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It is hard even to imagine real problems with moderate amending of a planting hole in a low-fertility well-permeable soil.

So what happens when you don't have great soil, or even good soil? Or when you don't know enough to know what the difference is?

And when you quote Whitcomb, you are revealing deep-seated bias. And yes, I do also reveal the same, against, and I admit it. Every time I read an article of his, I find myself incensed anew. How a man who used as a method of transplanting a procedure that involved drilling a hole through the trunk of a tree, placing a pin in that hole, and then yanking the tree out of the ground by using a chain anchored to that pin gets quoted as an expert in transplanting methods astounds me.

Note to self: Create a plausible sounding research proposal using the most outlandish protocols you can imagine, even if psychotropically induced, and when no one will publish your findings, publish them yourself, liberally quoting yourself in the body of the work. Voila, you get a cult following.

I've seen countless failed plantings because of the practice...problems that arise anywhere from a few months to a few years down the road. Root systems that don't venture out rapidly far out into the surrounding soil are not likely to be able to support (physically or physiologically) a growing tree body.

The tree may begin to decline after a few years or even fall over. By then, the failure will be blamed on disease, drought, wind, anything but improper planting.

It's interesting going to court five years after an extensive tree planting where 90% of the trees died within a few months of each other.

I prepared my large perennial beds with several loads of composted wood chips. Those beds also contain an assortment of permanent shrubs and trees. However, we've planted several trees outside of those beds, and those holes were dug and prepared without any amendments whatsoever. They are, of course, properly mulched over a wide area.

If anything, those are the trees that have performed best.

By the way, it is worth noting that the science behind this planting by the hole method goes for small plants and larger specimens, container grown AND field grown (B&B).

It's funny that this term used by horticulturists is commonly replaced by "bathtub effect" by hydrologists. I guess it is because the latter generally deal with far bigger volumes (e.g., nuclear-waste landfill cells, which is the context where I first heard of it).

It seems obvious that the soil/amendment/plant variety/climate/post planting care interaction makes for more complexity than to allow for any blanket recommendations.

I.E. my soil might turn into a bathtub in which a heavily amended back fill material might lead to tipping problems. To add to the problem, if I did a lousy job of keeping the new tree irrigated in a heavily amended planting the roots would be more prone to girdling in the tub whereas, if the tub walls were kept moist the roots would be able to pass through the walls. I hope you seeing where I'm going with this. One can do things that under one situation would work well but under different circumstances would fail miserably.

I'll stick with bare root, mulching and no amendments until it stops working in my soil because it has worked beautifully for all 14 trees to date.

After twenty years of trying to acquire as much information about soils, amendments, and planting as I can get my hands on, I've come to this conclusion:

If you believe that whatever practices you adhere to are making difference, you are right. And if you believe that doing nothing makes no difference, you are right. And then you look for the evidence (of which there is a great plenty, whatever side of the argument you join) to support your claim.

And after many years of planting and checking things when problems arise, I can tell you this: far more problems arise because people don't understand watering than because of amending.

I look amending and fertilizing kinda like taking vitamins: If you eat a good diet, you don't need vitamins, but some isn't going to hurt you either.

none of the above has ever occurred, and we get good to fast growth rate of all plants we plant.

like those authors who have said against mulching ie.,. mulching keeps soil dry has never happened, plus i reckon they come out of the wood work to get their names in light and make some bucks from their next publication, never read any of their books and never will.

gardening is nothing more and nothing less than a big dose of common sense and try and replicate the natural system.

seasons greetings to one and all

len

Ha ha ha ha. I love that. I really do.

I did find early on that digging DEEP holes in the clay and planting things below grade thinking they would collect more rainwater was a dumb idea. Lost a few small trees that way the first year, in the spring rains. The locals recommended planting HIGH and mounding up soil around the root ball to encourage drainage. That seems to work.

I am really torn about amending now, since some of you are heavily against it for clay, but the stuff sucks so bad, I just don't see how a new tree has a chance.

If you think that's weird, you ought to see the commercial tomato fields where the rows consist of piled up Marl rubble, a drip irrigation line run down the middle and plastic mulch over the top. The trellis system is a real hoot too, a specialized machine is used to ram lengths of rebar into the Marl for the strings to be tied to. Tomato transplants are then planted in the beds down the bed middles.

Soil amendments, what amendments?

I was thinking more though of the trenching through hardpan (some black ones exist in SW Florida, Bh horizons) or caliche (e.g., Texas).

In later years, I got sick of digging into the hard clay that I ordered a big pile of dirt. It was cheap alkaline clay, but at least it's fluffy, and helps with drainage since all plants are raised on additional soil. If I had done this before we would not had broken a heavy-duty rototiller with the rocks and hard clay.

They go so deep that only one or a few can be pulled.

www.soilyourself.org/2011/01/deep-ripping-soil.html

Prior to doing this he had planted many trees by heavily amending the hole and most or all of those trees died or underpreformed. All of the trees he planted the second way survived and thrived.

I believe it! Add that to the list of the many uses of hydrogen peroxide. Sounds expensive though.