1 hole Pecan Planting

Hello fellow Permies,

I have been holding onto some young pecan trees with the intention of trying a method I saw online somewhere. A fellow had planted three trees about 1m from each other in what he called a one hole planting. The theory was that in such close proximity the pecans would dwarf each other in their competition for nutrients. I know this one hole planting isn't a new concept and given that pecans benefit from cross pollination for the most part I was keen to try it out.

I loosened up about a 1.2m round area and amended with mushroom compost which I've been aging under a tarp. I dug up some clods of earth bound together with grass and flipped them upside down on the low side of the planting in an effort to hopefully slow and retain run off. These I covered with some layers of moist cardboard and tomorrow I'll cover the lot in a thick layer of woodchips after a good soak.  

Honestly not sure how it's going to go but that's part of the fun, right?


I'm looking forward to sharing how it fares here over our (southern hemisphere) autumn and winter before hopefully leaping into action come spring

Many thanks!

Shea

I hope you update this as your trees grow.

It sounds like you are not finished with mulching yet. In case you didn't know, at least in my climate, leaving cardboard exposed to the air, causes it to wick moisture from the ground, evaporating and stealing it from the plants. So I would cover the cardboard edges completely.

I thought this method sounded familiar so I looked  and yes, Michael had started a similar topic:

https://permies.com/t/162586/Planting-trees-hole-outcomes

I would love to find out how this works out so please keep the forum updated.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:I hope you update this as your trees grow.

It sounds like you are not finished with mulching yet. In case you didn't know, at least in my climate, leaving cardboard exposed to the air, causes it to wick moisture from the ground, evaporating and stealing it from the plants. So I would cover the cardboard edges completely.

I will definitely update!

No, going to finish it off today. It's the same here! Thanks for the heads up,  unfortunately learnt this the hard way a few summers ago. I'm going to drown the lot in woodchip so it should be sweet

Anne Miller wrote:I thought this method sounded familiar so I looked  and yes, Michael had started a similar topic:

https://permies.com/t/162586/Planting-trees-hole-outcomes

I would love to find out how this works out so please keep the forum updated.

I just checked out the link you posted. Once I start to observe how they grow together I'll comment with my findings. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

I'll post some progress photos down the line

I have a bunch of individual pecan plants growing in a ice chest inside the house. What do I do now

Welcome to the forum, Sonya,

Why not try the method that the original poster, Shea suggested back in 2024?

Shea said,  A fellow had planted three trees about 1m from each other in what he called a one hole planting. The theory was that in such close proximity the pecans would dwarf each other in their competition for nutrients. I know this one hole planting isn't a new concept and given that pecans benefit from cross pollination for the most part I was keen to try it out.

Maybe an update is in order?