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Apple tree planting
AdRock
Posts: 241
in Fruit & veg
I'd like to plant an apple tree in heavy clay soil so was thinking of digging out a fairly big hole (about 4ft across and 2ft deep) and filling with a good mix of multipurpose compost, top soil and some soil additive if needed... i've been told apple trees need a good balance of nutrients in the soil.
could anyone suggest a decent recipe for this mixture to make sure my 2 year old apple tree gets a good start. it's currently in a container with blossom, so i'm guessing i have to wait until the blossom has fallen or is that wrong?
any advice would be much appreciated as i'm new to this!
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I wouldn't bother digging a big hole, you want the roots to move out into the soil to anchor it well, dig some microryzal powder into the soil and add a decent top dressing of organic matter when its planted.
I would also remove all the blossom once its finished as you want it to concentrate on putting out roots this year rather than fruiting.
i was planning on filling the big hole with a really good mixture of soil/compost and leaving for a week or so before planting the tree in the middle. it's just that i have really heavy clay and worried about drainage...
Multi-purpose compost is not the right stuff for planting trees. Get a couple of bags of farmyard manure from a garden centre (this will already be well rotted), dig one and a half bags into the area, dust the roots of the tree with a packet of rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi and plant it. Water it copiously and then top-dress the area with the remaining half bag of farmyard manure. Water it once a week until autumn.
All these suggestions are good. Apples do well in clay soil,speaking from 40 years of gardening on clay and growing apples for most of that time. If you plant now keep it well watered over the summer, like a good soaking when you plant and at least once a week and it will be fine.
i have one i planted last year in clay soil, i dug in quite a lot of sandy grit, i used builders sharp sand, (my husband is a builder so i just nick his supplies) i'm sure people will say use horticultural sand/grit but it hasn't harmed anything in my borders and is much cheaper, i also dug in loads of well rotted manure, the tree is covered in blossom this year