Planting trees

[Iowanian]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Wow. Are you getting them when they are pretty small? Are you buying them from a nursery or are you getting some help from the extension?

The 19 that died came from a major nursery in Missouri. They were all 2-3' trees. They shipped late and that week it got really cold. I planted them the night I got them...in a freezing wind and snow. The next week was warm.

I've planted a lot of trees. I have had trees die but never in mass.

The ones I got this year came from a box store and were much larger. Most probably 6'. It was a little later in the spring so they were mostly half price too. I don't count on fruit for 2-3 yEars so I don't care. They all look great this year. All of the trees planted last year lived except those fruit trees.


For years I have mixed in some compost from the cattle lot pile and it's been very successful. I used to mix a 5 gallon bucket of fresh cow shit and water and soup it and dump some on surface after planting, but I burned a few pines doing that.