Thanks for this. I'm in Southern Arizona and the soil has a bit more organic materials than the Phoenix area, but not enough to mean i don't have to add. I've had so many people telling me not to amend my soil, but all the people i see with big beautiful trees swear by it. I decided to amend anyways, and my babies are thriving so far (except for the ones the gophers like lol).
I've been planting a lot lately, and amending clay soil with compost 50/50 and I'm astonished how much extra dirt I've accumulated. I'm not surprised you excavated 12 bins full of that soil!
Another wonderfully delivered vid. Your soil is very similer to London soil...clay !!!.. Thankyou for refreashing my memory on things.. Been a while since i went to college Ps In the same boat with what I could do and now the" old bones"haha
Did I miss the part where you tell us what to put in the hole? Is it ALL compost, or some fraction of compost and some of native soil? And do you add any fertilizer or anything else?
Everytime I plant, someone says you don't need to make the hole that big. Believe me, I'd love to make smaller holes but it's not worth it. I've taken to using a jet water spray to loosen start the hole and let the water loosen the dirt so it's easier to shovel out.
Great video. Our soil is horrible. Deep calache and rocks!! Had to bring in an excavator to dig the holes past it. Our 18 trees are doing well. Gophers is our issue here. Ate the root of our Pecan tree!!! Help!!! 😫😡😫
Hello, what do you think is the minimum temperate zone to do what you're doing? I understand you're in east Phoenix, which is called Zone 13 or something like that, which is incredible that you're doing what you're doing. Could I do a food forest in Zone 7? Sorry for such a general question. Thank you.
people KEEP repeating the nonsense that amending the hole is bad because the roots will stay in the hole.... That has never happened to me... I've tested it and trees that I didn't amend when planting have grown nowhere near as much as the trees that had the holes amended at planted
I just dug up a tabebuia i planted last fall that is in decline because of bad root rot. I followed the whole "plant in native only, mulch heavy with wood chips and never amend" rule. It's the only one of the trees I planted last fall that got root rot. My jacaranda was planted in heavily and i mean heavioy amended soil and didn't get root rot. My hydroanthus was planted native+some amended soil and didn't get root rot. Arbutus marina was planted in native+some compost and no root rot. Everything i plant that I don't amend with seem to struggle in our heavy clay soil.
There is much debate on whether the roots stay within a highly amended zone. And it somewhat depends on the tree type. Scientists have looked at this. It is better to amend a little as necessary and more from the top down, as nature does it. There is a trick a top scientist uncovered for getting plant roots to break that barrier. I have posted that before.
If you happen to dig near a cactus the soil is often a bit more loose. So you can use them as a mild indicator of drainage. They also tend to grow near where the water flows not where the water sits. Vegetation also loosens soil over time. A lot of Arizona did used to have more ground qater and thus more plantlife so more places had better soil too. Its sort of a mixed bad to be honest. Good question though.
thanks! explains why my fig trees are all stunted. i didn't make a big enough hole and I didn't amend either. i put many 25 gallon fig trees into the ground. was lazy with the hole size, and also didn't amend. compacted soil like yours. so you have any recommendations for my bad predicament? The trees have been stunted in growth and fruit production, some approaching 5 years old.
