Thursday, May 02, 2013

Planting Fruit Trees

For the past 5 years I have meant to buy cherry trees. Every year I would plan on it but never actually purchased one. Our backyard is not so big and we have two big Maple trees that get in a way of sun light. So I had to be picky about what to get. Thanks to my sister in law, who did some research on the net and found a company who sells good quality trees, we finally ordered. The website is starkbros and the cherry tree I picked is the semi-dwarf Stella Sweet Cherry. 

First I had to soak them in water for few hours. As you see I received them with no soil, only bare roots. They do this to ensure good contact with the new garden soil.


First my husband dug a hole 2x2 so it was double the size of the roots. (Look what else we could plant ;-)



Next he put some peat moss on the bottom of the hole and inserted the tree. Did you notice how I got hubby involved in my gardening tasks? ;-) No, really, I hurt my lower back and was not able to dig anything that weekend.


He covered it half way with the original soil and spread a bit of chicken manure over that. He also put this plastic tube over the tree trunk to protect it from animals... 


... and then he added more soil.


Last step was to cover the soil with mulch and water it a lot. Everyday I water it and watch it closely.. I mean I am kind of obsessed :-) Clearly this bare stick will not have fruit till next year but I am stalking it and monitoring every new leaf that shows up.



And today I ordered two more fruit trees - this time apples... I will make them fit somewhere in the yard, watch me ;-)





2 comments:

Dana said...

We planted two Montmorency cherries year before last and added on a Northstar and a Jubileum this year. We had one little cherry last year, but a bird or something got it before it was mature. Hoping for enough to be worth protecting them this year because I want to taste some fruit from our orchard!

Monika said...

That is what i fear.. that there will be no fruit. i believe we have to wait 2 year till these trees start bearing fruit. That should give me enough time to research it. Good luck to you Dana - I saw you received lots of trees this year!