How to plant a tree?
A wise man said, "One's life is worthwhile as long as one had completed the Tree Tasks: 1) build a home, 2) raise a child, and 3) plant a tree". For the most people, the first task as an American Dream sooner or later comes true; the second task is challanging but inescapable, but the third... what can be easier than planting a tree? When we think about it at TopTropicals, we realize that with the number of trees we have planted ourselves so far or provided to other people for planting, we have already fulfilled pretty significant part of any environmental "Save-a-Tree" project, which pretty much cancels a question about how big of a house we built or how good parents we are... However, believe it or not, it took us quite a few trees to kill to finally figure out how to do it right!
Is it easy to plant a tree?
It's as easy as 1-2-3.
1. Start for all - make a hole
Dig a hole at least 2-3 times bigger than the pot size. Actually, the bigger the better, as long as you fill it with a good quality media. We use organic composted manure for planting fruit trees, gardenias - most of the plants that require rich organic soil. Depending on the original soil you have in your yard, you can mix compost with existing soil from the hole, as long as it doesn't contain limestone or shells. If you have almost pure sand like we do (or clay, etc.), in this case it has to be all replaced with better soil.
Fill the hole with the planting mix almost all the way to the top, leaving the space on top a little shorter than the hight of the pot.
b) When filling the space around the root ball with a planting mix, make sure to create a little "mount" instead of planting on the same level with the ground around. Add extra planting mix as needed underneath the root ball. Elevated position of the growing point is especially important for areas with rainy seasons, when parts of the garden can be flooded, even temporarily. 1-2-3 inch elevation is enough, depending on specific flooding conditions. As long as the base of the trunk is above the surrounding surface, the tree will have greater chances to survive flooding. Also keep in mind that the new porous mix will compress with time after waterings, it may "sink" the tree down for another 1/2-1 inch. Very often even properly planted trees end up being planed too low just because of the potting mix got compacted underneath it.
However, remember that planting too high is not good either, and may cause drying out while the root system is not well-established and the plant has no deep access to water. Some trees can be very sensitive to drying out, like Guava, Litchi, Ylang-Ylang, Erblichia. Although they require a perfect drainage and somewhat tolerant to dry conditions, they still need lots of water to establish.
Picture (will be added at TT): commercial plantings of Mango and Litchi. Note how high the trees are planed using raised beds.
DIY low budget tip:
Poor Man Mulch
If your neighbor after mowing a lawn rakes all the cut grass into bags for future disposal, you may ask him to give it away to you rather than a trash can. Cut grass (hay) is a good source of Nitrogen (which is already good for neighbors' green grass, but either he doesn't want to know about it, or he is not a poor man indeed and prefers costy fertilizers for his manicured lawn). Besides, it works as the best natural mulch. After a few rains, the compressed hay will block weeds pretty good. And of course, you can always put some fancy mulch on top of it.
Now that you completed this class how to plant a tree, you can try it yourself. If it works out - 1/3 of your Life Meaning is successfully fulfilled!
ORDER INFO
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Share this page with:
©Top Tropicals LLC, 2003 -
©TTmagazine.info, 2007 -
Using TopTropicals.com images