Tree Planting Like A Boss

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. 

-Martin Luther

If ever there was something that required patience it would be planting a fruit tree. You put in all this hard work only to wait a few years to see it pay off. But I can say that planting fruit trees has taught me a lot about some jargon we hear in the business world that sometimes doesn’t make sense. 

One term that gets thrown around a lot is - Seed Capital – This is the amount of investment you need to just get started. Sure it’s risky but it could pay off huge dividends. When you think of planting something by seed especially a fruit tree, you can imagine the hope and anticipation of one day seeing that one seed turn into thousands and thousands of peaches or apples or cherries. 

I remember a saying that went something like “it’s easy to count the seeds in an apple, but how about counting the apples in a seed”.

I have personally used the below method and I’ve seen others apply the same method and see amazing results. Bottom line, by following this method you will grow trees many times faster than others. This includes height, breadth, foliage and fruit yield. 

Below is an image of the idea. 

The story goes like this. An American, named Ellen White, moved to Australia to help start a school in the 1800s. The students needed to earn money for tuition and to eat. They tried all different types of planting methods to increase yield. This one worked and it worked in an amazing way. 

You want to dig a huge hole, much bigger than you would think necessary. This loosens up all the soil so that the roots can easily inch their way left and right and down to find more nutrients to keep growing. 

I dug a 3’ by 3’ hole. Put all the dirt in a pile and then you want to add in your amendments one layer at a time. You will see some instructions in the picture above but I think I can make this a little easier on you. 

There are a couple schools of thought on the pipe in the hole. The image says Tin Can, but I used 4” PVC pieces of pipe from a Hardware store. The reason for this is to trap oxygen in the bottom of the hole. The oxygen feeds the microorganisms and causes a flourishing of growth. 

The key to growth of a tree is that the roots are getting all the proper nutrients that they need. I think of them like the immune system of a human. If the immune system is good, all will be well. Or more specifically you could say the gut bacteria. If the gut is good and the microbiome is good then all is well. 

So if you have healthy soil you are much more likely to have a healthy tree that does not need any sprays or chemicals to keep bugs and disease away. I’m a big believer that with plants and humans, if we take care of them as they were designed, they will do great without needing chemicals etc to survive. 

Here are your steps: 

STEP 1 – Put some very rich compost and topsoil mix into the bottom of your hole. You want your roots to reach down and find all the good stuff deep in this hole. I would even recommend mixing up a batch of a mixture of top soil, compost (manure) from organically raised animals, and if possible mixing in a little peat moss, ground up kelp, bio char, organic alfalfa hay and ground molasses. Many of those you can get at a feed store. Don’t stress if you can’t find them all, use as many as you can. Use this at the bottom of the hole and as you add new layers of it. 

STEP 2 – Put a layer of gravel on top this mixture you just put in the bottom of the hole. This as I’m told does something to the electrical current in the ground and channels it into the tree. Just a thin layer of some type of rocks. 

STEP 3 – Now put a 4” PVC pipe with large rocks stuffed into the ends so that for the most part the pipe will trap air in the middle of your hole and not fill with dirt. 

STEP 4 – Gently put some more of your mixture of soil and amendments around the pipe and on top your rock layer and fill it up 2/3 of the hole. Think of the hole in thirds. 

STEP 5 – Put a big rock on top your mixture and now you’re going to put a little layer of your soil mixture on top that rock and then set your tree (or in one experiment I tried – my tomato plant) on top this rock. Then fill in the rest of the hole and around your tree with your super soil mixture.

STEP 6 – put some type of mulch i.e. hay or straw on top of your hole

STEP 7 - Water that tree for 10-15 minutes. (Keep watering every other day and watch it grow.) 

*** If you want maximum growth, I would do something that sounds crazy. This is an old testament gardening trick but I can say it works. For the first 1-3 years of your tree, pluck the fruit off right after the buds come in each spring. This allows for all the energy of the tree to go into the roots. Then your tree will produce so much more and be so much stronger as the years go by to drought and disease etc. 

For many places you may need to spray your tree to keep the birds and bugs away depending on humidity etc. I would recommend something organic.

The reason organic vs. traditional is so interesting to me is that the real point of interest is that the chemicals get into the soil and kill the bacteria. They are the technology of the tree that allow it to absorb vitamins and nutrients. Sure you can still get fruit but will it taste as good as it could have or does it have the nutrient content? 

Think about someone who may look great on the outside but inside they have heart disease and are on the verge of a heart attack. Same idea with organic vs traditional. Both can look fine on the outside but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. 

If you have questions feel free to reach out to me on IG - @jaredthurmon or via @azurefarm 

Happy Planting 

Jared