Is there a point in time Hugels are ready for trees? If so, when?

Just a final word needed here on trees planted on hugels...

So, it's not a good idea to plant trees on a hugel at first because the wood shrinks down and the roots could be crushed or stressed (please confirm this notion).

It is also not a good idea because a strong wind may blow the tree over as it gets bigger. (any thoughts on how big a vulnerable tree is?)

But eventually, because hugels are soil building beds, there could/should/would be a time to plant trees in them, correct?

Would Sepp run pigs through them first and basically flatten them out? Could this step be avoided so you could leave the decomposed mound to plant into?

The reason for all my questions points to the fact that I have 40 dead poplars that need to come down in the next 2 years, a very wet lower field of 6 acres, and a dream of planting fruit trees on mounds (as is commonly done in fruit orchards) or some other silvopasture system.

I also have a little bit of time, I'm 35, so waiting for the hugels to decompose over say 5 years wouldn't bother me. I could also spread the wood out a little thin so each bed had less to decompose...

What say you PERMIES???

For reference, here are some images seen on the internet about planting trees on hugels:

Perfectly fine. Just not 'on'. Berm side.

chad Christopher wrote:Perfectly fine. Just not 'on'. Berm side.

So do you mean like the lower 3rd of the hugel or on the ground right past the hugel at the foot of it? Either way is there not a concern about the dirt burying the trunk of a tree and suffocating it or causing rot?

Kind of what I'm imagining, but working all my poplar wood into the situation:



The tree on the left was planted in the mound. The tree on the right was planted in the wet soil then replanted in the mound it is in now. Both are the same age. So mounding works. Hugelkulture works. Maybe a hugel mound with logs on the edges but not in the middle...?

The first few feet of the downhill side