Tips on planting trees

dufflight · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:24 am

I use to dig hole and throw plant or tree into it. Give it some water and wait for it to recover. Now after seeing how large a friends trees grew after he planted them I have taken a different approach.
I dig the hole a lot deeper than needed and add dynamic lifter, blood and bone and water crystals. Seasol even has a water crystal that has seasol added to it. I then half fill the hole with water and add some potting mix so there are no air pockets when the tree goes in. You can tease the roots out a little and backfill around the root ball. Use your hands to get the dirt(mud) around the sides. Getting all the air out and a good seal seems to help. I add a lot of mulch around the top and water daily. It does make a big difference in how fast a tree gets going. And with a lot of trees that need 3-5 years before they bare, giving them the best start can shorten this time. Its interesting to see how a paw paw tree grows with half a bag of dynamic lifter under it. :shock:

Faye · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 12:09 pm

I love dynamic lifter. I had heard that it should not be buried because it may go mouldy and cause fungal problems at the root of the plant.
For established plants I just make a basin around the trunk add a few handfulls, enjoying the fragrance as you go. Water well and after a few days rake gently to mix with soil and it turns sand in to soil mmm yum.
But yes, planting trees, big hole, anything organic including weeds, manure, compost, worms.
Then just add water.

earthbound · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:20 pm

Make sure you don;t spread it too thickly in clumps or the dog will eat it....

When I did my horticultural apprenticeship with Claremont council we dug tree holes that were waist deep and almost a metre in diameter. Every tree hole was this big, and water crystals were added along with good brought in special soil mix that was super rich.

I'm putting off planting my trees out the front at the moment, too damn hot to be digging big holes.

BatonRouge Bill · **Joined:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:59 pm **Posts:** 60

What is dynamic lifter? what's it made of???

dufflight · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:10 pm

BatonRouge Bill wrote:

What is dynamic lifter? what's it made of???

Composted chicken poo.

Faye · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:32 pm

Quote:

I'm putting off planting my trees out the front at the moment, too damn hot to be digging big holes.

Isn't that why we have an apprentice??? :thumb:

Jaymie · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:36 pm

up here in the dry tropics, when we plant trees for work, we use the auger to drill the hole as deep as you can get. Then we put a teaspoon of slow release fertiliser and water crystals in the hole. the tubestock is planted relatively deeply in the hole and not all of the soil returned to the hole. this leaves a basin around the trunk of the tree that can catch any rain that might fall over our 9 month dry season. the tree is also more protected from the wind and sun when it is in a bit of a hole.

chillidude · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:40 pm

Yep, I'm along same lines as Faye - big hole, some aged poo and any other organic matter, mixed through the local soil, then shiploads of water for the first week and start tapering off for the next few weeks after that to toughen it up.

Bit of seasol and powerfeed every 2 or 3 weeks for the first 4 months or so. If it's a native, just don't use the powerfeed, just a slow release native fertiliser instead, 1 or 2 times a year.

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