I am always reading, "amend your soil
Where do you read this ?

I am not sure that current planting instructions or practices from reputable places ( like Ag extenstion Office, or universities ) will recomend to dig out all or most of the soil and replace with new amended soil. Some recomend to dig the larger hole like you suggest, but replace with existing soil or slightly amended soil.

Selecting the tree that grows best in your location is most important. That is where to start. If you have lots of clay, you may need to keep away from plants that MUST have well drained soil.

You can make minor improvements in soil, the plant roots however may not want to grow out our your hole ( with the amended soil).

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: please read this first

It seems like when I read posts on the forums, and someone complains about lack of growth on a plant, someone always replies: âÂÂDid you amend your soil?âÂÂ

I wasn't planning to replace the soil that has been dug out, just dig compost (or ?) into it and mix it up together.

Thanks, I read through the link you provided.

You never want to amend individual planting holes. All that does is create pockets of enriched soil that can create drainage and soil interface issues and deter the plant roots from freely moving into the surrounding soil. And this is even more critical if you are working with clay-based soils. Enriched or amended planting holes in a clay soil just result in poorly draining planting buckets or bathtubs and often result in rotted roots and plant death. If you do need to amend, you should do so over the largest possible area - an entire planting bed or ideally, as far as the root system is likely to spread. Difficult to do unless you are starting from scratch :-))

The suggested alternative, and most especially for clay soils, is to dig a shallow but wide planting hole, plant with the rootball above grade and mound the unamended removed soil to the top of the rootball. Use whatever amendment you like as a mulch or topdressing.

The same soil that comes out of a planting hole goes back in as backfill, period. The plant roots will quickly grow well beyond the original planting hole anyway so the indigenous existing soil is what they must deal with eventually. Also, there is considerable documentation to support the concept that woody plants (trees and shrubs) will establish faster and more successfully in unamend planting holes.

lin..

these are 'run them over with the truck shrubs' ...

dig hole.. insert plant... warm up truck

crikey ... see link.. NEVER AMEND A HOLE ...

find better sources.. not provided by peeps who sell soil amendments...

ken

ps: the only thing i would worry about.. besides proper water.. is how rootbound the pots are ... if severe .. i would hold them until fall.. and do some root surgery to loosen them up ... if minor.. just plant them .. truck theory again ....

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I planted them today, in unamended soil. As it happened, the soil was better than expected. With the second, I never even reached down to the clay layer. I did dig wide holes. The larger one (Alice) was not root bound at all. I just loosened them up a bit. The "Twist and Shout" variety was filled with fine roots but no circling. I broke them up with a fork. It's going to be cool here for a few days, so I figured it was my best chance to get them in.