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When you reach your lowest point, you are open to the greatest change.
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James Landreth wrote:I agree with Mihai's suggestions and will add that you can plant them in a mound, mixing looser soil with the clay, gradually transitioning to the pure native soil. This will help especially during wet times. I know of a woman who grows peaches in a swamp in Georgia this way!
Extend the benefit of the doubt as liberally as you wish it to be extended to you...
"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf
Marco Banks wrote:Peach trees grow great on heavy clay soil. I've got 5 peach trees, all doing fantastic and our native soil is brick material. At least it used to be brick hard, but after years of mulching with wood chips, its amazing.
Mulch, mulch, mulch, mulch, mulch. Wood chips.
As you put wood chips down, the soil becomes lighter and drainage improves exponentially. That's the secret to a thriving orchard on heavy clay soil: mulch. Plant your tree and then put down 8 inches of wood chips all around it. In six months, add another 8 inches because those chips will bread down quickly.
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Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Andrea,
Feeling really ambitious? You could try to plant comfrey about 18”-2’ away from the tree itself, the comfrey is a nice companion plant and it’s leaves will drop and provide a nice chop and drop fertilization.
Feeling even more ambitious? Try inoculating those woodchips with wine cap mushrooms. You will likely want to start with a layer of chips at least 4-6 inches thick, spread the wine cap spawn, water and wait. The comfrey should provide a bit of shade for the wine caps, and the wine caps will turn your woodchips into amazingly fertile compost filled with healthy microbes! Even if you don’t want the mushrooms, the compost they leave behind is amazing. Best of all, the peach tree, comfrey and wine caps all form a synergistic relationship. I try to incorporate wine cap mushrooms into just about every corner of my garden and fruit patches.
Eric
Extend the benefit of the doubt as liberally as you wish it to be extended to you...
Some places need to be wild
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Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Andrea,
As the wine caps break down the woodchips they establish a rich colony of various microbes, microbes which help to feed the plants. Were you to establish wine caps early, they will wrap themselves around the tree roots and feed them. Something I found about my project was that wine caps grew best when plant roots were available. I pulled a couple of small plants out of my garden and their roots were intertwined with wine cap mycelium. And those plants were extremely healthy themselves.
I imagine that if you were to start a colony of wine caps (or a host of other mushrooms, but wine caps are just so easy) then they would get established with the tree roots and help it grow. Like I said earlier, if you don’t like mushrooms, don’t eat them (I imagine that I would not like the taste of manure, but the plants certainly like the stuff!). It is worth growing for what they will do for the plants themselves.
Extend the benefit of the doubt as liberally as you wish it to be extended to you...
Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Whenever I plant a tree I always dig a nice, deep, broad hole. In my case I was planting rootstock so digging was a bit easier. I dug my holes, brought over a few bags of topsoil and manure (I get this from the big box store), and then mix the clay I dug up 50:50 with a mixture of equal parts manure and topsoil. I try to break up clay clumps as much as possible. I also add in a bit of bonemeal for improved rooting. Then I backfill the hole with the soil mixture, stick the little tree in and cover everything with more soil mixture, pack down and put in a growing stake. Make certain the hole is nice and deep, partly to ensure good drainage and water thoroughly.
Brent Montgomery wrote:
Eric Hanson wrote:Whenever I plant a tree I always dig a nice, deep, broad hole. In my case I was planting rootstock so digging was a bit easier. I dug my holes, brought over a few bags of topsoil and manure (I get this from the big box store), and then mix the clay I dug up 50:50 with a mixture of equal parts manure and topsoil. I try to break up clay clumps as much as possible. I also add in a bit of bonemeal for improved rooting. Then I backfill the hole with the soil mixture, stick the little tree in and cover everything with more soil mixture, pack down and put in a growing stake. Make certain the hole is nice and deep, partly to ensure good drainage and water thoroughly.
I'm going to be doing this as well as your wine cap suggestion and also mulching with hardwood as Redhawk suggested. Planting a Contender, currently in a pot and about 5'-6' tall. I'm wondering how deep and wide I should amend the soil to prevent the root circling issue mentioned? I have very heavy clay/loam for about a foot down, and then solid clay. I was thinking of roto-tilling pine bark and/or shredded mulch into the clay starting at the depth of the solid clay to 12" below that (maybe adding a slow release source of nitrogen to counteract the decomp), then doing your 50/50 mix of clay/manure/topsoil from the surface to where the clay starts. Good idea or should I go deeper? Asking for failure? Any alternate suggestions? If that plan is feasible I'm not sure if I should worry about settling as the bark/mulch/solid clay mixture broke down.
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