Totally Preventable Mistakes When Planting Fruit Trees

[jennav]

I’m an ISA certified arborist and this video was spot on for most things. The only additional tips I have are plant the tree slightly above the surface level as it will settle over time and can end up being low. The reason you don’t backfill with light weight soil is that water can easily settle there in the air pockets. Thus in a way creating a mini pond around the tree. Overwatering or these practices are typically the number 1 killed of new plants. Also I would always recommend a root growth hormone with planting trees. Generally kelp based products help speed up root growth as whatever container they were sold to you in is far inadequate. Don’t fertilize the tree in the first year and in most soil conditions fertilizing will just make the tree rely on your feeding it. Checking ph conditions or doing a simple soil test will let you know the issues you might face nutrient wise. Mending ph over time and allowing the roots to grow will ensure a strong tree with high fruit yield. Remember reproduction is not as important to a tree as survival.

[ainavirin]

I managed to convince my parents to let me try a small fruit tree in our yard this year! I am loving these videos! They are so informative!

[shereygould]

Everything you say in your videos is always so logical I find myself nodding along throughout the whole thing except somehow you coach it in such conversational manner it's like I never heard them before. Great job, as always!

[lovesdiy]

My peach from seed has peaches year 4.

[emeraldstarsx]

More and more I hear about how you shouldn’t put compost/fertilizer in your hole and never knew why. Now I look back at all my failed fruit trees and it’s no wonder! Thank you - I’m glad I changed the way I plant my trees but it was interesting to hear the “why”!

[fizzypop]

Ugh, I totally did all the wrong things when I planted my orchard about 6 years ago; however, we sold that property a few months after and they removed all of the orchard anyway so they could use it as field for animals. This video is full of information that I totally needed, Luke. We are planning out our garden and orchard space this year and this video was perfect timing for me, because I would have made the same mistakes about fertilizing and amending and all the wrong things. Thank you so much for your awesome channel and sharing your knowledge and experience!

[arnaldo]

Thanks for this brother. I've deliberating over the spacing my standard fruit trees, thinking they might be too close at about 20 feet trunk to trunk . Many people say they should be like 30+ feet apart etc. Overlapping the foliage makes a lot of sense, and backed up by science.

[niyagross]

Thank you! We’re getting ready to plant our trees and I’m so happy I saw this before I filled the hole with a compost mix!

[Shaw]

I've always done what my gut says "let the tree get used to your soil" "keep the graft point above ground" etc. "Don't stake, let it toughen up" And luckily my gut aligns with the advice

[jeansroses]

thank you! I had read once a long time ago that one shouldn't amend the soil in the planting hole, but I had forgotten, and I did lose the most recent fruit tree I'd planted; so now I'm reminded again, and also now I know not to stake.

[tinareid]

We were able to germinate 1 seed from my husband's late father's apple tree. So anticipating the day we can put it in the yard. Love your videos!

[cqammaz]

So yesterday my husband bought me 2 apples and 2 pear trees and these next couple of days I'm going to learn as much as I can on taking care of my new trees Thank you for sharing

[pascalxus]

i like how he explains why you need to do these things. that really helps.

[TheMillennialGardener]

President Zachary Taylor once said, “I wouldn’t trade a square foot of Michigan or Ohio for a square mile of Florida.” When you dug your hole, I was so jealous of your rich, black soil. Where I live on the North Carolina coast, it is sand and gravel. There is very little organic matter in my soil. When I plant a fruit tree, I dig a hole literally ten times the size of the root ball and amend the soil. It takes awhile, but I use the native soil and mix in a bag of compost and potting mix. I’d say I still use 70% native soil so once the roots get mature enough they can traverse into the native soil without too much shock, but I wouldn’t plant a tree in my soil without some type of amendment.

I dig the hole so large so the tree can get years on it before roots transition into purely native soil with the hopes that my years of mulching and fertilizing the top will “catch up” to all the soil.

I just wanted to toss my hat in the ring and throw out there that things may be different for us southern coastal gardeners. The only other thing I’d toss in is to dig your fruit tree holes with a square shovel to dissuade roots from binding in a round hole like a container would.

[eileenmcloughlin]

Message from, an experienced Arborists wife, about planting trees. I would have liked to see you do a complete (from start to finish ) video on planting a tree. All the way with the mulching included! I believe that would be an outstanding choice! Thank you for your GREAT videos.

[lorrielawrence]

Luke thank you! Thank you! I learn so much every time I watch your videos! We just bought fruit trees and I immediately looked for your videos of how to properly plant them. Your knowledge and willingness to share with us is greatly appreciated!

[TheGreenThumbGardeningChannel]

The love for and the enthusiasm towards gardening that you display in your videos makes your tutorials exciting and inspiring! Always something new to be learned here, thanks for sharing MIgardener!

[AllCapeTree]

Great video as always! I just wanted to point out in regards to backfill while planting (as a certified arborist in my state) that soil quality is drastically different in certain parts of the country. If our soil were as beautiful and rich as your soil is in the video, I would certainly just backfill with the original soil. Where I live (on Cape Cod, MA) we're essentially on a sandbar, and in most towns we're never 3-4 inches away from 95% sand. In small pockets we have 80% clay, or just plain glacial rock. If we were to backfill with either sand or clay directly without amending the tree would decline and die 9 times out of 10 from drying out or drowning. To amend the sand we use a large amount of peat moss to add organic material for beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae to bond. We normally also have to add some degree of compost or manure, because of the extreme leaching effects of the sand of the available nutrients in the immediate area. We mix it directly in the hole to encourage the spread of the native bacteria and mycorrhizae already in the soil (sand). Organic matter slows this considerably and is a very important aspect of planting here. For clay, we dig a much, much larger hole, add sand, then gravel, sand, peat moss/sand mix. With flowering and fruiting trees we do indeed cut back the amount of manure or fertilizer added to the hole, while also using a rod and deep root irrigating in a grid pattern with the appropriate mycorrhizal blend for the species planted. Love your channel! Keep at it! Absolutely awesome!

[szilviabagi]

I saw a few videos of gardeners not recommending amending the soil when planting fruit trees. How about when you have really bad clay soil? We get lots of rain here in the UK and when it rains (at the moment it looks like it will rain for almost 2 weeks non stop) my garden is a mud pool. I bought a dwarf cherry and pear tree which I`m planning to plant in a bigger container but I`m also tempted to try to plant the pear tree in the ground. Thanks for your tips, I found your video very useful.

[rafa]

I love your new video without the intro music. You get in right to what I am looking forward to about fruit and veggies. Keep up the information and the new set up. Thanks!