Well, we’ve done our drainage test today and we might as well be trying to plant in a swamp. The location doesn’t drain well and we really need to consider what do we do next. So we’re looking at planting in a raised bed. We’ve already determined that in this location, drainage is going to be an issue. Fruit trees are not going to thrive in this soil. We’re planning on using a raised bed in this location. So that we can get above the native soil and create an oxygenating layer where drainage will be effective and the trees will be able to thrive.
This particularly raised bed is probably the simplest type that you can construct. It’s simply made up of two by twelve redwood, constructed in a square, it’s going to do the job quite effectively, it’s going to get that root zone up above the native soil. You can create a raised bed out of anything that you like, anything that works for your landscape. You can use boulders, you can use concrete, you can use block, you can use railroad ties, you can, you simply mound up above your native soil by eight to twelve inches. Anything you can do to get the root zone up above your native soil will be effective.
Okay, we filled up our raised bed with some native soils, and we can use the, the soil that’s right here in the area. Because we’re bringing this raised bed up above soil level, even though this maybe wasn’t the best quality soil to begin with, now we’ve created an area where it’s going to drain well. The greatest thing about a raised bed planting is we don’t even have to dig a hole. All we need to do is import enough soil to fold the raised bed and we go from there. All we need to do now is dig out a small hole, enough to accommodate for the root system of the tree and then we plant. The rootstock that we’ve chosen for this raised bed planting is one called, citation. Citation has the ability to withstand heavier soils and do well even in a limited drainage situation
Even from a small beginning like this, citation is very, very capable of producing a good, sturdy, stable and root hardy tree. Now we’ll just back fill around, do a little bit of packing to get all the air pockets out. We’ll also want to take into consideration where this tree was planted before and where about to, maybe just a couple inches away from where we want to be. Bring a little bit more soil around it, and we’re right there to the level where it was planted in the ground. The next thing we want to take into consideration is where we make our first cut. Again, this is going to be a backyard tree, not a big, tall orchard tree. We want to make sure that we start our first branching, low. This to me is already too high. I’m going to come down here and knee high and make that first cut and get rid of this old system that was grown in the nursery and we establish an entire new canopy here so there are fruiting level is going to be low and easy to harvest from.
The last thing we want to do to complete this project is to add our mulch to the surface. Mulching is going to do three really important things for us. It’s going to make better use of our irrigation water, allow that water to last longer in the soil. It’s going to keep the soil average of fifteen to twenty degrees color than unmulched soil and it’s going to allow the bio activity to increase and bring back all the beneficial like microryza, earthworms, beneficial insects and fungi that help the trees to feed and are much more effective and natural way. I like a nice layer of moss to be a couple inches or three inches thick, that way it’s going to be stable and stay in the area and we’ll get all the good benefits out of it.
The last coupe of things we want to consider to finish up this project with our mulch is about every year, we’re going to want to replenish that mulch layer. This is an organic wood product, its going to break down, decompose, work its way into the soil and we want to replenish that layer on an annual basis. Also, as the tree grows a little bit larger, we can actually mulch outside the raised bed, because the roots are going to go out and grow into that native soil, out beyond the edge of the raised bed. This completes another planting project, now all we need to do is wait for
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