[Ropes n' Hooks]

I've never planted a tree before. This spring I'm planning on adding some to the property. Here's what I was thinking. 5 Chinese chestnuts from Empire, 3 Dunstan chestnuts from my local rural king store, and 2 pear trees but I'm not sure yet where to get them. I figured 10 would be enough mostly because of time but I wanted some variety and figured I wouldn't spend a fortune to have them all die since I've never done this before. I know there's a lot of info on planting and maintaining trees online and on this website. But I was wondering if anyone had any other recommendations for either what to plant or where to get them from? Also what are the most important things I should take into consideration as a first time planter?

 

[BIGGAME]

Get trees from a source with a similar climate zone.
Preferably disease resistant.
Location (sun)
Protection (cage/tube), plus protect trunk from girdling (window screen etc.).
Rootstock that will grow well in your soils.
Weed suppression (spray, weed barrier fabric, plastic depending on aerobic or anaerobic.

 

[delphic93]

Biggame is spot on with things to take into consideration.

I used Empire this year for some trees and was real happy with how they looked when they arrived. I like ACN for my fruit trees (Adams County Nursery). May not be best option for only a couple trees though.

My biggest piece of advice is protection. Typically it costs more for the protection than it does the tree, but don't neglect this step. It is always better to plant fewer protected trees than many without protection. However, once you have the cages, they can be reused down the road.

My preference for protection is 5' welded wire fence made into 3' diameter cages but anything to keep deer and rodents away will work.

Good luck and as always, we love to see pics!

 

[surveyor]

i would suggest dont let them dry out. i heard a saying about planted trees. in three years it goes sleep, creap, and leap.

 

[Dobsonknob]

Musser Forests also sells hybrid American chestnuts.

They are small but I bought one to plant and see how it does with my chinese I already planted.

 

[ng270]

I am far from a professional, but have planted some pears and they've been successful so far (not fruiting yet).

Some others mentioned site selection for ample sunlight; I would add to consider the likelihood of frost being an issue at your chosen site. We want to avoid "frost pockets" so that we are not as prone to loss of an entire year's crop via a late frost. A good portion of my property is down in a Kentucky "holler", and my cabin is near the lowest part. It is very common on calm cold winter mornings for the temperature on the porch to be four to six degrees cooler than "up top".

My trees have all been bare roots, planted in the spring. I'm sure that most of my method is common sense, but in case it helps:

I dig a hole that is large enough that none of the roots have to be bent or turned in order to fit in the hole. If the tree comes to me with one root that is extra long for some reason, I prune it to a more practical length.

If you have soil that dries out quickly (sandy, shale, gravel, whatever) and you are planting where you may not be able to water regularly the first year, you may want to use some WaterSorb polymer crystals in the hole. If you are not familiar with them, they come as very small particles (powder), and you mix a very small quantity of them into a large bucket of water. After letting the bucket sit a few minutes, the crystals will have absorbed water and swelled so that they are now kind of like small tapioca beads. I often dip the roots of the tree into this bucket immediately before placing the tree into the hole. Some polymer beads will cling to the roots; I also typically pour some of that water into the hole with the tree before beginning to backfill. The idea is to get these crystals distributed through the ground around your tree's roots. The polymer absorbs water when plenty is available, then is slower to release it than your surrounding soil, so during dry spells that stored moisture becomes available to your tree.

Whether I am using WaterSorb or not, when I set the bareroot tree in the hole, I dump half a gallon or so (depending on tree size) of water into the hole, then begin backfilling around the roots, being careful not to get roots twisted up, etc. I have heavy clay, so my backfill material tends to be in clumps; when the hole is mostly filled, but no tamping has been done (other than pressure with my hands), I dump another shot of water around the tree, to help wash any fines into larger voids. Then I'll add the last of the backfill material and press down with my hands, leaning into it, but not "beating" the backfill in place. I may step repeatedly around the base of the tree to be sure I don't have air pockets, but I don't stomp or otherwise heavily tamp the fill. Then I water again, making sure things are pretty well soaked.

Next I take a piece of landscape fabric about 3' square, cut a slit from one side to the middle, and lay it around the tree. I usually tuck the corners under so that I have a crude circle that is roughly 36" in diameter.

Then I take a piece of aluminum window screen, 12" or 18" x maybe 8", and bend it around the tree trunk. I lay the edges together and staple them together. Then I press the lower edge of this into the soil at the tree's base (depends on the tree, but I try to get an inch or so into the dirt). This keeps mice and rabbits from girdling the tree.

After the screen is in place, I cover the landscape fabric with 2" to 3" of clean gravel (clean meaning it is all similar sized particles, without a lot of fines in it). I get the inexpensive river gravel landscaping stone in small bags from Lowes (or wherever is handy and cheap). For me, one of those bags typically is enough for one tree, plus maybe 1/4 of the next one.

Finally, I stake a wire cage around the tree. I have used as low as 4' tall cages and as tall as 6' tall. Both work, I just try to make my cage diameter a bit bigger when using 4', since I know that deer can reach over the top of them along the perimeter. (But my goal is mainly to protect the central leader, since I would eventually lose lower branches anyway.) I have staked cages with whatever is available, but the best has been 1/2" metal conduit (or T posts, if you happen to have them anyway, but they get costly if using a bunch).

Because I live a long way from my property, my trees never get watered except via the weather, so from this point, the only attention or special treatment my trees get is cage maintenance, removal of vines if they start to press in, and occasional spraying around the edges of the stone/fabric to hold back the weeds a bit.

Here is a 2014 Olympic pear from Cummins Nursery.

Planting day, 4/5/2014.

I did not have the fabric and stone with me, so I came back two weeks later and added that. The cage is 6' tall.

Same tree, 5/2/2015

A couple of pics of the tree on 4/18/2016, with first blooms (didn't pollinate, as this is the only pear I have that has bloomed yet).

And, this is the 3rd (leap) year, so things are beginning to take off. This pic was taken about six weeks after the last two pics.

 

[Ropes n' Hooks]

This might be a stupid question but how do you go about watering the tree after it's planted with the weed mat and tube around it? Do you remove the mat and water it or just water on top of the mat since they're permeable?

 

[ng270]

Just water through the mat & gravel. Water doesn't soak through the landscape fabric as fast as it would soak in with no fabric, but it goes through.

I do try to make sure that the top of my backfill (and therefore the weed mat) is fairly level; sloped away from the tree, the fabric sheds some water (bad when we're not getting much rain) and if it forms a bowl, it traps standing water during wet times (also bad, at least depending on tree species).

 

[BIGGAME]

Poke some holes in the mat

 

[WestPhillyFam]

Have you looked into a local nature center/arboretum/garden nonprofit? Sometimes they sell species especially suited to the local conditions and can offer a lot of advice. Pears are great. Just make sure they are edible varieties and not ornamental because that's a waste of a good fruit tree, in my opinion. I am big on some of our strictly native fruiting trees, however. One I've liked planting is serviceberry (juneberries) and I've planted a couple. Since they are native to PA, they do especially well here and fruit every June. One native fruit tree that I always thought would be fun to plant is a paw paw tree. It grows wild in PA so conditions are just right here. If you can't find what you want locally, you can always mail order. Starks is one of the big sellers of fruit trees by mail order. For the Chinese chestnuts, have you looked to see if they've managed to come out with a disease-resistant American chestnut yet? It would have some advantages being native if they've managed to breed it to be resistant to blight. If I were you, I probably would not plant so many of the same species unless you are looking for a specific landscaping effect. If they don't do well, you'll likely have problems with them all. If you mix it up, you have a surer chance of having a stand of mature trees down the road.

For planting, remember to consider the size of the tree when mature when choosing a planting site. For fruiting trees, pay careful attention to whether they self-pollinate or if they have to be planted with a companion variety to bear fruit. When you plant, don't add any soil amendments (compost, fertilizer) in the hole. You want the roots in the soil they will grow into. If they get used to amendments, they might not grow their roots out as healthily. When you water, water very deeply and then not for awhile - don't soak the roots too often and make them work some to tap down into the moist soil. This will create healthier roots Make sure you tamp the soil well to avoid air pockets.

Good luck with your project!

 

[Ropes n' Hooks]

Thanks for all the great info guys! We just had a piece of our property clearcut last winter so I think I'm going bulldoze an area of it to plant the trees. Just a couple logs need pushed around and they should get plenty of sunlight. I'm really excited to start this project. Again thanks for all the info