Your soil may be too wet for a newly planted tree to do well. This may be due to a hardpan under the topsoil, but this condition can be remedied with the following procedure.
- Dig a four-foot deep hole with a posthole digger at the planned tree site.
- Fill this hole with coarse pea gravel up to the depth at which you plan to plant the tree.
- With a shovel, remove the soil from around this posthole to twice the diameter of the tree container or the root spread of the tree to be planted.
- Remove the tree from the container and gently loosen the roots. If any roots have circled the root ball, cut them, as they will girdle the tree if left. With a bare-root tree, spread the roots and trim off any broken ends.
- Place the tree in the hole so that it will be at the same level with the ground that it grew in the container or in the nursery. Back fill with the original soil, gently firming the soil around the roots until the hole is about 3/4th full. Fill this hole with water and let it settle out.
- Then finish filling the hole to ground level and make a ridge or berm around the circumference of the hole to make a saucer-like area around the tree to hold water.
- Place four inches of mulch over the planting area. Pull the mulch back from the tree trunk so that none of it touches the trunk.
Max S. Sheehey, DVM, Smith County Master Gardener
Texas Cooperative Extension
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