Planting trees

[hslogger]

Your hole should be wide, but not overly deep. You want to plant the tree so it sets a bit above the soil level. NOT below the soil level. Another thing is to take it out of the pot. CUT down the sides, make three or four cuts down. Splay open the roots and discard some of them. The tree is rootbound by sitting a in a pot. If you just take it out of the pot and plant it, the roots will not grow out as the way they should and will eventually strangle itself. When you have it planted, mulch the area, say a foot and half or two feet in each direction. So, figure on a four foot mulch pattern. You should mulch it with very well composted mulch material. Not Beauty bark, A very good mulch is well composted straw and manure mix, not fresh stuff. Another good mulch is composted wood chipper chips. Stuff that has been broken down and cooked for a year or two.

You don't want to mulch with fresh manure. Or fresh wood chips. If you are planting where livestock or deer will browse it or rub against it, take round pipe or fenceposts with the bottom chevron removed. But three or four of those in the ground and then wrap fence around it and secure the fence to the posts. The reason for removing the chevrons is that at some point you will want to remove the posts. With the chevrons you will do major root damage when removing the posts. Straight posts will be just fine

Water it in at first. Keep it watered but not wet all the time. The layer of mulch will help retain moisture and further decompose. Don't fertilize. First year is important for slow, natural growth. Keep the mulch two or three inches AWAY from the base of the tree so as not to crowd the base and the bark

 

[Cherokee140]

I agree with most of what is said here, but with the ground being as hard as you say I would suggest that you do dig the hole a bit deep, then refill and pack it down with your body weight. This will give some loose soil for the young roots to go down....and you do want them going down and not just side to side so the tree is well established. One of the reasons I bought the BX25 was for the backhoe to plant apple trees. I currently have around 50 apple trees with more arriving this week....I will be in your same boat here this weekend it looks like....I am getting 75 more that I will need to plant.

 

[bcjmmac]

Rarely mentioned, but worth considering. If there are similar types of trees in your area/on your property (exact species work the best) - take some soil from underneath an established tree (from around the roots works the best) and spread it around the root ball of the trees you are planting. This will ensure that the required micro fauna/symbiotic fungi, etc, that work with the tree's roots to pass nutrients along will be in the soil and will greatly aid the tree becoming established/grow well. Lots of studies to back this up/a tree's roots need symbiotic fauna in order to more effectively supply nutrients, etc, to the above ground structures.

 

[roadhunter]

Everything I have read said it is better to dig a wider hole. Break up the large clumps of soil , but do not amend it.

Why not?

 

[RalphVa]

Dig a big wide hole but no deeper and maybe even a couple inches shy of how deep the tree was in container/root ball. NEVER ever amend or add fertilizer to the hole. You'll just created a big cup to drown the tree roots in water once you get some. Trees do not need fertilizer. You can cause all sorts of extra tender growth that insects (or animals) will feast upon. The leaves from the tree in the fall will provide some natural fertilizer (by the worms coming in and working on the fallen leaves).

If you can, use lots of water during planting. Ideal would be to actually fill the hole with water before putting the tree roots and dirt back in. Get muddy.

Ralph

 

[Timm250]

I agree with most of what is said here, but with the ground being as hard as you say I would suggest that you do dig the hole a bit deep, then refill and pack it down with your body weight. This will give some loose soil for the young roots to go down....and you do want them going down and not just side to side so the tree is well established. One of the reasons I bought the BX25 was for the backhoe to plant apple trees. I currently have around 50 apple trees with more arriving this week....I will be in your same boat here this weekend it looks like....I am getting 75 more that I will need to plant.

Where do you get your apple trees & what size are they? I have just been buying a few at a time to plant & would like to be able to buy in bulk.

 

[wolc123]

I have had pretty good luck transplanting blue-spruce up to 10 feet tall with the front loader of my 43 hp, JD 4120 "CUT". It has the heavy-duty JD bucket. That bucket is strong enough to support forks or my custom "tree scoop", bolted directly to the bottom. My tree scoop is simply a piece of 12" wide x 3" deep x 36" long x 1/4" thk, heavy duty c-channel. I bolt that under the center of the bucket and it protrudes about 2 ft in front. It lets you dig narrower holes much like you can get with a back-hoe, using the front loader. I usually dig a hole a little larger than the expected size of the "root-ball" of the tree I am moving with the narrow c-channel scoop. Next, I drive up to an un-disturbed tree and stab the scoop under it, put a strap or chain around the back of the trunk, attached to the upper bucket hooks, and curl the bucket back to lift it out. Then I drive over to the hole, lower the tree in, then back-fill with a shovel. It don't take long to move a bunch of trees this way. I have moved hundreds that way over the last 5 years or so, and only ever lost one. I usually have the bush-hog on the back of the tractor for ballast when doing this, and my rears are calcium-filled. For me this works nearly as well or better than a tree-spade or backhoe, and didn't cost me a dime, as I had the c-channel laying in my scrap pile behind the barn. I have also used the scoop to transplant apple trees up to 5" caliper.

A few years ago, I had a long row of blue-spruce averaging about 8 ft tall, starting to crowd each other a bit so I put an add in craigslist to sell every other one for $50 "you dig" or $100 "I dig". A rich fella showed up with a big flat-bed trailer and I had that thing loaded with the tree-scoop in under an hour. That was some of the fastest cash I ever made, and all 15 or so of those trees are still doing real well after he planted them at his place with a rented backhoe. He was a happy customer and I was a happy seller, as it should be, and no back-breaking labor was involved in the deal.

One other little trick for apple trees, especially if you transplant them at the wrong time of year (any month without an "r" in it), is to bury some dead raccoons or fish around them. I had one I moved in late May looking a little poorly the next year and loosing lots of leaves, but it perked right up with 2 raccoons and about a dozen smallmouth bass that I treated it to that July.