Robert Trescott

Lina Joana wrote:https://getchipdrop.com.  In many areas, you can get as many as you can spread from road crews and arborists.
Personally, if I had to make them myself there is just no way. Mulch is great, but hauling the wood, chipping it, and then hauling the chips takes so much manpower (before you even consider the gas) that I would say that if you can’t find someone to dump a pile, it is worth it to find alternatives.

Thanks for the tip on GetChipDrop. I've signed up and will see how it goes. Usually I've had to load and haul chips myself with a little trailer. A couple of times, while bicycling, I've come across a wood chipping crew at work, given them my address, and they've brought the chips to my home. Another time the crew had tree trunks they were able to sell in the truck bed, so they couldn't dump at my home.

I planted some American Groundnut tubers last fall. I saw good growth from most, though some plantings did not grow. Today while doing some other work in my potential food forest, I found a string of about seven of the tubers (one inch or less) just lying on wood chips covering the ground. They were not near the planting locations. I couldn't see any signs of digging or any kind of disturbance. I separated them into three pieces and planted them. Any idea how these groundnuts could have been exposed?

Sorry not to have replied sooner. I've been picking from my four tart cherry trees. I haven't tried a backpack sprayer. The less expensive ones, like the one in the wiserwand video (not sure that one is still being sold) didn't get good reviews for durability. I did see a Milwaukee one in an ad with a motor, electric I believe, and that was several hundred dollars. Also, the soil I'm dealing with is fairly hard clay and I'm not sure a backpack sprayer would have the same pressure as the garden hose. So, after considering this article:

https://www.gardenmyths.com/deep-root-fertilization-trees/

I'm using broadcast or drench methods of delivering plant nutrition.

There was an article on gardenmyths.com about root feeders not being advantageous over a surface soak.
However, I wanted a tool to replace the Ross feeder that I had, since it was leaking profusely, perhaps a slight crack in the plastic.
So far I'm enjoying the Wiserwand. Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIJ3q1Coxk

https://wiserwatering.com/

It provides good control of surface watering as well as getting under the mulch. The foot pegs prevent the probe from going deeper than about eight inches.