Too Wet To Plant?

[Mortenson]

How muddy is too muddy to get my bare root trees from ACN in the ground? We just had 2" yesterday on fairly heavy ground. My trees came via UPS today. Calling for rain again Sun/Mon. I could go for it tomorrow, giving it 1 more day of soaking in. But the ground is saturated! Any experiences? These are my first apple trees, they're expensive, and I want to get it right.

 

[CuivreDog]

I'm in the same boat here. My Franklin Cider apples showed up from Cummins today and the ground is saturated with more rain predicted Sunday thru Wednesday.

I'm afraid that if I try and plant tomorrow the heavy clay will ball up and create air pockets.

 

[ToddG]

I think you will be ok if you aren't planting in an area that holds water. I just planted some yesterday and got an inch of rain today and they are calling for more. My soils is heavy clay.

 

[Neahawg]

If you go for it only fill the whole with a little dirt at a time then water it in to get the airpockets out then more dirt more water and so forth until planted.

 

[Turkey Creek]

You might be able to find dry dirt on a bank or steep hill as well that is the same soil type for planting the tree in. We have a lot of deep road cuts around here on minimum maintenance roads easy to get dry dirt when every thing else is saturated. Depending on your temps or if you have a cool place to set the trees for a few days they keep for a week if the roots stay damp.

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks for the tips. They've pushed the rain back to Monday (as of now), but it looks like a real wet week. My plan is to try a couple later today and if it goes well, finish up tomorrow. I only have 8 to plant.

 

[Mortenson]

Dang, it takes a while, but with the help of my dad and 5 yr old son, I got 4 in. The ground shoveled surprisingly well. We agreed we'd rather have it a little too wet than too dry. These trees joined two 2nd leaf pears making it a nice spot for a future bow stand and family produce. I need to come back with limestone.

 

[CuivreDog]

You might be able to find dry dirt on a bank or steep hill as well that is the same soil type for planting the tree in. We have a lot of deep road cuts around here on minimum maintenance roads easy to get dry dirt when every thing else is saturated. Depending on your temps or if you have a cool place to set the trees for a few days they keep for a week if the roots stay damp.

Thank you for the tip Chris - it worked perfectly! Trees are now happy in their forever home.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Mortenson - Your pic looks good as to the planting method. All you need is the stone. We put our limestone on to a depth of 3 to 4" so tunneling mice/voles can't get through it. It's worked like a charm for us !! Great job and good luck with all your plantings.

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks Bowsnbucks. It feels good to know I tried copying techniques from the guys who are having success. Got the limestone on yesterday. Today things are a little stiff. I have one last question that maybe someone knows an answer to. The landscape fabric is Preen. Does it take a while to start working? I had water sitting puddled on it for a few hours that wouldn't soak through. Do I need to stick a pitchfork through it or something?