Zach Lesselbaum

Trees are such moisture seekers that burying wood on one side or two sides of the tree will do the trick. The tree roots will send out towards the buried wood. I base this on seeing a papaya tree sending a thick primary root into a raised garden bed that was next to it. The papaya was in a 3 gallon pot, busted out of it and sent roots first into the soil, but then rocketed roots out into the wetter raised bed. Which also had more nutrients.

Not that I am making real and proper hugelkultur mounds...but I have buried wood before planting a few guavas and grapes. Even planted them in HugelK raised beds that had lots of buried wood which would allow for sinking to soil level as the wood decayed.

Some of my trees have graft lines 3 inches above the soil level. You definitely don't want that graft sinking below soil level and getting perpetually wet and moist. It can rot it and kill the tree. In this case dig Hugel holes on two sides of the tree and bury wood in those holes. This way the tree is planted in firm soil

Here is how to eat whole organic grains

1. soak for 24 hours to neutralize the phytic acid factors


2. one example would be brown rice with 33% wheat berries


3. another is homemade bread that needs slow fermentation of a day or more in
   a cool or cold place.


4. Eat in isolation meaning>


5. make a meal of only whole grain bread or only brown rice or only millet
   and so on


6. do not eat grain with other foods


7. chew thoroughly


8. to repeat--- eat grain as an isolated meal


9. a few slices of dense homemade bread is in fact a meal. It will fill you
   up.

The one food you can eat withe grain to improve grain digestion-
____pickled_____
be it a little kraut or a dill pickle spear but I would start with only 100% grain meals
The grain problem for weak digestive systems starts with eating grains as part of a diverse normal meal

I have to agree with the above two guys that in the real world you would be making your hugelK mound from a mix of char and wood as in charred wood. A mix of wood and char just "feels" like it would work better. Making large amounts of bio-char for large hugelK- is too time consuming.......

You could start a nice size bonfire then at the right time hose it down to extinguish it. Bury what is left in a hugelK

Maybe someone thought of this before
But for planting a fruit tree why not plant it first then start driving 6"-12" wood "spikes" into the ground nearby? They can even stick up a bit above ground.
You get wood from pruning or other source. 1-3" diameter would be optimum. Sharpen one end with a circular saw if you want and hammer it into the ground. I have done a little of this already. The moisture/rain will flow downward through and around this wood as it rots. It may rot quicker than horizontal hugel-wood. It may drain heavy clay quicker for you

This way you have less risk of the young fruit tree subsiding below the soil line as the hugel wood rots, which is bad for low graft unions. It can rot them and kill the tree. You never bury grafts when planting a fruit tree

I have also planted grapes in an above ground mini hugel-box. A raised bed with buried wood/one-three inch diameter incorporated in soil in the box and below the box. Hugel-box is only 24"x24" and 6" high. Created mostly from discarded plastic election signs. These durable plastic signs have many garden uses. I gather them up after a November election. The thick metal wire in them also has garden uses.

zach (my first post)