Do you want happy trees? Do you want fruit trees to grow fast? Take a look at the design of this tree's root structure! This is why you mulch trees! Come join our community and get the awesome new food forest video course: www.skool.com/the-survival-gardener/ MINIMALIST GARDENING: amzn.to/4atX2eq CREATE YOUR OWN FLORIDA FOOD FOREST: amzn.to/4bOouEC Thanks for watching!
Do you want happy trees? Do you want fruit trees to grow fast? Do you want to use DTG Organic Cardboard Based All Natural Mulch? Yes! Yes! And Yes! There's just one thing that I need to know...can I get free steak knives with that? 😁
It's interesting...My huge mountain of free wood chips has been getting rained on for about a month. The chips are only wet on the top three inches. Under that is a lot of dust. How far does rain actually penetrate the mulch, and therefore the soil without human interference? I put the chips in the bottom of my pots cause it seemed like a drainage layer (and they're free). So is it best when it's already rotten?
Paul Stamets the renowned Mycologist and overall the worlds greatest (in my opinion) would probably say this is due to the relationship of fungi and plants. Mulch underneath plants are the perfect place for native fungi to take over and help the plant thrive. Because keep in mind, many gardeners find that wood chips sequester nitrogen in order to break down which ruins their yield. These garden beds are usually void of mushroom activity or have been destroyed by tilling. Mulch enriched with mushroom mycelium is the key my friend.
Grasses favor a bacterially dominant soil. Trees favor a fungally dominant soil. Their soil food web is not the same. Woody mulches and leaf mulches will create the fungal soil the tree thrives on.
Alkaline soil/Acidic soil. The fires in Yellowstone burned the terrain (conifer trees) and released "lime", sweetening the soil and opening up more grassland grazing for the Elk, Moose & Bison herds. Acidic soils are favored for evergreen forest, conifers, fungi, ferns and ground forest dwellers....wild strawberries, blueberries, huckleberries and many fruit trees, apples, cherries, pears and some grapes.
So, this is something that I've seen debated more and more. Steve Diver worked with Betsy Ross (grazing pastures) and found that the healthy pasture was fungally dominant. Dr. Christine Jones mentions she does not believe this in her presentations (I think at least in the Green Cover Seed videos) and also in Nicole Masters' last presentation on Dr. Elaine Inghams channel there's mention of finding a higher fungal to bacterial ratio. Maybe there are different grass lands that do want to be this way, but it seems like pastures at least do not always want to be bacterial dominant. It does make me question a lot of the implications of that belief, as so many will choose what they plant, or not, based on this ratio. -Kat
@James-ol2fr I think there would be a difference in pasture versus turf grasses. Most of us are dealing with turf grasses. It's also reasonable to consider that pasture occupied by livestock would also have a different biome. It's a fascinating subject. I also participated in a product development test with various compost blends. All of us reported that the 50-50 fungal:bacterial blend gave the best performance overall.
As a lifelong landscaper I approve this message. Show me a tree all by itself and I'll either show you sun scald or someone who understands it enough to prevent it.
@@toddallen7862Savannah’s are a thing.. longleaf pine forest savannah mostly grass understory and needs grass fires to germinate. Huge trees when they make it to old age, too.
@@michaelg8642 Exactly! The problem isn't grass in general; it's non-native turfgrass that suffocates everything else. And most forests in the eastern U.S. that are lacking grasses and other sun-needing natives are in poor health because no light is getting to the ground and the leaf layer is too thick due to a lack of fire.
@@michaelg8642 Sun scald usually isnt a problem when a tree germinates and grows to marurity in its natural environment. It becomes a problem when there is no indication of which side of the tree was north-facing during its time in the nursery(rotated and moved many times), resulting in potential sun scald on the south facing side of the trunk after planting. Trees that have time to develop in a fixed place, such as a savannah usually dont develop sun scald.
I put brown cardboard boxes, leaves, grass clippings, pine straw, a little forest soil, old chicken manure from a pen, and some old potting soil around my first fig tree to save it from the terrible drought last year. It worked. Cardboard and mulch is in a 9 ft circle around the tree and it`s thriving.
I am a professional agronomist specialising in fruit crops with more than 50 years experience. And I confirm that you are correct having a mulch layer is beneficial, not to thick though 2 to 4 inches (50 to 100mm) is enough. And the best mulch is wood types that rot quickly, Birch, Willow & Poplar.
Nothing like having huge dump trucks full of tree chips. Had an arborist with a boom truck. Would bring me huge loads. It was great for that when I lived in north. Did it for years . Best thing ever. My gardens were gorgeous. Now I’m in FL chop and dropping anything I can get my hands on. Resources aren’t as plentiful. I really miss the fall leaves. Makes the best compost ever!!
I’m pretty sure I would just cover my whole yard with a foot or two and just let it compost and spray my urine on it and wait for it to compost and then perfect soil
I live on a clay hill in Indiana that was farmed way too many years (before they gave up and let it go wild). 250 trucks of chips later I have topsoil and compost everywhere and everything grows well (way less water running off my property too - only huge weather events cause water to escape).
My steps for planting any tree: - Dig hole twice as deep as it looks you need, backfill half of it with biochar and terracotta (baked clay balls). - Then I add compost to fill another 1/4 of the hole. - I place the tree in and fill with goos soil as usual, however, I make sure the tree is planted a little higher than soil grade. - I add a 3 foot wide ring around the tree (6ft circle total) with the following layers: coarse unfinished compost, then a sprinkling of rotten wood chunks, then an inch of old forest leaf mold, top it with 3+ inches of crushed dry leaves. Trees planted this way take off quickly, are resilient to drought due to that Terra Preta at the bottom, and all the ring layers together keep weeds out and promote the natural biosphere trees thrive in.
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Been watching DtG for a while now, but only yesterday, on a late night journey through his old videos, did I find that this man love to dig dig dig dig diggity dig dig. Made me think because the last few months I dug 2 ponds (one u can fit a small car inside of it), loads of trenches and all sorts of other digging related activities. Am I also someone that likes digging better than gardening itself? 😆 All this just to say that I might not comment, by i am here and i really enjoy the way you approach things. Experimentation and observation are key. Keep doing the good and "giving people plants and make them happy" like you say. Regards from Portugal!
I like the digging too. Never know what you'll find. Found a rusty horse shoe close to a glass bottle from New York with the year 1904 impressed on the glass in a friends garden a few feet down.
As kids my brother David wanted to "Dig a Well" and hit water. He dug holes all over the place but never found water. they made great forts and hideouts for the coyote that lived in the area.
@@CSheri2 That's a shame. All those westerns that I read as a kid had people digging holes or watching their horses pull grass roots out of the ground and finding enough gold for a dozen gold rushes. You should have gotten a horse!
I mulch my seedling trees to fertilize them. But in my north central Florida area there are numerous properties growing oak trees, orange groves, etc., in grassy areas, and the trees are doing splendidly. My fruit trees are planted in small clearings in a mostly oak and pine forest, and the fruit trees generally double or quadruple in size in their first year. Some quick growing varieties will grow 6' in their first year. Wood chips and leaf compost is the only fertilizer I use. I also water regularly the first year. Every day or every other day in the summer during periods with no rain, and less in the summer. It is an art letting the soil dry out a bit during periods of cloudy summer days to airate the soil without drying out the soil at a time when the plant is heat stressed. Follow the dry overcast period with deep watering. Deep watering encourages deep roots. Frequent shallow watering results in shallow roots. In summary, trees need appropriate amounts of sunlight, water, nutrition, and aeration.
i done trees for years and years and yes the mulch was a huge part but the old timers rule is aswell."first year they sleep.second year they creep, third year they explode
❤❤❤we have a half acre in Nederland in SouthEast Texas & have 3 giant over 93 year old Live Oaks that we mulched over the roots that were showing. Also we leave all of the leaves. They don't move in high hurricane winds. They are huge and there is a really nice microclimate under them.
We have a 150 year old oak that was saved when the last owners built our house. It seems a bit stressed the last years and had the crazy caterpillar attack and ants were farming. Took care of that and fed it well. Will removing the grass underneath and adding mulch help it. Hard to get woodchips here because they now sell to soil/landscaping companies. Sad state of affairs. I could use leaves I collect and the leaves the tree drops to create a mulch. Would that help it? We love this huge majestic tree.
@@CMSCK yes the leaves are wonderful! That's what nature does...feeds the tree with the dropped leaves. You can even get bags of leaves from people who rake them up and fiscard for the trash truck. People bag and throw away grass clippings too when if left on the lawn or put in a compost pile can be then used as plant food.
After watching you and PermaPastures, I've learned so much about fruit trees, food forests and their care.. Just mulched all our trees last weekend. They are in their 3rd & 4th years, the first couple were slooow, but they are taking off now. The mulch we used was from fallen trees on our property, which is even better! Thanks for the tips.
Planted an apple seedling in the GRG last year. Heavily mulched it. Pulled back the mulch while poking around, and saw new roots out of the small trunk going into the mulch.
OMGoodness! How I wish I could have met you 7 years ago when we bought a small farm in a village Illinois, and I planted a small orchard. I was envisioning being in a village in England. Being able to walk among the overloaded ripe fruit trees bare foot on the soft grass. OK so I love to read and dream LOL That makes a lot of sense. My trees didn't grow very much and are hanging on by 1 or 2 little branches with about 3 leaves. I haven't had the heart to pull them out. I'll trim the dead branches, cut the grass out, fertilize then mulch with quality mulch. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU 🌳
Since I may be stuck in this area for the foreseeable future, I am considering some guerilla food forestry. This information may improve the odds of success.
I have been gathering gutter mulch from the areas away from high foot traffic were I'm less likely to encounter trash, sifting through it to be sure, and adding that to composting maple leaves from the block I live in. I use the bathroom because tiles are easy to clean and any stray worm can be easily spotted. Now that I have been doing this for a while, the build up of good material is at a point were I can just make a bag of potting soil and add river sand to personal drainage taste. They say we decended from hunter gatherers... I think I have firmly engaged the gatherer side of this duality as I am running out of space in my flat lol Good luck on your gardening journey.
I'm in central FL also. Planted a lemon tree 1 year and a half ago and is struggling to take off. I figured it needed slightly more acidic soil since all peppers and herbs are growing fine.
Grass is my biggest enemy now that I'm trying to grow food (maybe second biggest, first is squirrels). The other weeds don't even bother me much anymore.
I use our old chicken coop muck (mix of cedar shavings and chicken poop) as I’m never lacking for that. I have an oak tree in my yard that I transplanted from the woods as a seedling four years ago that has chicken dirt mulch around it and it has grown an inch per day for the last month. It currently has 28 inches of new growth.
My mother-in-law planted a fruit tree right in her lawn and the grass was barely 6 inches to a foot away from the trunk. It struggled for 2 years before it died even though it was getting watered. The grass was taking everything from the soil and leaving crumbs for the fruit tree. Thanks for posting
I love listening to u as it confirms everything we do in our food forest. It’s nice to see that we are doing something right. Thanks for the confirmation yet again.👌
Thank you for staying so active for us. You have been my go-to for gardening for several years now. That and UF/IFAS for anything and everything Florida specific. When I found your books, I KNEW, this guy gets it. It took me some searching to find you on "social media," and I'm so glad I did! Florida is not "full to partial shade," it is oh em gee you are going to be fighting the elements and the fire ants and soil to keep it going. I realized that traditional gardening is just not gonna get it, unless I want to spend $$$ every month on my water bill and amendments, and that's such a waste. After 5 1/2 years of chronic health issues and HEAT being a massive trigger, I'm ready to start working my way back into the outside. I feel that inspiration, that joy again. And a desire to consume content. This was a perfect video to find something to add to my To Do list. I have trees that look just like this with the grass growing. Like DUH, Megan! The catalpa tree grew exponentially after I used cardboard and mulch 3-4 years ago!! So I need to get back to doing that. It lasted so long too, I did not expect that. I cut reasonably sized pieces and overlapped it so thick... trying to think how thick it should be in order to stop that sod grass from coming through. I have a lot of cleanup to do on my property, so I'm not growing right now. Just beating it all back. Plus the lawn tractor battery died, haha. But my plan is to start in the fall when it cools off and have my winter greens once again. (This is mcouey2/Megan btw... Your biggest fan from Milton :D ) I'm tired of my face being all over the internet, so I changed it up. Thanks again!!!
The downed tree with shallow looking roots, GIANT oaks and pines are in almost every yard here in Texas. couldn't believe how shallow rooted these trees are. #ThanksBeryl.
I live in the Fl Panhandle. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on growing in N Fl. I ruined a cluster of trees with too much wood chip mulch, The trees died. The most probable cause was using fresh wood chips. No other tress or plants were affected. I start every new garden with till, then cardboard, then mulch. I only till one time. I water the area and add more compost as needed.
I totally agree, but it's also good to learn what are the specific needs of the trees you're growing. Sometimes you just need to add some dolomite or epsom salt or other fertiliser to get massive results.
I did the same thing when I was a younger man...... Love trees, however I did nothing to improve my soil or add amendments so my trees just went blah... Great channel
Many trees don’t have deep roots if they are growing in an area that gets a lot of rain. The roots don’t need to go deep to get water. That is why large trees in Great Britain often topple in wind storms.
Trees root system is different from one tree to another. Some trees have shallow feeding roots and some like to go deep in the ground. The example you saw of the disk shaped root is due to the heavy clay soil the tree is in. If you have sandy loam soil, the tree root system will go deep for sure. Also, any tree you plant will take off in the third year. The First Year, Plants Sleep, Second Year, They Creep & Third Year, They Leap!
This really made me think, and I feel like I already knew this. It's one of those situations where knowing why is going to make you do something over just being told - because that's what you do. Thanks for sharing, I'm going to go mulch my apple tree!
Hey! Looks like you stopped in my neck of the woods for this video. No doubt those storms were terrible; we ended up being in the worst affected area by the tornadoes. We're still going through disaster recovery and a handful of my neighbors are now homeless. Half my garden got crushed and I had to replant mid season.
there is also a saying when planting fruit trees that “first they sleep, then they creep, then they leap.” which usually accounts for little growth at first planting.
@@AustinandJax yes you want them to fruit but that doesn’t change the Fact that fruit trees take a couple years to see much growth and then they take off. I’ve been planting fruit trees for over twenty years now.
@@andrewdanylewich7240 Yep. Nothing to do with mulch. Just growing roots first after planting. The uploader mistook coincidence for causality and made a video about it.
I've been trying to encourage perennial groundcovers, like perennial peanut, sunshine mimosa, and cowpeas to act as living mulch. Clover works in the winter time.
David, you have such great presentation skills. And on such a life-affirming topic. Not really knowing with certainty, I attribute that to what religious folks call "soul," which I interpret as a depth of recognition about why we are all here in this world that leads to a depth of character. I rant. Thanks.
I have grass and stinging Nettle popping up all over my new grocery row garden. My son and I have added a bunch of cardboard to kill back those enemies. But we are also using chop and drop methods with both around the potatoes, cabbage and fruit trees with them as well. When he gets to the top of the row we will put it around the rhubarb and onions too. So far the onions seem to be holding off the pests around the rhubarb.
That oak fell due to the water table rotting it's roots, they do grow down a little more than that but you are right about the spreading of roots just under the surface. You can feed both the grass and tree at the same time by spreading a small layer of compost over the grass each spring and have both grass and trees.
Very true that the grass will choke out trees and steal all the nutrients. When we fertilized trees we would go from branch tip to tip aka the drip edge in a circular pattern by putting holes in the ground with a steel bar and filling them with fertilizer only below the grass root zone. If trees do not need to chase water then the roots will stay at surface. Trees are much more likely to uproot in wet areas for this reason. Thank you my good man.
You can pick your grass and soak it in a bucket after a week you'll have nice fertilizer water to water the tree, then when you are done with the grass in the water, use it to mulch your tree.
I have bought a patch of invasive running grass in 10 months and have a flourishing food forest veg garden just with cardboard and waste hay mulch everything is growing at a huge rate 😊 been gardening with mulch made of whatever I could get my hands on for over 50 years feed the soil army as they say an army marches on its stomach 😊
Send in the chickens to eat the grass, you’ll get the bonus of manure as fertilizer, win-win🌟 My chickens wiped out all the grass in the yard without me intending on them doing so 😆 Now all we got is bare dirt and poop…fertilizer. The next rain will dissolve all of that and distribute the chicken poop (fertilizer)down to our tree roots. There’s also goat renting services, they’re great mowers too. Thanks for this video I learned something I had not realized and you explained it well🌟🙌🏼
all my big big oaks like that fell in Ida.. i was pretty upset, but now all those big rootballs have become favorite burrowing spots for all types of critters, and the holes left in the ground serve as ephemeral pools where frogs like to breed. We also have sunlight now, so losing the massive trees was an overall benefit to the diversity of the habitat.
I mulch and mulch and the grass loves it grows best in the mulch. I pull it out go down into the mulch and the grass runners are criss-crossing everywhere so i dig a moat around the tree wich helps but more than a hundred trees its very hard to do and i find that the cardboard worked like a little roof the first years, rain would run off it, when i dug down to pull grass under the cardboard was dry so i broke it up to let rain in now it has composited down but i won't use it again but ill continue to mulch heavily i only have tank water and not much rain Australia
A big mistake in western orchards in the 'tree in lawn' syndrome. Here we "guild plant" to create as much compost as possible from that particular soil without adding anything more(with the exception of compost tea and ash). By guild I mean companion planting with the long game in mind. Nitrogen fixing plants, leaf shedders, nutrient concentrators like banana buds, chop and drop like Inga Edulis and dead animals, lots of dead critters buried 3 to 4 feet from the tree. Aloha!
Saw one of ur vids thru my feed b4 John, I didn't subscribe. I am now, great info. I live on sandstone, lots of blood sweat an tears chiseling out trenches for roots to grow anytime I wanna plant anything. My trees were suffering with heat an no ground cover so all the rocks an stone I carved out I'd put around the base of my trees for ladybug habitat an I know it's not ideal cause you don't want weight on ur roots but it's helped retain moisture an my trees are starting to grow better. But yea I just needa redo my whole orchard an mulch like crazy sounds like an they'd really thrive. Bless you good sir you got another fan!
Mulch really is fantastic. I capped off my veggie beds with rough compost (don't pick out sticks n chunks). Honestly, when I did water, it was just out of boredom and completely unnecessary 😆. Every time I peeled the top layer back to check it was always moist 🤷♂️.
This is my 2nd year of using mycorrplus from ag-usa it is amazing in bringing the soils benefits up. They even have a product for people. Seaweed i love it. Blessings
I thought I wasn’t supposed to put mulch on top of my citrus trees base. It’s just mushroom compost but I’m think I need straw or pine nuggets etc? Something about feeder roots close to the surface?
This is possibly one of your best videos. Thank you for all this very helpful information. Super authoritative, since you say it very confidently, ha ha! No, but srsly, it really does make sense.
You could also use clethodim. This is useful as it eliminates the grass while protecting things like clover that put more nitrogen into the ground as they grow.
Great tips, next door have horses so I barrow in that to mix with my topsoil and mulch heavily a metre around the tree. I still have to battle the grasses but I feel like I am winning and the trees are thriving. I really enjoy your channel 😊
My first mulching from freshly shreddedcwhole trees got some fungus on a peach tree but it cleared up when i pulled the mulch out of contact and used a brush and dishsoap on it. Do keep fresh mulch put of contact with the bark.
I discovered this while gardening in flower pots on my window. It get's pretty windy out there and every time the weather rolled in, I used to have to bring everything inside or it might get blown over, damaging stems. During high heat, my plants would bake regardless of what I did. After this happening a few times, I dug up the whole pot and found all of the roots were sitting in the top few centimeters and not going deeper. Nothing to anchor stems. No pressure to encourage strength or size. My plants were balancing on nothing like dumb Funko Pop without a stand lol Needless to say I have since fixed the issue.
I think it depends on the kind of tree. Fruit trees yes. Maple and Sycamore will grow through the grass. And with maple trees if you fertilize the grass the roots will come up and take over. I'm looking at fruit trees this fall for planting. I'll be mulching for them. Next spring I want to put strawberry plants under them to double the ground usage. I'm not in Florida and live in clay soil instead of sand like you. I'll ask my farmer friend what to do about it.
I was taught that roots go where the water is. So out in florida where it rains frequently, there is a lot of water towards the surface. In the desert rain is infrequent so the water seeps in to the sand and rocks and accumulates below the surface and so the plants roots drive deep instead of out. Where i live we utilize drip root watering to facilitate deeper roots and i wonder if burying fertilizer beneath where you plant a tree would also help facilitate deep roots
I live in Ohio where it was originally all forest. There are areas nearby that have been known as "prairies" ever since the Shawnee moved out 225 years ago. The reality is that these prairies were fields where the Shawnee had raised their corn, and by the time settlers arrived several years later, they were overgrown with grass, appearing like prairies. The parks district in the area tries very hard to make them live up to their name by planting prairie grass in them, mowing, and burning them every so often. But the area naturally wants to return to woodland and does so quite quickly when allowed to. Amazing how land in different areas wants to be a certain way.
No problem here I planted many many fruit trees since the 80s and this house I live in now planted some, but we have so many gigantic leaves that fall from a gigantic old old Maple and I let them sit there for a while. I blow them off the grass and let them sit all around the garden beds. Then in late winter spring I put some down in a lower natural are of firs etc. Let them be in beds with trees etc. s squish them up later when they are a bit dry.. Trees All of my trees and plants love it! No waste. Figs grapes plums and everything loves it. Perfect fertilizer. Never throw away leaves and clean clippings. In winter leaves also help creatures to hibernate.
rocks near the bark of the tree is good, then start the mulch circle... this helps too on some plants that rodents like to eat the roots of. the rocks still help retain water, but are inert so less of a rot risk
There was a puddle of water where the tree used to be. I wonder if there was better topsoil with clay or hard pan below that kept the tree from sending roots deeper. It also depends on the type of tree -- some have deep root systems and some grow shallow roots. Another reason not to have grass around a tree is that grass needs to be watered frequently, but it's best to give trees a long slow deep soak less often to encourage deep root growth. One way to water slowly is to take a 5 gallon bucket & drill a small hole near the bottom -- then place it next to the tree & fill it with water.
I will also say, I have seen trees grow roots out like that when they only hve to go down a few inches to reach the water table. Seen it on a willow by a creek that blew over when the ones uphill more exposed to the wind survived. Trees that have to reach down further will be better anchored
Pine straw is my favorite mulch, especially the thick stuff where the bottom layers are completely saturated and rotting. Some of it on the soil surface has this white fungal stuff in it. Better yet around where i am they do prescribed burns and i can get straw that has ash in it. I'm shocked sometimes how hot hot it is and i dig in the pine straw and its so moist in there and bugs are crawling away from my hands
So, i just saw a short video about scientists showing the very short depth of tree roots. The reason given is that they want oxygen, and they get the most oxygen in the top few inches, but I really wonder if that is flr extreme lack of aggregation in soil. If our soil aggregation went down 18 ft, would the roots follow? Also, wonder about your thoughts on Dr. Christine Jones view that healthy root exudates are one of the best things for getting high fungal counts. (We always thing its breaking down woody material.) -Kat.
Harbor freight: flamethrower is $35.00 I burn all the grass (and diseased leaves ) and then mulch. So far it works great. The cardboard does not work due to fire ants
I inspired me to check on Wikipedia the apple tree roots and also plum's one. I do believe you are right but I am a little concern about ants. They immediately appear wherever I mulch. 😊❤❤😊
The mulch here from roadside branches is whats called ramial which has biology on it and the bacteria /fungi ratio is good for growth If its too hard, only wood, its too much carbon and no nitrogen to help the life that breaks it down, grasses can be very detrimental , but some grass types will be very helpful depending on the root exudates . Trees and vines need a bacteria/fungi ration of 1: 7. Grass needs about 1: 1 , hence the need for mulch and fungi foods that will break this down. Mushrooms , toadstools growing near your trees is great and a sign that its got a balance of fungi.
You could up pot them to give them time to adjust to your yard. We had two 20ft Shuman oaks planted last year. We were scheduled for early Sept but I moved the plant date to Oct to give them the best chance. And they survived and have grown. I planted most of mine in early spring but a couple a few weeks ago. I did clear the grass and weeds under them but I haven't mulched. Going to tonight once it cools down. I water every couple days but I don't think they will make it if I don't mulch. It's just too hot. 93 degree days already.
Something else you may want to discuss next are proper planting techniques. A majority of trees coming from nurseries and stores are pot-bound with their root flares buried by additional substrate. Step 1 and 2 of planting any tree should be finding the root flare and then dealing with the encircling roots that will start to girdle and choke the tree as it continues to grow.
With 2 years of drought(2022and 2023), now I understand why my Grapefruit tree is so stressed, leaf-cutter ants cutting its leaves, and with one weekly watering of 30 liters of water, now I realize the grass roots aggressively drinking most of the water, leaving very little for the poor Grapefruit. A friend recommended I buy diatenacious earth for the ants, as this would dry the fungi they feed the cut leaves with. Thank you as always for your great help, and sending greetings for the Good Family from central Mexico.
Hi David, I have clay soil and a lot of my trees just struggle to grow. I planted a lemon tree, dug a 3 ft deep 3ft diameter hole to plant the tree in and amended the soil, mulched it about a 3 ft radius out from the tree and it never really grew and eventually died. I was using sugar cane leaves for the mulch I think, would wood chips be better? Any other suggestions?
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Do you want happy trees? Do you want fruit trees to grow fast? Take a look at the design of this tree's root structure! This is why you mulch trees!
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Thanks for watching!
2 minutes, and great!
Do you want happy trees?
Do you want fruit trees to grow fast?
Do you want to use DTG Organic Cardboard Based All Natural Mulch?
Yes! Yes! And Yes!
There's just one thing that I need to know...can I get free steak knives with that? 😁
It's interesting...My huge mountain of free wood chips has been getting rained on for about a month.
The chips are only wet on the top three inches. Under that is a lot of dust.
How far does rain actually penetrate the mulch, and therefore the soil without human interference?
I put the chips in the bottom of my pots cause it seemed like a drainage layer (and they're free).
So is it best when it's already rotten?
Paul Stamets the renowned Mycologist and overall the worlds greatest (in my opinion) would probably say this is due to the relationship of fungi and plants. Mulch underneath plants are the perfect place for native fungi to take over and help the plant thrive. Because keep in mind, many gardeners find that wood chips sequester nitrogen in order to break down which ruins their yield. These garden beds are usually void of mushroom activity or have been destroyed by tilling. Mulch enriched with mushroom mycelium is the key my friend.
Thanks for this! Will do this for my citrus saplings which have not been growing despite my transplanting then into larger pots 😢
Grasses favor a bacterially dominant soil. Trees favor a fungally dominant soil. Their soil food web is not the same. Woody mulches and leaf mulches will create the fungal soil the tree thrives on.
Alkaline soil/Acidic soil. The fires in Yellowstone burned the terrain (conifer trees) and released "lime", sweetening the soil and opening up more grassland grazing for the Elk, Moose & Bison herds. Acidic soils are favored for evergreen forest, conifers, fungi, ferns and ground forest dwellers....wild strawberries, blueberries, huckleberries and many fruit trees, apples, cherries, pears and some grapes.
That's why we shouldn't remove leaves from our lawn
Thanks for the info
So, this is something that I've seen debated more and more. Steve Diver worked with Betsy Ross (grazing pastures) and found that the healthy pasture was fungally dominant. Dr. Christine Jones mentions she does not believe this in her presentations (I think at least in the Green Cover Seed videos) and also in Nicole Masters' last presentation on Dr. Elaine Inghams channel there's mention of finding a higher fungal to bacterial ratio.
Maybe there are different grass lands that do want to be this way, but it seems like pastures at least do not always want to be bacterial dominant. It does make me question a lot of the implications of that belief, as so many will choose what they plant, or not, based on this ratio.
-Kat
@James-ol2fr I think there would be a difference in pasture versus turf grasses. Most of us are dealing with turf grasses. It's also reasonable to consider that pasture occupied by livestock would also have a different biome. It's a fascinating subject. I also participated in a product development test with various compost blends. All of us reported that the 50-50 fungal:bacterial blend gave the best performance overall.
Makes sense. Almost no grass in the forest and almost no trees in a plain.
As a lifelong landscaper I approve this message. Show me a tree all by itself and I'll either show you sun scald or someone who understands it enough to prevent it.
@@toddallen7862Savannah’s are a thing.. longleaf pine forest savannah mostly grass understory and needs grass fires to germinate. Huge trees when they make it to old age, too.
@@michaelg8642 Exactly! The problem isn't grass in general; it's non-native turfgrass that suffocates everything else. And most forests in the eastern U.S. that are lacking grasses and other sun-needing natives are in poor health because no light is getting to the ground and the leaf layer is too thick due to a lack of fire.
@@michaelg8642 Sun scald usually isnt a problem when a tree germinates and grows to marurity in its natural environment. It becomes a problem when there is no indication of which side of the tree was north-facing during its time in the nursery(rotated and moved many times), resulting in potential sun scald on the south facing side of the trunk after planting. Trees that have time to develop in a fixed place, such as a savannah usually dont develop sun scald.
@@michaelg8642 Savannahs are not forests either
I put brown cardboard boxes, leaves, grass clippings, pine straw, a little forest soil, old chicken manure from a pen, and some old potting soil around my first fig tree to save it from the terrible drought last year. It worked. Cardboard and mulch is in a 9 ft circle around the tree and it`s thriving.
Was the cardboard enough to kill the grass underneath? Or was it bare already?
@@LisaRL70 It hasn`t grown up through it but I`ve put layers down and I started this during an extreme drought and heatwave on bad red soil.
Cardboard is the wonder drug..
I'm so deep with cardboard now I call it corrugated fiberboard
Just get it on the ground.. AND LAYER IT WITH other org matter.. it will provide you with fertile soil down the track. Repeat elsewhere too!!
cardboard is filled with chemicals tho
I am a professional agronomist specialising in fruit crops with more than 50 years experience. And I confirm that you are correct having a mulch layer is beneficial, not to thick though 2 to 4 inches (50 to 100mm) is enough. And the best mulch is wood types that rot quickly, Birch, Willow & Poplar.
Nothing like having huge dump trucks full of tree chips. Had an arborist with a boom truck. Would bring me huge loads. It was great for that when I lived in north. Did it for years . Best thing ever. My gardens were gorgeous. Now I’m in FL chop and dropping anything I can get my hands on. Resources aren’t as plentiful. I really miss the fall leaves. Makes the best compost ever!!
I’m pretty sure I would just cover my whole yard with a foot or two and just let it compost and spray my urine on it and wait for it to compost and then perfect soil
Ever run into any poison ivy in the chip drops?
There's a website u czn have tree companies dump loads off for free I belove
The last time an arborist with a big boom brought me his huge load, i ended up PREGNANT.
@@kyle4493those arborists are all about the big wood
I live on a clay hill in Indiana that was farmed way too many years (before they gave up and let it go wild). 250 trucks of chips later I have topsoil and compost everywhere and everything grows well (way less water running off my property too - only huge weather events cause water to escape).
My steps for planting any tree:
- Dig hole twice as deep as it looks you need, backfill half of it with biochar and terracotta (baked clay balls).
- Then I add compost to fill another 1/4 of the hole.
- I place the tree in and fill with goos soil as usual, however, I make sure the tree is planted a little higher than soil grade.
- I add a 3 foot wide ring around the tree (6ft circle total) with the following layers: coarse unfinished compost, then a sprinkling of rotten wood chunks, then an inch of old forest leaf mold, top it with 3+ inches of crushed dry leaves.
Trees planted this way take off quickly, are resilient to drought due to that Terra Preta at the bottom, and all the ring layers together keep weeds out and promote the natural biosphere trees thrive in.
Been watching DtG for a while now, but only yesterday, on a late night journey through his old videos, did I find that this man love to dig dig dig dig diggity dig dig. Made me think because the last few months I dug 2 ponds (one u can fit a small car inside of it), loads of trenches and all sorts of other digging related activities. Am I also someone that likes digging better than gardening itself? 😆
All this just to say that I might not comment, by i am here and i really enjoy the way you approach things. Experimentation and observation are key. Keep doing the good and "giving people plants and make them happy" like you say. Regards from Portugal!
I like the digging too. Never know what you'll find. Found a rusty horse shoe close to a glass bottle from New York with the year 1904 impressed on the glass in a friends garden a few feet down.
As kids my brother David wanted to "Dig a Well" and hit water. He dug holes all over the place but never found water. they made great forts and hideouts for the coyote that lived in the area.
@@CSheri2 That's a shame. All those westerns that I read as a kid had people digging holes or watching their horses pull grass roots out of the ground and finding enough gold for a dozen gold rushes. You should have gotten a horse!
I mulch my seedling trees to fertilize them. But in my north central Florida area there are numerous properties growing oak trees, orange groves, etc., in grassy areas, and the trees are doing splendidly.
My fruit trees are planted in small clearings in a mostly oak and pine forest, and the fruit trees generally double or quadruple in size in their first year. Some quick growing varieties will grow 6' in their first year.
Wood chips and leaf compost is the only fertilizer I use.
I also water regularly the first year. Every day or every other day in the summer during periods with no rain, and less in the summer.
It is an art letting the soil dry out a bit during periods of cloudy summer days to airate the soil without drying out the soil at a time when the plant is heat stressed.
Follow the dry overcast period with deep watering. Deep watering encourages deep roots. Frequent shallow watering results in shallow roots.
In summary, trees need appropriate amounts of sunlight, water, nutrition, and aeration.
I just planted my first fruit tree, a persimmon, two months ago. I will mulch it immediately.
i done trees for years and years and yes the mulch was a huge part but the old timers rule is aswell."first year they sleep.second year they creep, third year they explode
The say is…sleeping, creeping,leaping 😊
❤❤❤we have a half acre in Nederland in SouthEast Texas & have 3 giant over 93 year old Live Oaks that we mulched over the roots that were showing. Also we leave all of the leaves. They don't move in high hurricane winds. They are huge and there is a really nice microclimate under them.
We have a 150 year old oak that was saved when the last owners built our house. It seems a bit stressed the last years and had the crazy caterpillar attack and ants were farming. Took care of that and fed it well. Will removing the grass underneath and adding mulch help it. Hard to get woodchips here because they now sell to soil/landscaping companies. Sad state of affairs. I could use leaves I collect and the leaves the tree drops to create a mulch. Would that help it? We love this huge majestic tree.
@@CMSCK yes the leaves are wonderful! That's what nature does...feeds the tree with the dropped leaves. You can even get bags of leaves from people who rake them up and fiscard for the trash truck. People bag and throw away grass clippings too when if left on the lawn or put in a compost pile can be then used as plant food.
Today I learned there is a place called Nederland in Texas. Greetings from Nederland, EU.
@@cantbringmedowntoday our town was settled by Dutch families in 1897.
Greetings from Nederland, Texas USA
After watching you and PermaPastures, I've learned so much about fruit trees, food forests and their care.. Just mulched all our trees last weekend. They are in their 3rd & 4th years, the first couple were slooow, but they are taking off now. The mulch we used was from fallen trees on our property, which is even better! Thanks for the tips.
Agree on the mulching for grass and weeds, but also remember that trees sleep, creep, and leap on years 1, 2, and 3.
They just gotta feel things out 😮
That saying is for perennials not trees.
@@CheeferSutherland
Trees, shrubs, and perennials.
@@valerie3955 I’ll agree to disagree. Have a good one. 🙂
Planted an apple seedling in the GRG last year. Heavily mulched it.
Pulled back the mulch while poking around, and saw new roots out of the small trunk going into the mulch.
OMGoodness! How I wish I could have met you 7 years ago when we bought a small farm in a village Illinois, and I planted a small orchard. I was envisioning being in a village in England. Being able to walk among the overloaded ripe fruit trees bare foot on the soft grass. OK so I love to read and dream LOL That makes a lot of sense. My trees didn't grow very much and are hanging on by 1 or 2 little branches with about 3 leaves. I haven't had the heart to pull them out. I'll trim the dead branches, cut the grass out, fertilize then mulch with quality mulch. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU 🌳
Since I may be stuck in this area for the foreseeable future, I am considering some guerilla food forestry. This information may improve the odds of success.
I have been gathering gutter mulch from the areas away from high foot traffic were I'm less likely to encounter trash, sifting through it to be sure, and adding that to composting maple leaves from the block I live in. I use the bathroom because tiles are easy to clean and any stray worm can be easily spotted. Now that I have been doing this for a while, the build up of good material is at a point were I can just make a bag of potting soil and add river sand to personal drainage taste.
They say we decended from hunter gatherers... I think I have firmly engaged the gatherer side of this duality as I am running out of space in my flat lol
Good luck on your gardening journey.
Oh, yeah. I love gorillas too. I do prefer them in the rainforest rather than my food forest, but to each their own.
@@phillipbampton911 ???????
I'm in central FL also. Planted a lemon tree 1 year and a half ago and is struggling to take off. I figured it needed slightly more acidic soil since all peppers and herbs are growing fine.
Great tips. This is probably why my shrubs have been struggling for three years. Thanks for sharing.
I grew some apple trees from seed and have been keeping them mulched. I've been really happy with their progress.
The dicots and the monocots continue their battle.
A+++
Ya
Grass is my biggest enemy now that I'm trying to grow food (maybe second biggest, first is squirrels). The other weeds don't even bother me much anymore.
The tree rats eat all my apples l, dig holes in my garden beds. Compost your enemies friend
Chipdrop is one of my favorite resources
Their concept seems sound, how does it work for you?
@@thadrobinson8343 works as expected, but do not underestimate it. you can get a little or ALOT, and you have to prepare for it all
I use our old chicken coop muck (mix of cedar shavings and chicken poop) as I’m never lacking for that. I have an oak tree in my yard that I transplanted from the woods as a seedling four years ago that has chicken dirt mulch around it and it has grown an inch per day for the last month. It currently has 28 inches of new growth.
My mother-in-law planted a fruit tree right in her lawn and the grass was barely 6 inches to a foot away from the trunk. It struggled for 2 years before it died even though it was getting watered. The grass was taking everything from the soil and leaving crumbs for the fruit tree. Thanks for posting
Below some of my fruit trees I have wood chips, strawberries, and wine cap mushrooms. Very productive little areas.
Oh my goodness! That’s why new tree starters always have mulch around them with a support cage. I had no idea it helped the tree grow so much.
I love listening to u as it confirms everything we do in our food forest. It’s nice to see that we are doing something right. Thanks for the confirmation yet again.👌
Just mulched our fruit trees this weekend, that struggled for 2years. We will send you photos before and after
Thank you for staying so active for us. You have been my go-to for gardening for several years now. That and UF/IFAS for anything and everything Florida specific. When I found your books, I KNEW, this guy gets it. It took me some searching to find you on "social media," and I'm so glad I did!
Florida is not "full to partial shade," it is oh em gee you are going to be fighting the elements and the fire ants and soil to keep it going. I realized that traditional gardening is just not gonna get it, unless I want to spend $$$ every month on my water bill and amendments, and that's such a waste.
After 5 1/2 years of chronic health issues and HEAT being a massive trigger, I'm ready to start working my way back into the outside. I feel that inspiration, that joy again. And a desire to consume content. This was a perfect video to find something to add to my To Do list. I have trees that look just like this with the grass growing. Like DUH, Megan! The catalpa tree grew exponentially after I used cardboard and mulch 3-4 years ago!! So I need to get back to doing that. It lasted so long too, I did not expect that. I cut reasonably sized pieces and overlapped it so thick... trying to think how thick it should be in order to stop that sod grass from coming through.
I have a lot of cleanup to do on my property, so I'm not growing right now. Just beating it all back. Plus the lawn tractor battery died, haha. But my plan is to start in the fall when it cools off and have my winter greens once again.
(This is mcouey2/Megan btw... Your biggest fan from Milton :D ) I'm tired of my face being all over the internet, so I changed it up.
Thanks again!!!
Thank you, Megan. You didn't give up!
Fantastic demonstration and explanations... I introduced my mother to your channel and she loves your informative humor...
Thank you. Say "hi" to her for me.
@@davidthegood Hahahaha! I'll show her! You're great!
Appreciate hearing this tip from you
I was getting getting very careful with the base of my fig tree. Now I'll lavish more mulching on it.
I try not to bury the trunk itself in mulch, though as that could cause rot. I spread the mulch all around the base but not in contact with the tree.
Thanks! Put your new book out in audible please
Thank you
The downed tree with shallow looking roots, GIANT oaks and pines are in almost every yard here in Texas. couldn't believe how shallow rooted these trees are. #ThanksBeryl.
Make the whole yard a garden
I'm trying!
It was supposed to be.
I live in the Fl Panhandle. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on growing in N Fl.
I ruined a cluster of trees with too much wood chip mulch, The trees died. The most probable cause was using fresh wood chips.
No other tress or plants were affected.
I start every new garden with till, then cardboard, then mulch. I only till one time.
I water the area and add more compost as needed.
I totally agree, but it's also good to learn what are the specific needs of the trees you're growing. Sometimes you just need to add some dolomite or epsom salt or other fertiliser to get massive results.
I did the same thing when I was a younger man...... Love trees, however I did nothing to improve my soil or add amendments so my trees just went blah...
Great channel
Use some fabacea as living mulch. They keep the nitrogen in the upper soil and they'll help the bees with flowring. It's a win-win.
Many trees don’t have deep roots if they are growing in an area that gets a lot of rain. The roots don’t need to go deep to get water. That is why large trees in Great Britain often topple in wind storms.
Trees root system is different from one tree to another. Some trees have shallow feeding roots and some like to go deep in the ground. The example you saw of the disk shaped root is due to the heavy clay soil the tree is in. If you have sandy loam soil, the tree root system will go deep for sure. Also, any tree you plant will take off in the third year. The First Year, Plants Sleep, Second Year, They Creep & Third Year, They Leap!
Wow, so glad I saw this! Went from clueless to enlightened. Thank you!
I learned something. Its not easy to teach me things. You should be proud.
lol! We have a saying here in the farmlands of Washington State...."You can tell a Norwegian...but you can't tell them much".
This really made me think, and I feel like I already knew this. It's one of those situations where knowing why is going to make you do something over just being told - because that's what you do. Thanks for sharing, I'm going to go mulch my apple tree!
Hey! Looks like you stopped in my neck of the woods for this video. No doubt those storms were terrible; we ended up being in the worst affected area by the tornadoes. We're still going through disaster recovery and a handful of my neighbors are now homeless. Half my garden got crushed and I had to replant mid season.
I was shocked by the damage. Pine trees split in the middle. That was horrible. So sorry you had to deal with it.
there is also a saying when planting fruit trees that “first they sleep, then they creep, then they leap.” which usually accounts for little growth at first planting.
Not really. This saying is for the perennial plants/flowers.
For the fruit trees your goal is to get them to fruit as quickly as possible.
Yes really
@@AustinandJax yes you want them to fruit but that doesn’t change the Fact that fruit trees take a couple years to see much growth and then they take off. I’ve been planting fruit trees for over twenty years now.
@@andrewdanylewich7240 Yep. Nothing to do with mulch. Just growing roots first after planting. The uploader mistook coincidence for causality and made a video about it.
I've been trying to encourage perennial groundcovers, like perennial peanut, sunshine mimosa, and cowpeas to act as living mulch. Clover works in the winter time.
Thank you for the video. My fruit trees can use all the help they can get. God bless y'all and keep growing.
David, you have such great presentation skills. And on such a life-affirming topic. Not really knowing with certainty, I attribute that to what religious folks call "soul," which I interpret as a depth of recognition about why we are all here in this world that leads to a depth of character. I rant. Thanks.
That is kind of you.
I just did this today for my fig tree. Going to do it for my loquat and the rest of any fruit trees I get. Thanks for reassuring my doubts I had.
I have grass and stinging Nettle popping up all over my new grocery row garden. My son and I have added a bunch of cardboard to kill back those enemies. But we are also using chop and drop methods with both around the potatoes, cabbage and fruit trees with them as well. When he gets to the top of the row we will put it around the rhubarb and onions too. So far the onions seem to be holding off the pests around the rhubarb.
That oak fell due to the water table rotting it's roots, they do grow down a little more than that but you are right about the spreading of roots just under the surface. You can feed both the grass and tree at the same time by spreading a small layer of compost over the grass each spring and have both grass and trees.
Very true that the grass will choke out trees and steal all the nutrients. When we fertilized trees we would go from branch tip to tip aka the drip edge in a circular pattern by putting holes in the ground with a steel bar and filling them with fertilizer only below the grass root zone. If trees do not need to chase water then the roots will stay at surface. Trees are much more likely to uproot in wet areas for this reason. Thank you my good man.
You can pick your grass and soak it in a bucket after a week you'll have nice fertilizer water to water the tree, then when you are done with the grass in the water, use it to mulch your tree.
I have bought a patch of invasive running grass in 10 months and have a flourishing food forest veg garden just with cardboard and waste hay mulch everything is growing at a huge rate 😊 been gardening with mulch made of whatever I could get my hands on for over 50 years feed the soil army as they say an army marches on its stomach 😊
Send in the chickens to eat the grass, you’ll get the bonus of manure as fertilizer, win-win🌟 My chickens wiped out all the grass in the yard without me intending on them doing so 😆 Now all we got is bare dirt and poop…fertilizer. The next rain will dissolve all of that and distribute the chicken poop (fertilizer)down to our tree roots. There’s also goat renting services, they’re great mowers too. Thanks for this video I learned something I had not realized and you explained it well🌟🙌🏼
all my big big oaks like that fell in Ida.. i was pretty upset, but now all those big rootballs have become favorite burrowing spots for all types of critters, and the holes left in the ground serve as ephemeral pools where frogs like to breed. We also have sunlight now, so losing the massive trees was an overall benefit to the diversity of the habitat.
awesome video. thanks David. now i know why people make huge circles around trees with mulch and no grass or other plants in that circle
I mulch and mulch and the grass loves it grows best in the mulch. I pull it out go down into the mulch and the grass runners are criss-crossing everywhere so i dig a moat around the tree wich helps but more than a hundred trees its very hard to do and i find that the cardboard worked like a little roof the first years, rain would run off it, when i dug down to pull grass under the cardboard was dry so i broke it up to let rain in now it has composited down but i won't use it again but ill continue to mulch heavily i only have tank water and not much rain Australia
A big mistake in western orchards in the 'tree in lawn' syndrome. Here we "guild plant" to create as much compost as possible from that particular soil without adding anything more(with the exception of compost tea and ash). By guild I mean companion planting with the long game in mind. Nitrogen fixing plants, leaf shedders, nutrient concentrators like banana buds, chop and drop like Inga Edulis and dead animals, lots of dead critters buried 3 to 4 feet from the tree. Aloha!
Saw one of ur vids thru my feed b4 John, I didn't subscribe. I am now, great info. I live on sandstone, lots of blood sweat an tears chiseling out trenches for roots to grow anytime I wanna plant anything. My trees were suffering with heat an no ground cover so all the rocks an stone I carved out I'd put around the base of my trees for ladybug habitat an I know it's not ideal cause you don't want weight on ur roots but it's helped retain moisture an my trees are starting to grow better. But yea I just needa redo my whole orchard an mulch like crazy sounds like an they'd really thrive. Bless you good sir you got another fan!
welcome
Mulch really is fantastic. I capped off my veggie beds with rough compost (don't pick out sticks n chunks). Honestly, when I did water, it was just out of boredom and completely unnecessary 😆. Every time I peeled the top layer back to check it was always moist 🤷♂️.
This is my 2nd year of using mycorrplus from ag-usa it is amazing in bringing the soils benefits up. They even have a product for people. Seaweed i love it. Blessings
That sounds good. If it works, use it! Fungi are amazing.
Planting my first few fruit trees on my half acre this year. Thanks for the tips!
I thought I wasn’t supposed to put mulch on top of my citrus trees base. It’s just mushroom compost but I’m think I need straw or pine nuggets etc? Something about feeder roots close to the surface?
This is possibly one of your best videos.
Thank you for all this very helpful information.
Super authoritative, since you say it very confidently, ha ha!
No, but srsly, it really does make sense.
Thanks
You could also use clethodim. This is useful as it eliminates the grass while protecting things like clover that put more nitrogen into the ground as they grow.
Great tips, next door have horses so I barrow in that to mix with my topsoil and mulch heavily a metre around the tree. I still have to battle the grasses but I feel like I am winning and the trees are thriving. I really enjoy your channel 😊
Look into Grazon herbicide poisoning. It's in the horse feed and sprayed hay fields.
My first mulching from freshly shreddedcwhole trees got some fungus on a peach tree but it cleared up when i pulled the mulch out of contact and used a brush and dishsoap on it. Do keep fresh mulch put of contact with the bark.
I mulched Mama Syncamore
Because i love her
I discovered this while gardening in flower pots on my window. It get's pretty windy out there and every time the weather rolled in, I used to have to bring everything inside or it might get blown over, damaging stems. During high heat, my plants would bake regardless of what I did. After this happening a few times, I dug up the whole pot and found all of the roots were sitting in the top few centimeters and not going deeper. Nothing to anchor stems. No pressure to encourage strength or size. My plants were balancing on nothing like dumb Funko Pop without a stand lol
Needless to say I have since fixed the issue.
I had alot of connect the dots moments during this video. I appreciate you man. Thanks for all the great info.
I think it depends on the kind of tree. Fruit trees yes. Maple and Sycamore will grow through the grass. And with maple trees if you fertilize the grass the roots will come up and take over.
I'm looking at fruit trees this fall for planting. I'll be mulching for them. Next spring I want to put strawberry plants under them to double the ground usage.
I'm not in Florida and live in clay soil instead of sand like you. I'll ask my farmer friend what to do about it.
I REALLY LOVE HOW DAVID KEEP IT SIMPLE
Thank you.
Thank you for your insight it is so simple and groundbreaking at the same time.
Hello. Could you tell me what the mulch you are using is called? Is it shredded pine bark mulch or something similar?
Since I have added leaf mulch and wood chips along with free range chickens and rabbit manure, my fruit trees are now thriving with bigger fruits.
That storm that came through NW FL and S AL the other day was unexpectedly fierce. Good lesson though! Thanks for the insight.
I was taught that roots go where the water is. So out in florida where it rains frequently, there is a lot of water towards the surface. In the desert rain is infrequent so the water seeps in to the sand and rocks and accumulates below the surface and so the plants roots drive deep instead of out.
Where i live we utilize drip root watering to facilitate deeper roots and i wonder if burying fertilizer beneath where you plant a tree would also help facilitate deep roots
Gotta get your book! You introduced me to the term food forest and I have been hooked ever since!
What about the oak Savannah habitat? Perhaps white oak and bur oak are built differently.
Ya
I live in Ohio where it was originally all forest. There are areas nearby that have been known as "prairies" ever since the Shawnee moved out 225 years ago. The reality is that these prairies were fields where the Shawnee had raised their corn, and by the time settlers arrived several years later, they were overgrown with grass, appearing like prairies. The parks district in the area tries very hard to make them live up to their name by planting prairie grass in them, mowing, and burning them every so often. But the area naturally wants to return to woodland and does so quite quickly when allowed to. Amazing how land in different areas wants to be a certain way.
No problem here I planted many many fruit trees since the 80s and this house I live in now planted some, but we have so many gigantic leaves that fall from a gigantic old old Maple and I let them sit there for a while. I blow them off the grass and let them sit all around the garden beds. Then in late winter spring I put some down in a lower natural are of firs etc. Let them be in beds with trees etc. s squish them up later when they are a bit dry.. Trees All of my trees and plants love it! No waste. Figs grapes plums and everything loves it. Perfect fertilizer. Never throw away leaves and clean clippings. In winter leaves also help creatures to hibernate.
Maple leaves are really good - they break down fast!
rocks near the bark of the tree is good, then start the mulch circle... this helps too on some plants that rodents like to eat the roots of. the rocks still help retain water, but are inert so less of a rot risk
There was a puddle of water where the tree used to be. I wonder if there was better topsoil with clay or hard pan below that kept the tree from sending roots deeper. It also depends on the type of tree -- some have deep root systems and some grow shallow roots.
Another reason not to have grass around a tree is that grass needs to be watered frequently, but it's best to give trees a long slow deep soak less often to encourage deep root growth. One way to water slowly is to take a 5 gallon bucket & drill a small hole near the bottom -- then place it next to the tree & fill it with water.
I will also say, I have seen trees grow roots out like that when they only hve to go down a few inches to reach the water table. Seen it on a willow by a creek that blew over when the ones uphill more exposed to the wind survived. Trees that have to reach down further will be better anchored
Oh wow! Thank you so much for the instructions and video! We always learn so much from you❣️
Pine straw is my favorite mulch, especially the thick stuff where the bottom layers are completely saturated and rotting. Some of it on the soil surface has this white fungal stuff in it. Better yet around where i am they do prescribed burns and i can get straw that has ash in it. I'm shocked sometimes how hot hot it is and i dig in the pine straw and its so moist in there and bugs are crawling away from my hands
So, i just saw a short video about scientists showing the very short depth of tree roots.
The reason given is that they want oxygen, and they get the most oxygen in the top few inches, but I really wonder if that is flr extreme lack of aggregation in soil. If our soil aggregation went down 18 ft, would the roots follow?
Also, wonder about your thoughts on Dr. Christine Jones view that healthy root exudates are one of the best things for getting high fungal counts. (We always thing its breaking down woody material.)
-Kat.
Harbor freight: flamethrower is $35.00
I burn all the grass (and diseased leaves ) and then mulch.
So far it works great.
The cardboard does not work due to fire ants
This sounds fun 😅
Do the flames fry the fire ants or does the fire fire them up?
I inspired me to check on Wikipedia the apple tree roots and also plum's one. I do believe you are right but I am a little concern about ants. They immediately appear wherever I mulch. 😊❤❤😊
The mulch here from roadside branches is whats called ramial which has biology on it and the bacteria /fungi ratio is good for growth If its too hard, only wood, its too much carbon and no nitrogen to help the life that breaks it down, grasses can be very detrimental , but some grass types will be very helpful depending on the root exudates . Trees and vines need a bacteria/fungi ration of 1: 7. Grass needs about 1: 1 , hence the need for mulch and fungi foods that will break this down. Mushrooms , toadstools growing near your trees is great and a sign that its got a balance of fungi.
There are a lot of bareroot trees on sale this time of year. It's getting hot so I'm not sure about planting. If I mulch will it help survival?
Yes
You could up pot them to give them time to adjust to your yard.
We had two 20ft Shuman oaks planted last year. We were scheduled for early Sept but I moved the plant date to Oct to give them the best chance. And they survived and have grown.
I planted most of mine in early spring but a couple a few weeks ago. I did clear the grass and weeds under them but I haven't mulched. Going to tonight once it cools down. I water every couple days but I don't think they will make it if I don't mulch. It's just too hot. 93 degree days already.
Something else you may want to discuss next are proper planting techniques. A majority of trees coming from nurseries and stores are pot-bound with their root flares buried by additional substrate. Step 1 and 2 of planting any tree should be finding the root flare and then dealing with the encircling roots that will start to girdle and choke the tree as it continues to grow.
With 2 years of drought(2022and 2023), now I understand why my Grapefruit tree is so stressed, leaf-cutter ants cutting its leaves, and with one weekly watering of 30 liters of water, now I realize the grass roots aggressively drinking most of the water, leaving very little for the poor Grapefruit. A friend recommended I buy diatenacious earth for the ants, as this would dry the fungi they feed the cut leaves with. Thank you as always for your great help, and sending greetings for the Good Family from central Mexico.
Thanks a million. I had no idea. Do now.
Age of the tree accounts into some of that as well. Some trees don't actually explode until their 3-5 years
I am also in north central Florida. I think I need to run and buy your florida food forest book 😊
Do It!
You will enjoy it.
Hi David, I have clay soil and a lot of my trees just struggle to grow. I planted a lemon tree, dug a 3 ft deep 3ft diameter hole to plant the tree in and amended the soil, mulched it about a 3 ft radius out from the tree and it never really grew and eventually died. I was using sugar cane leaves for the mulch I think, would wood chips be better? Any other suggestions?
I would consider planting on mounds