Extreme Tree Planting

I think a lot depends on soil type. I have heavy clay. If I did what the OP did, I would drown the tree in the spring when we get rain and starve it of water when summer comes. The reason for that is the difference in infiltration between clay and the amended medium. During spring, it would be a pond. Just as the clay would make that whole a pond in the spring, water would evaporate from the hole in the dry summer while the clay retains moisture well.

Most of the trees I've planted have, I've grown form seeds and nuts in a root pruning container system. My final transplant stage is a 3 gal RB2 contianer. They unwrap from around the dense fibrous root system. The medium is promix which has high infiltration. Here is what I worked out over time.

1) Select a location where ground water will not run into the hole (don't plant in a dip).
2) Use a tractor auger that is just slightly larger in diameter than the container.
3) Dig the hole about 3' deep.
4) Scarify the sides of the hole with a hand-rake.
5) Backfill first with quarry stone and then a mix of medium and native clay.
6) Backfill to a height where about 1" of medium will stick out of the hole
7) Cram the root system into the hole. It is a tight fit and I often have to stand on it with my feed on either side of the tree to seat it.
8) Mound native clay over that 1" of medium above the natural soil line. This help keep any groundwater out.

How it works in my area:

We get reliable spring rain, so a lack of water is not an issue. Any rain that infiltrates the medium continues to infiltrate through the quarry stone to the bottom of the hole, so the roots don't sit in water. Because the hole is so tight, and the rootball is completely undisturbed, the tree begins growing immediately. By the time our dryer summers roll around the lateral roots have grown into the clay which retains water well. Trees have smart root growth. You can't put the roots in water like ponding, but roots can grow to a water source. We see this with trees growing along streams and ponds and such. So, the water ponding under the tree is never an issue as the tree grows.

Bare root trees have a year of sleep, year of creep, and finally a year of leap. When planting them in clay, I don't use any amendments. I just backfill with native soil.

Amending soil may have much more benefit in sandy soil. In this case you don't have the large infiltration differential between clay and medium. It probably introduces some OM into the soil.

Thanks,

Jack
 
My guess is that horse manure will more or less disappear, and you will have to fill the hole with the dirt you took out. I had a pile of composted manure that literally absorbed into the ground over the course of a year, with not even the slightest hump to show it had been there.
 
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That was 2021. Wonder how that turned out? It wouldn't fly here.
 
Maybe I did it right, maybe I did it wrong. But, I dig down as far as I can go in 5 minutes and put that in a separate pile, maybe 2 and half feet. I add a little good soil and a little fertilizer. Then I put the stuff I dug down deep back in the hole. Just want to loosen it up a bit. I do tamp it down as I fill it back up though.

I do alot of fishing and was tempted to do the fish method. MAybe not now........

Any of you guys pre prep your spots? When I got my whitetail crabs trees in novemeber, I preped the spots about 2 weeks ahead of time. Dug down deep and rototilled a 6ft diameter circle up shallow. Added some peat moss and a bit of fertilizer and lime, but away from where the translant tree roots will be. I left the hole open while waiting for the trees.

These are my backyard trees, so they'll likely have to worry about getting too mch water from me, than too little.

I did something similar up north, but did not dig down deep. Brought some good soil and some hard clay with me, mixed it all upshallow in the spring, then covered it with cardbord nd leaf mulch. Then transplanted my plum trees from pots to their spots in the fall.

Little guys did well. Next summer, I saw little bother with the deer. IN one spot I planted , it was a hillside between 2 plots. One up the little hill, one down. I took the walk behind brush hog and mowed between then, up to prevent the young trees from overgrowning and blocking the view between the plots. Deer found them and nibbled them up good. Hopefully, they recover and get bigger before I do that in about 5 years or so.
 
I do alot of fishing and was tempted to do the fish method. MAybe not now........

I just bury fish near the tree rather than the same hole.
 
We use composted manure in the orchard every year ,, We do some ag fields few years ago had just cut 1st cut hay had some time and needed to clean up some manure , spread hay field with composted cattle manure got half done and got pulled away on other projects . We fertilize this field every year with granular after three years you can still see where we left off spreading the manure . Theres big power in manures you cant get in a bag . probably high on micronutrients plus the organic material after three years nitrogen has been long gone . If you can get properly aged manure there is no better fertility product out there in any bag
 
I always wish I could pay the honey truck guy and spread at my home, without getting divorced of course.........
 
I'll see if I can get a pic sometime this week.

Those were just seedling trees planted in Sept 2021. The following spring, April 2022, they were grafted using my own saved scions. They've grown 4 or 5 feet over the course of this past growing season.

In the past, using 'normal' methods, where I would graft in April and plant out then, without all of the planting extras, I would be happy with 1 foot of growth in their first season.

I didn't go quite that extreme with all of my new plantings this past year, but still dug a very large whole and used the composted horse manure and mulch.
 
Hmmm, my bare roots come from a Cornell professor who writes books on root stocks. His advice has been pretty good so far.
 
I'll see if I can get a pic sometime this week.

Those were just seedling trees planted in Sept 2021. The following spring, April 2022, they were grafted using my own saved scions. They've grown 4 or 5 feet over the course of this past growing season.

In the past, using 'normal' methods, where I would graft in April and plant out then, without all of the planting extras, I would be happy with 1 foot of growth in their first season.

I didn't go quite that extreme with all of my new plantings this past year, but still dug a very large whole and used the composted horse manure and mulch.
I think you’re stuff is cool and good luck.

I do have a question. One of the reasons to be careful when fertilizing new seedlings is that you want them building roots and not putting energy into above ground mass. I wonder if these one year old root stocks shooting up so much is a good thing (for the graft I’m sure it is) of a bad long term that they outgrow their root system and struggle later on.

Just a thought.
 
I think you’re stuff is cool and good luck.

I do have a question. One of the reasons to be careful when fertilizing new seedlings is that you want them building roots and not putting energy into above ground mass. I wonder if these one year old root stocks shooting up so much is a good thing (for the graft I’m sure it is) of a bad long term that they outgrow their root system and struggle later on.

Just a thought.
I think everyone over tries to beat out "time".

The time it takes to grow a healthy tree just takes time, time which is pretty dependent on the "roots" namely the root stock variety. Almost everyone here especially new people will always try and push the trees. Some will of course just stick them in the ground but most will want better than normal growth and be looking to push the trees.

There are a couple of reasons why root stock is cut back to not much more than a pencil in length while grafting - I think in part if you just step back and look, you will see that there is nothing but benefit to cutting back your tree each year for the first handful of years starting with the nursery cutting the root stock, then us cutting them back more while grafting... and I now cut back a large percentage of the new growth on my young trees each year to build up the core trunk and roots. It cost me time but I already screwed up by not planting the tree a decade before.

Trees will regulate themselves - they have done it for a millennium - how much we help or hurt is the balancing act... usually we dont do enough when it comes to water, pruning, and fencing. We do too much when it comes to fertilizing. My guess is the most benefit from the prior topic is simple time consuming act of digging up a bigger, hole then filling it back in with the same dirt - breaking up the soil compaction out further then most of us usually do is the real benefit.
 
I am getting ready to plant 30 fruit trees and I will drill my hole with auger. Then fill half way and let it rain on it then plant tree when they arrive.Mine will have a drip system set up off water tank
 
I am getting ready to plant 30 fruit trees and I will drill my hole with auger. Then fill half way and let it rain on it then plant tree when they arrive.Mine will have a drip system set up off water tank
If your in clay rake the sides of the hole, when you auger them in clay it can glaze the sides up pretty hard - just a tip I was told about
 
Hmmm, my bare roots come from a Cornell professor who writes books on root stocks. His advice has been pretty good so far.
Whose this cornell guy? Like to read up some more on the topic.
 
barndog,

I looked at this thread again. you needed to do something there...... That soil looks like the beaches I fish....
 
I got a bunch of trees ordered already, and lots of rootstock to work with too.

cummins sure has alot of nice tree varieties I like places that have rootstock options and state what they are too. Tempted to visit ithaca to check out cornell, cummins, and the other nursery there too.
 
The bucketlist includes learning how to select rootstock and graft different varieties
 
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