybe you can get away with it, but anywhere I've ever lived (AL, TN, MO, KY) this is a recipe for failure... we call it 'creating a bathtub' effect.
After my first foray planting grafted nut trees in a big deep/wide hole, filled with composted manure and such mixed with the native soil... I came to the realization that these trees have to grow in the native soil at some point, so they might as well get on with that task from the outset. No $100 holes, either - I dig a hole just barely big enough to accomodate the root system and put the native soil (minus any rocks) back in the hole, water in well, and mulch. I like a mulch to help moderate soil temperatures and moisture, and allow the soil microherd to deep-cycle the organic materials over time.

As to the rocks and the empty coffee can... what a bunch of hooey.
This Ellen White woman seems to have an obsession with the number '3'... 3'x3'x30", put in 3 rocks, yada yada yada.
I'm willing to bet that if you dug it up, that coffee can is no longer 'empty'; bet that soup just flowed into as you watered everything in.
I don't place all my grafts on the North side when I'm making them... actually, I pay no attention whatever to compass directions when grafting ... so if you always transplant with the graft facing north... perhaps you've reversed the plant's polarity? Is that good or bad? I think it matters not a whit; nor do I think that rocks in the planting hole have any effect on 'electrical conductivity'.
But... if you're into stuff like biodynamics.... filling a cow's horn with manure, burying it over winter, then digging it up to make a manure 'tea' to fertilize multiple acres... more power to you.

Saw in the comments on one article on this planting method that folks had dug 36 holes like this (thankfully they had a backhoe) to plant trees in, but they wouldn't drain or perc, so they had to trench and run a 4" drain tile, connecting all holes, to carry away water. Again, if you're planting in 'sugar sand' or similar, you may be able to make this work, but for most of us, that would be a whole lot of (unnecessary) work to create a really poor planting situation.

 

[Lucky_P]

@brushbuster... that old saw about pruning trees back hard at planting/transplanting is one that's been debunked but just dies slowly.
It was originally proposed 'to balance the top with the amount of roots 'lost' at digging/lifting. That 'sounds' good, but it just ain't so...
There have been thousands of trees that survived that unnecessary 'heading back'... but they weren't 'helped' by the practice.

If this is a container-grown tree... there's no 'loss' of roots.
Even if it's a bare-root specimen, lifted from a nursery bed, cutting off the top removes the apical buds which produce plant hormones that drive root growth for re-establishment. Cutting it back hard just stimulates aggressive new shoot growth, which would further tax the diminished root system in its attempts to obtain water and nutrients.