Last year, I got a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to plant a mulberry fruit tree in our back yard. Did some research and it looked like it would match our temperature zone. After some search, found a skinny but tall sapling (7ft tall, about 1" diameter, with a dozen small leaves) at a nursery not too far away. Got it home, miraculously without any damage.
Dug a 3’x1.5’ wide hole in a spot. Soil was dense, clumpy, and full of roots and some construction debris (took them all out). It was also on an incline. Chose it since there weren’t any other trees nearby to compete for nutrition. Added organic fertilizer at the bottom, planted the sapling, broke up the soil clumps before putting it back, and added more fertilizer on top.
On subsequent research, this is likely where I went wrong. Should have added loose, gardening soil instead of reusing the clumpy dirt. But I’m a dumbass and really new to this.
Fsst forward. Watered it every day for a month, then twice a week after that. Winter came and all the leaves fell out. We got a fair amount of rain. Now in a dry Spring stretch and I’m back to watering it twice a week. It has twice as many leaves, some fairly large, which is cool.
Thing is, we’re a year out, but the trunk hasn’t grown much in height or girth. I’m wondering if I messed up and should dig it up and re-plant it with fresh potting soil to give the roots more chance to expand? Or if doing so will damage the root structure? It’s also in a reasonably sunny space (good), but also on an incline so a lot of water runs off (bad). I can move it to a more flat space, but that has a lot of shade.
Any suggestions? Replant it with loose soil? Move it to flatter, less sunny space? Or just let it be and see where it goes? Thanks!
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It sounds like you accidentally did it mostly right. The directions you find online, in gardening books etc are wrong.
The best way to plant a tree is bare root into native soil. Dig a hole just big enough to fit the roots into and pack the dirt down tightly around it. Topdress any fertilizer or compost on the surface and water it in.
The traditional directions you find, create a small area of loose high fertility soil, surrounded by a denser less fertile native soil. Guess what the roots do? Follow the path of least resistance and food. Effectively forming a pot in the ground. Water also collects in the pot leading to root rots.
Digging it up is going to harm it more than anything. The soil you put on to of it isn’t harming it’s growth. If it has leaves and new branch growth, it’s doing alright.
If anything, just get the soil tested in that area and see if it needs more of anything that Mulberry trees love.
Thank you. I’ll leave it be.
There is a pretty robust persimmon and an apple tree, planted by previous owners a long time ago. They seem do pretty well nearby. I wasn’t sure if I had doomed it by not starting it in loose, fresh topsoil.
my two cents being a fan of passive gardening:
I would let it be, especially if it looks healthy, you’re sure it has twice as many leaves as it did before and it’s already survived a winter.
even if you’re careful with the root structure, just a move by itself and certainly removing clumped dirt from its roots will shock the plant.
using new soil would have been good, but if it’s still growingnand healthy then you did fine.
if it hasn’t grown much yet, that could be due to the clumped dirt, but maybe not, and if it’s still growing then I would let it do its thing since it’s already figured out how to grow where it is.
As the roots get thicker and stronger, they’ll eventually break up that clumped dirt and its roots will continue to expand, whereas removing the clumped dirt or trying to move it will definitely shock the tree again.
if you have plenty of time and you want to do something for the tree without accidentally interrupting its growing process, you could add a sort of soil platform on the hill like this:
you don’t need the bricks, though you’ll probably have to pack the dirt in around its sides a couple times over the next few years before plant roots take hold and it holds its structure by itself.
take soil from a place you don’t need the extra soil or grab free soil off Craigslist and build a flattened platform around the tree so that it has a flat place to extend its roots so it doesn’t have to dig downhill as hard and will have more easily available water but:
again, if the tree is healthy and growing, you’re good and it will likely keep growing if you leave it alone, plus this sort of soil platform will be some amount of work, but if you want to do something and have the time, inclination and soil, it won’t interrupt how the tree is naturally growing now and will provide more available water and give it the opportunity to expand its root structure laterally rather than having to do more work digging down.
Ooh, creating a flat platform! That’s a great idea. Unfortunately, It’s on a hilly slide zone, Not sure if the rocks will stay put or end up migrating into the neighbor’s yard.
We had a retaining wall put in several years ago above where the mulberry tree sits. The whole thing is now tilting at a 45-degree angle downhill. I might redo it and add another one downhill to make a flat terrace and keep the water from running off. Thanks for the tip.
The tree definitely has more leaves than when we got it. I’ll leave it be and stop kicking myself.