Did you realize you could plant trees without digging holes?
Sam Singleton at Scrubland Farmz shared this on his Facebook page:
“Wanted to share our go-to method of planting trees. This is just one method but has worked out extremely well for us. I started doing it this way when I was planting under oaks a few years ago and had the worst time digging through the oak root system. Then I thought to myself why am I working so hard at this? The roots were insane.
Why not just put it on top and the roots will find their way down?
And that’s exactly what happened. They are thriving under there now. Come to find out it works everywhere for me and no digging. I love this.
What I found out was, I was healing the ground underneath the cardboard so by the time the roots did break through the soil was starting to heal and the roots didn’t go into shock. The earthworms were there and had prepared the soil for roots. We rang the dinner bell and they came. This also helped with needing well drawing soil which all plants and trees need.
The only issue I can see doing this method was possible wind issues. Easy enough to fix with rebar or plant stake but honestly in 3 years I have not had the issue I thought I would but food for thought if you’re in a high wind area.
If you try this, my advice would be get a really good aged compost from a source you trust, if they have used any persistent herbicides avoid using.
Next use a lot of it, don’t be afraid to pile it up all around it.
Then cover heavily with mulch.
Just make sure to feed and water regularly according to the tree’s needs. Again, your area is probably different from mine and might require something different, but something to play around with. Also this can be a little more advanced depending on your compost. Make sure it’s not too compacted, if so you might need to amend with sand, perlite, char etc to allow for free flowing.
Good luck, I hope you have as much luck with it as I have.”
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Sam is making lasagna gardens for trees, basically. Sheet mulching them in, rather than digging.
I love the idea. The biggest issue is finding compost that hasn’t been contaminated with Grazon or an equivalent.
You might have to just make your own, or use some fill dirt to pile up before mulching.
We’ll have to try this in our yard. We’ve done similar things with perennials, herbs and small transplants – why not trees?
8 comments
Hmmmm, I like it. I might give this a try with some cold hardy trees. I’m concerned about chickens scratching the soil away from the roots. Seems like a good answer to people who like to build mulch volcano’s around there landscape trees.
Their not there.
I have never done this but if I had this situation with chickens and a mound of dirt (yes they will scratch it) I would cover the mound of dirt with chicken wire or hardware cloth or rabbit cage material (or your choice of materials). It depends on what you have a surplus of that chickens can not scratch off. Even bricks would work. If you have to buy materials for this buy something that will not get destroyed that you will happen to be using in the future. I got neighborhood cats to stop pooping in my compost piles with bird netting so I imagine the same type of deal works with scratching chickens.
This is also good for not so well draining soils.
The only other issue is the mounds in your yard. I have grass up to my trees and this would look odd some mounded and some not. Guess i could mound up all the other trees in my yard.
I’ll take your proposal and take it a step further (in some case). If you have a tree that will root from cuttings and you want more of them then take a low hanging branch, place a heavy log or piece of wood halfway down the branch. The log brings part of the branch into contact with the ground, it roots, and the tip of the branch becomes a “new” tree. I’ve mostly done this with figs but it will work with any plant that easily roots from cuttings.
For sure! I actually dug out an accidentally rooted fig branch to give away recently.
I love it when people take “You can’t do it that way!” as a challenge.