How To Plant Fruit Trees In The Fall – An Easy Step Guide

If you happen to have a small space around your house, then use it to plant fruit trees as well. There’s probably no greater satisfaction for a relatively small effort after all than harvesting its crop, literally, and enjoying it over winter. Besides their practical role, fruit trees come to bring extra energy intro the garden, diversifying the landscape. In order to enjoy them, here are more details about how to plant fruit trees in the fall.

Let’s start with the beginning: digging the hole. As a general rule, the hole should match the size of the roots. A cube shaped hole with each side measuring at least 40-50 cm should meet this criteria. To increase efficiency, some specialists recommend digging the whole some time before planting the tree so the soil gets sterilized. In our case, if you plant in the fall, then dig the hole in August.

Powder the excavated soil to loosen it and use it to cover the roots, making sure there are not vegetable scraps, such as leaves, clippings, because their decomposition underground generates air spaces and micro-organisms which can harm the roots. You can add this remnants at the end, in the upper layer of the soil. When covering the hole, make sure you use the soil which was removed from the surface layers to cover the roots because this is richer in nutrients.

When you plant the tree, mind its roots are straight and not bent. The seedling has to be buried up to 4 centimeters above the last roots. If there’s no snow over the winter, then fall planted fruit trees are vulnerable if the soil freezes. This is why, ridging the land around the lower part of the trunk helps a fruit tree stand throughout the winter without injury and make a better growth in summer.

Use natural fertilizers, such as manure, if the soil is low in nutrients, but avoid nitrogen based chemical fertilizers which will literally burn the roots. Water abundantly after planting the tree.

If you plant bare root fruit trees, then make sure you rehydrate them before planting, by keeping the roots emerged in water for about 2 hours. For a more efficient approach, keep the roots in a mix of water, manure and soil, in equal proportions, for a few hours. This will help the roots hydrate, better settle in in the ground and cure possible wounds.

Sources: Maimultverde.ro, Paradisverde.ro