Planting a Fruit Tree in Clay Soil: Tricks & Tips

i'm not going to lie planting fruit trees is  not one of my more favorite gardening tasks   but i look at fruit trees as an investment a  well-maintained fruit tree can be productive   for decades so i want to take the time to  ensure that it gets the best start possible i am planting a new apricot and nectacot  tree in my zone 6a ohio backyard   in very heavy clay and i know a lot of you have  had questions about planting fruit trees in clay   soil so i thought today i would share with you my  process when planting in clay soil there are a few   specific measures that you'll want to be  aware of the first is that even within a   given planting area even if your general soil  is clay they're going to be areas that have   more or less clay content and that have worse or  better drainage than other areas even within a   small section of yard for instance on my property  i don't know if you'll be able to see it well   but the land definitely slopes down toward the  east and i have an area over here that is just   incredibly heavy clay extraordinarily poor  drainage and i would never dream of trying   to plant anything there without really really  working on the soil first so i'm selecting a   spot that's on a little bit higher ground it's  still heavy clay but it's got better drainage   if you're unsure about the drainage in  different areas of your property one of the   easiest things to do is to dig a test hole and  to do this you just want to dig a hole fill it   halfway with water and if it takes longer than  two hours for all of that water to drain away   that's going to be a pretty good indication that  you don't want to plant there because it is just   too compacted and the drainage is too poor now  of course you can always improve the soil in   that area but if you're wanting to plant a  fruit tree right away it would be better to   choose a different spot with better drainage once  you've found the ideal spot it's time to dig my   dad used to tell me that you want to dig a 50 hole  for a five dollar tree and there's a lot of truth   in that old adage the idea being that you want  your planting hole to be much larger in size than   your root ball i try to aim for making my planting  hole about three times the size of the root mass   that i'm dealing with which usually ends up to be  about a three to four foot by three to four foot   hole i find it easiest to bring out a tarp or  a large piece of cardboard with me and put all   of my fill dirt on that tarp or cardboard this  also makes the end process of backfilling a lot   easier and cleaner and to start my planting hole  i typically just scrape off the very top layer of   sod and set it aside now there's something to be  said for that five dollar tree statement as well   just a note here that typically a smaller tree is  going to transplant more easily than a larger tree   and this is because smaller trees typically suffer  from transplant shock less and they have an easier   time adapting to their new planting situation now  a word on the actual shape of the planting hole   you may notice that the hole that i'm digging here  is a round hole a few years ago there was a myth   running around on the internet that a square  planting hole is better than a round planting hole   with the idea being that in a round planting hole  the roots start to circle around themselves and   you essentially get the same effect that you  have when a plant is pot bound which is that   the roots circle up and choke themselves i'm here  to tell you that that is complete bunk you may get   circling roots in a round planting hole but it's  not due to the shape of the hole itself it is due   to how that hole is filled many times  folks will dig all of the fill dirt out   and when they plant their tree they will instead  of putting the native soil back into the planting   hole we'll fill it with all kinds of nice loose  fluffy topsoil and compost and wonderful things   which seems like it would be a great idea for your  tree what ends up happening is that the tree roots   don't want to move out of that nice soft  safe little planting hole that you've created   and they refuse to send their roots out into that  hard native clay soil so what you end up with is a   circling of roots within that nice soft planting  media basically as in everything with nature   the tree roots are seeking the path of least  resistance so i've got my 50 hole dug here and   i want to give you a look at the clay content  in this soil now my first few inches i do have   some decent loose topsoil you can see that in  particular on the bottom of this sod where this   is fairly nice and crumbly and loose where all  of these little grass roots have grown however   as you move deeper and deeper into the hole you  get into this kind of yellow and gray clay that   is very very common around here and you can  probably see it on the walls of this hole   now this stuff is just when it dries it's like a  brick you can see here just how sticky and dense   and potentially poor draining this is and how  difficult it would be for plant roots to penetrate   this now as i mentioned i don't want to get the  fill dirt inside this planting space so nice and   soft and cushy that my roots don't want to venture  out into the native soil but i also want to give   my roots the best chance to put on growth and get  well established i also want to get them used to   that clay soil so to plant my fruit trees in clay  it's going to take a couple extra steps to do this   the first one being that i want to score the sides  of my planting hole and basically what that means   is to rough up the sides of the planting hole  so scraping it with your shovel putting gouges   into it anything to kind of break up those what  would otherwise be really solid brick like walls   of clay the next step that i take is borrowing  a concept from hugelkultur so i make my planting   hole extra deep because in the very bottom i want  to add a layer of rotting sticks and wood and bark   kind of any small chunks that i can find and then  cover that with leaf mold and then with some of my   fill dirt and what that is going to do is help  to provide a little extra space for drainage   as well as adding organic matter to the soil as it  decomposes i'm then going to fill in the majority   of my planting hole with the filter that i dug out  in the beginning and a little bit of leaf mold i   don't want to go crazy with the organic matter at  this point i just want to add a little something   to help improve the soil structure and the  organic matter content of the soil by surrounding   your roots with soil which is extremely rich in  organic content and food you're giving the tree   another reason to not want to reach out into that  native soil to access nutrients so in this case   it's a good thing to make your tree work a little  bit so i'm going to actually wait till the very   end of this process and top dress my tree  with my compost and manure which i'll show   you in a bit now i want to fill my planting  hole to the point where i can set my tree in   and the graft union will be just a few inches  above the soil surface now most fruit trees   that you're going to buy nowadays are a grafted  fruit tree so this is something to be aware of   if you bury that graft union you take the chance  of your scion or the variety that's grafted onto   your root stock actually taking root in the soil  and then you're losing the benefits of the root   stock that it is grafted to so this may sound all  a bit technical to folks that are brand new to   this but basically fruit trees are often grafted  to a root stock for certain benefits most often   size so if you see something like a semi dwarf  tree that size is controlled by the root stock   that your fruit tree variety is grafted to some  root stocks can also give the tree more vigor   stress resistance disease resistance it depends  a lot on the root stock but you definitely want   to keep that graft union above the soil line now  if you happen to be planting a non-grafted tree   same idea but you want to keep the root flare  or the area of the trunk where the trunk meets   the root mass where it starts to flare out there  you want to keep that just a few inches above the   soil surface so i'm going to set my tree at  about the height that i think it needs to go   using a shovel across the planting hole to kind  of gauge your height is a really nice trick here and then i'm just going to back  fill till my tree is secure i tamp down the soil around the tree pretty well  putting a fair amount of pressure on there with my   feet and then a very very important step i'm  gonna water this all in really thoroughly so   typically i will water with two full five gallon  buckets more or less depending on how much rain   we've received recently and then i want to let  that all settle so i will let this tree sit   for an hour up to as long as overnight  or into the next day and this is because   as the water works through the soil things tend  to kind of settle and drop down and what i am   looking for is that my tree remains at the height  that i planted it so if you're so if you come out   after watering and your tree has dropped two  or three inches down into your planting hole   you're going to want to readjust for that add  some more fill dirt and then you should be good   now is the time that i add my compost  and or aged manure and basically i'm   just going to put an inch or so of this on  top of the planting area like a top dress and then i want to top that all off with a mulch  of some kind i typically will use something like   hay grass clippings wood chips leaf mulch or plant  a living mulch such as yellow or white clover   we're all done planting but there's a  few more things that i want to point out   the first is pruning and when i've got a  newly transplanted fruit tree i'm going to   prune very minimally i'm looking to prune  only branches that are obviously broken   dead or diseased or any really wonky  crossed branches other than that i'm   pretty much going to leave this tree  alone for the first couple years staking is something that i only do on an  as needed basis you actually want to allow   your tree to have some movement because  this is going to lead to a stronger trunk   and it stimulates root growth now there are  some very good reasons to opt for staking   which include things like planting in very very  loose or overly wet soil where your tree is   actually shifting in the soil a lot sometimes your  crown will be disproportionate to the size of your   trunk in the beginning and you want  to give it a little extra support   those are all reasons you might stake but the  thing to keep in mind is that you want to stake   loosely enough so that whatever you're using  to hold your tree is not digging into the bark   and that it's allowing the tree a little wiggle  room and you want to go about two-thirds of the   way up the trunk to support the tree when you are  staking it you can see here i have not staked this   tree yet but i do have a tree guard on it now this  is a good idea especially for fall planted trees   because what this is going to do is protect the  bark on this young tree from gnawing critters like   rabbits and deer who especially love to nibble  on tender young tree bark in the winter when   there's not much else to eat which can really do  some damage if not completely kill a young fruit   tree spacing is something to keep in mind if you  are planting more than one tree and to determine   your spacing you're going to want to know the  mature size of the tree that you're planting   so for example with a standard fruit tree  you're often going to go as far apart as 30 feet   with a semi dwarf it's usually around 15 the  trees that i am planting today are actually   super doors they're a type called a reachable and  these can be planted as close together as six feet   related to that is being aware of whether your  fruit tree needs a pollinator when you plant so   a lot of apples european pears some plums this  apricot in particular they all need a pollinator   so you're going to want to plan for that as  well when you are planting your fruit tree   and one last tidbit that you may be  wondering about is feeding your tree   the best time to feed fruit trees is very early  in the spring so with my fall planted fruit trees   i'm actually going to wait until early next  spring to give them an application of a food   formulated for fruit trees i will also be giving  them some supplemental calcium at that point   because most fruit trees will benefit from  the addition of calcium so i've got this   tree planted i'm going to get to finishing  up this one the important part now is just   making sure that these guys receive one to two  inches of water per week until the soil really   freezes hard which is actually one of the  really nice things about planting in the fall   because we tend to get a lot more moisture and the  temperatures stay nice and cool through the months   of october and november so i end up having to do  a lot less work watering these guys will get well   established and be ready to jump right into growth  as soon as my temperatures warm in the spring   and if you found today's video helpful please  consider subscribing to my channel growfully   with jenna for more gardening tips like these  thanks for watching and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Growfully with Jenna

Views: 492,992

Keywords: planting a fruit tree in clay, planting a fruit tree in clay soil, planting fruit trees in clay, planting fruit trees in clay soil, planting a fruit tree in clay youtube, Planting a fruit tree in clay video, planting a fruit tree, planting fruit trees, clay soil, planting in clay, planting a tree in clay, planting a tree in clay soil, how to plant a tree in clay, growfully, planting in clay soil, planting fruit trees in backyard, fruit trees in clay soil, growing in clay soil

Id: hM-OklXmxzA

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021