This video is not about planting fruit trees. Because, truth be told, we’ve never actually planted a fruit tree before. And so, we don’t yet have any tips, because we don’t yet have any experience. Which is why instead, this video, is about something we do know. Something, as it turns out, we’re very good at. This video is about the best way we’ve discovered to NOT plant a fruit tree.
So, if the fear of doing something wrong ever gets in your way of doing it at all… then this video is for you.
Just do it!
New video???
How to avoid rats and snakes in potato planting on hay?
I put 2 apple trees and a handful of grape starts inside a wee fence and forgot them. Luckily the bunnies and deer didn’t find them either. But now I have to find more fence, dig them all up and sort them. You just reminded me that I should get on that. I lost my husband to Covid in March and a best friend to cancer in August and haven’t been inspired for awhile. So thanks for the inspiration. Mom and I love your videos.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
But make Sue you clear dirt from around the graft, or you will encourage growth from below the graft. Happy planting.
Your video struck home for me (and looks like more than a few others!). Didn't know what I was doing when I started gardening tomatoes cukes and all the rest but just did it, and learned. Fruit trees for some reason were always next year and learn a bit more. Till, a day of pulling out some odd little weeds from my raised beds revealed a nectarine pit at the end of one. I know it's a nectarine pit 'cause with the heart of a gardener I had to plant it – somewhere anywhere. I did and have eaten a ton of delicious nectarines over the last few years from that tree. It now shares the garden with 3 subsequent nectarines, a peach, two apples, and a plum. I haven't tasted fruit from the last two yet but they're new volunteers so we'll see. Thank goodness for good compost and bad planning.
https://smallgardensandgovernment.blogspot.com/2018/08/nectarines-for-breakfast-with-cool-whip.html
And yeah you should narrate not just audio books – everything!
You need to invest in some chickens and a hog , they will transform the landscape for you very effectively.
Small suggestion: you could build a small net fence around this tree (to protect them from deers and rabbits) 🙂
you are a great narrator
analysis paralysis is a real thing,
It is often a reason things take longer than expected and results are not as expected,
sometimes and quite often doing is learning and learning always means improving
The worst enemy of a great plan is the dream of a perfect one.
Your videos are so uplifting to me. I really appreciate you sharing your journey. As someone who struggles pretty hard with not doing things unless I can do them perfectly (or my idea of perfect), this video really resonated with me. So did your video about losing your plant babies to a June frost and the power of that lesson and how you dealt with it. Thank you so much, I really appreciate all your videos.
Awesome video
Excellent conclusion!!! Here's my vast experience, shared: if planting pears, plant 2, if planting walnuts, plant them away from apples, as they kill them (others, too, I imagine), if planting peaches, hurry up, I understand they don't live that long (7 years?).
Unrelated: have you looked into winter sowing?
And a request: time lapse pics if you try the 3 sisters again this year. With a cherry on top?
We planted 4 fruit trees and 8 blueberry bushes this winter. I could see them starting to bud today. I'm so excited!
As a grower of apple and peach trees. Here's how we plant our trees,
1. Buy bare-root trees ( this ensures your roots are healthy and you can light prune the roots to open them up to absorb more nutrients.
2. . Keep the roots moist and cool until you're ready to plant ( we cover them with wet straw and cover them with a piece of plastic) Best to plant within 24 to 72 hours of receiving them.
3. 6 to 12 hours be for planting place the trees in a large feed bucket or trash can filled with water
4. To Plant, you will need the following
1 Sharp digging spade
2 spades full of sand for each tree
Up to2 gallons of water for each tree
1 pair of pruning shears
5. Procedure to plant
1.Dig a hole that is 6" wider than the root spread and 6' deeper than the length of the roots
2. Place a spade of sand into the bottom of the hole
3. put a half quart to a half a gallon of water in the hole ( depends on how wet your sand and soil are.)
4. Fill the hole back up with the soil you took out stirring in the sand and water. You want a consistently of loose peanut butter (add additional water to reach this constancy.
5. Lightly trim the roots with the pruning shears (Think of it as giving it a light trim haircut) Look for the clean white inside color of the roots.
6. Prune any excess branches and any ones that are touching other ones. (You want the growing energy to go to the roots)
7. Take the tree by the trunk just above the graft (the graft should be facing to the east) and move it up and down in a pumping action to work into the soil/sand slurry. Stop when your graft point is just above the soil line.
8. Pat the wet soil with your shoe or boot to make sure all air bubbles are gone from around the roots.
9. Take the next spade full of sand and sprinkle around the base of the tree.
10. Take about a quart of water and pour slowly about 3 inches out from the trunk. Pat down with your boot or shoe again.
The reason you want the graft facing east is that is the direction of the least amount of wind and the graft is the weakest point on the tree.
DO NOT MULCH FRUIT TREES! In fact, you want bare ground in a circle around the tree to keep diseases, fungi, and insects away from the base of your tree and especially the graft area.
Do not fertilize a new tree wait one year before adding fertilizer.
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. Spray schedules and pruning are very important to maintain a decent yield and fruit size.
Tim Brady, Dixie Chile Ranch, Kenton, TN
I am really enjoying your videos. This one made me laugh. I have been thinking about planting a fruit tree my entire life, and I am turning 60 this year so a little voice in my head is saying maybe it’s too late, but I am really hoping to plant at least one fruit tree this year. I finally planted asparagus three years ago and I am hoping to maybe harvest some for the first time this year. We are also trying to create a food forest. Just love the concept. Really appreciate all the insight you are sharing!
Have you not mulched too far up the trunk? You are supposed to leave the tree flare uncovered.
That reminds me of my tiny apple tree: it's about a foot tall, with only one green living leaf on it so far this spring, but it's alive nonetheless. Planted an apple seed last summer in a little pot indoors just to see what happened.
Also: what kind of tree did you end up planting?
I cannot dig so I plonked the tree on the ground and piled wood chips around it. The tree is growing alright. So the roots must have got into the soil somehow. Hahaha
what about building a tree house garden. It will be able to use plastic in a more usable way
I placed an orchard and 20 fruit trees, along with fruit shrubs and 14 raised beds 2 years ago. It’s worked out pretty well. I underplanted them with pollinators like borage and spurge, catmint and daffodils. It’s coming along amazing. The soils isn’t great but I have improved it with llama manure and compost. I just went for it. I read a lot, but at the time I started to feel overwhelmed, I pulled the trigger anyway. I’ve not regretted it. Good luck
Tip from experience: put water in your hole before you put your trees in the hole or the roots may dry out before enough water is able to soak through
Don't know if anyone else heard this or not, but my great grandfather always said to plant the lowest limb on the sapling pointed to the east
Our first year on our homestead we planted 5 fruit trees. We just went for it and it was a loss. Deer broke one tree and 3 more died from various reasons but we learned and saved one tree.
I’ve been contemplating planting nectarine tree(s?) in my backyard, but hesitated for all the same reasons. You’ve inspired me to just do it. I’m guessing I’ll need two for cross-pollination?
I just bought a house one one of the first things I'm considering is fruit trees simply because of the years it takes to mature. Luckily the property came with a mulberry and fig tree.