Planting fruit trees in the area

Optimal time

You can not bother with pits in advance only on black soil – in good soil, the seedling will take root, even if the pit is dug before planting a fruit tree. But fertile land is a rarity in our country. That is why it is necessary to prepare the seats in advance so that the earth is saturated with nutrients and beneficial microorganisms that will help the plants quickly restore their strength.

Seedlings with an open root system are planted in early spring (in the second half of April, but no later than the beginning of May) and autumn (no later than the second half of October) (1). Autumn planting should be completed 3 to 4 weeks before hard frost sets in (2). And pits for seedlings are dug in the following terms: for planting in the fall – a month in advance, that is, in mid-September, for planting in the spring – in autumn (3).

The pit should be round – it is more convenient to plant in it, and the seedling is comfortable there. The work plan is:

• places under the pits are marked with a tape measure and pegs are driven in, a rope is tied to the peg, and another peg is tied to its other end – you get a kind of compass that you can draw a circle with (optimal hole sizes for planting fruit trees – in the table below)
• along the perimeter of the outlined circle, a layer of turf is removed and set aside – it will still be needed;
• the upper fertile layer of the earth (about the depth of a spade bayonet) is dug up and put in a separate pile, on polyethylene or plywood;
• the bottom layer of soil can be immediately taken out of the garden – it will no longer be needed (it can be added to the compost heap, where it will be saturated with useful substances, or used to build alpine slides);
• the sod taken out at the very beginning is laid down on the bottom of the pit with grass down – it will gradually rot and become an excellent organic fertilizer;
• then a nutrient mixture is prepared: 2 buckets of humus should be added to a pile of earth from the top layer of the pit (fresh manure, and especially bird droppings, are not good – they can burn the roots!), 2 cups of double superphosphate, 1 cup of ammonium nitrate, 1/2 cup of potassium nitrate salt, and if the soil in the garden is acidic, there – 2 – 3 cups of wood ash, after that all components must be thoroughly mixed with a shovel;
• the prepared fertile soil is poured into the pit and slightly compacted – in the end it should be flush with the edges of the pit.

All! In a month (winter), the soil in the pit will mature, and it will be possible to plant trees and shrubs. To do this, you need to dig a small hole in the hole according to the size of the root system, put a seedling there and sprinkle it with the same soil.

Optimal hole sizes

Popular questions and answers

We talked about how to prepare planting pits for seedlings with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova.

Sources of

1. Lavrik P.I., Rybitsky N.A., Gavrilov I.S. Gardener’s desk book // L.: Lenizdat, 1972 – 568 p.
2. Emelyanov F.A., Kruglova A.P., Kulikov V.A., Sazhin N.S., Gryazev N.D., Kinkovskaya N.I., Berkut O.D., Molchanov A.I., Khramov P .BUT. Fruit and berry garden and vineyard // Saratov, Saratov book publishing house, 1955 – 472 p.
3. Romanov V.V., Ganichkina O.A., Akimov A.A., Uvarov E.V. In the garden and in the garden // Yaroslavl, Upper Volga book publishing house, 1989 – 288 p.