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What to do with rocky soil?
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Posted by milehighgirl 5/CO (My Page) on Fri, Nov 6, 09 at 10:29
| As I've mentioned before, I had purchased quite a few trees and small plants to plant once my back yard was cleared. The clearing process took more than a year more than I anticipated. Finally we have a level, barren yard to work with! I never could have imagined how difficult it would be to remove 10 trees from a backyard, but the biggest tree was a black locust that hugged the power lines.
Anyway, now that the trees are gone and the land has been leveled by a skid steer my sons and I were ready to FINALLY plant these poor trees. We quickly found that there was no way to shovel the soil because it was filled with rocks. Every shovel full produced 4 or 5 small to medium river rocks, and occasionally a some very large ones. They had to have been brought in when the house was constructed because they are smoothed rocks.
I am so disappointed I cannot tell you.
My guess is that the apples and pears will be okay, but what about the peaches? Should I bring in some large equipment and have the soil sifted?
My plans have all been messed by this. I figured that if I took care of the soil by mulching that eventually the soil would improve over time, but you simply can't improve rocky soil. So much for root crops!!!!
What's your advice? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| milehigh: Rocks themselves aren't that big a deal. What counts is what the rest of the soil is like. If it drains well and has reasonable water holding capacity, then all will be fine. Just stick the trees in between the rocks and don't worry about them. You've invested so much effort you can't back out now. If you just can't bear all those rocks near the surface bury them. Bring in enough good topsoil to make beds about 12 inches high. This will be a great help if you think drainage might be marginal. Poor drainage is 100 times worse than rocks. The Fruitnut |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| I'd think about raising everything in raised type beds. Bring in a bunch of topsoil/compost/dirt and then use lots of woodchips/mulch... |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| No big deal. Every fruit tree I have including peaches are planted in awfull rock. They have all grown fine. In fact I think it may offer one advantage. I think the poor soil may have a bit of a dwarfing effect and may make the trees bear fruit a little sooner especially the pears. This is just my own analasis but it seems to hold some truth. You may want to add a little compost at planting time and mulch the trees in but all will be fine. Scape |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| Okay, thank you for your input. We can't dig with with shovels but I've got a back-hoe being delivered this afternoon. Maybe the rocks are a good thing since the other soil is clay; draining won't be as much of a problem. All I can say is these trees better produce a LOT of good fruit! If I had known how hard it would be to just get a few trees planted I would have never done it. Hopefully in this case ignorance is bliss! After the blizzard last week where we got a foot of snow, it's was almost 80 degrees today. The soil is moist but the air is warm. It's perfect timing! |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| I have to deal with rocky soil all the time being in the New England area where the soil actually sprouts rocks. I'm a bit puzzled at how rocks make it impossible to dig if there is also a substantial amount of soil. Thats what a pick is for. If the rock-soil is so impenetrable that the only way to deal with it is to use a back-hoe I suggest you plant the trees up on mounds because those holes will fill with water and the trees will blow over once they get size, if my experience is any guide. Once the roots are spread throughout the raised soil it actually ends up anchoring fairly well even when the soil's sopping underneath. |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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Milehigh-
You should post some pictures if at all possible... Thats a lot of heavy equipment for planting trees! |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| It's not that we can't dig, it's just that we can't dig 50 holes. We were exhausted just digging a few, so this will get the trees and small fruits in the ground where they belong before the soil is frozen. I just wanted to know if my trees even had a chance in this soil. I guess I've been pretty spoiled at all the other houses I've lived at in Denver. The soil is usually clay, but the only thing we ever dug up was fossils! We'll see how it goes. At this point, like fruitnut said, I can't back out now. |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| milehigh: You just spent a yr digging trees out of this yard. Unless you have poor drainage your fruit trees will grow just as well as what you dug out. I won't want to dig in all those rocks either. But your trees won't care. Trust us. Everyone is telling you the same thing. Good luck!!! The Fruitnut |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| As everyone has said, don't worry about the rocks. Just struggle with the planting. Unless it is moist, I find clay much harder to dig than gravel. If you have heavy sand and gravel, you will have to water more, but the trees will do fine. My topsoil runs from 6-12 inches deep, then I start moving into lime followed by ancient river gravel/sand. Here are a couple pictures of what I planted into, going down 6 feet when I put in a livestock waterer and water hydrant for the orchard and a shot of one of the cherry trees growing there for encouragement. 
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RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| beeone: Your work is as impressive as your soil is awful!!! Thanks for showing that. I've always been impressed with your tenacity and now doubly so. Keep up the good work. I'm betting milehigh will be posting about how good her trees look real soon. The Fruitnut |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| Thanks for the kind words, Fruitnut. I want to encourage Milehighgirl to plant despite her rocks. Digging can be a chore and a post hole digger or backhoe will be handy with the number of holes she needs to dig, but once they are in, the trees should do great. Best of all, with rocky ground, poor drainage usually isn't a problem! |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| For fifty trees I'd probably use a back hoe as well. Hope you made an effort to keep the top soil on top as a back hoe can really screw things up by putting your good soil (or at least the better soil) in the wrong place. Milehigh, I'm really happy that after all the back and forth you've made the plunge. When you begin to enjoy your bounty all the effort will only enhance your appreciation of the results. |
RE: What to do with rocky soil?
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| I do hope you are back filling with your native soil, and resist the urge to fill the holes with something exotic. Your trees need to grow in your native soil and the sooner they start the better. The soil here is also very rocky so much so I can not use a ditch digger as the rocks just jam it up. My trees don't mind it at all. Al |
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