Planting the Fruit Tree
Excerpts from Bob Randall’s book Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers for Metro Houston

 

When a tree is transplanted, roots are damaged while the leaves keep giving off water, so in hot weather, it is very easy to lose a root-damaged tree. If the tree is planted when it is dormant, and evaporation is at a minimum, there is much less risk. Therefore, you should plant trees between the middle of December and the middle of February unless they are frost sensitive. For semi-tropical fruits such as figs, bananas, papayas and citrus, plant in the middle of March. You want them planted late enough to avoid freezes, but early enough to develop a good root system before either summer heat or winter cold. If non-tropical potted trees have good roots, you can plant any time, if you are careful not to damage the roots. Winter is still preferred for these though, since they can adapt before having to cope with high heat.

 

Bare root trees do not have soil around them, so you need to do the following:

1. Do not let the roots of the tree dry out or be exposed to temperature below freezing. It is OK to let the trunk be exposed. Keep the tree cool.
2. When you get the tree, plant it within a few hours or keep the roots in damp bark mulch, wet newspapers, soil, or something until you can plant it.

 

To plant:

1. Unless it is a pawpaw, plant the tree in a sunny place.

2. Dig the hole big enough so that the roots will spread out without being cramped. Dig the hole deep enough so that the tree will be slightly higher than it was in the nursery where it was grown. Being slightly higher than ground level will help prevent the tree from standing in water.

3. If it is a grafted tree, such as most of the apples, pears, stone fruit and citrus, find the graft line. This is the place at the bottom of the trunk where the plant that the root system was taken from was spliced to the plant the trunk was taken from. You should see a diagonal scar 2 inches to 1 foot above the base of the trunk. This graft line must never be at or below the soil, so be sure you plant high enough so that even if the soil settles below the tree, the graft line will be above the soil.

4. Before you plant, dig down below where the roots will be planted and chop up the soil. Now prune off any broken roots or shorten very long ones, and set the tree in the hole.

5. For trees such as peaches that will have several branches angling up at 60 degrees and no central stem, position the lowest branch towards the southwest or southeast to keep sun off the trunk and allow sun to hit the more northern higher branches. If you are planting a bare root tree, this will not matter for you will have snipped off all the side branches.

6. Now carefully fill in chopped dirt below and around the roots. Finish by tamping the soil down carefully with your feet. Then water with a hose.

7. Next, prune off the central stem to about two feet (do this only for bare root trees). Cut with loppers or pruning saw on a diagonal and cut the branches back. In no case should you prune below the last live bud. If you are in doubt wait until the tree buds out in Spring to prune.

8. Mulch the area well with hay or some other mulch, leaving a few inches right around the trunk free.

9. Be sure to get a book on fruit tree pruning. County Agricultural Extension Services (Harris, Montgomery, Galveston, Fort Bend) will give you free brochures on pruning if you can’t find a book.

10. In the first year, keep the lawn away from the trunk with a 3-inch thick, native mulch around the tree’s drip line. Be sure to check soil moisture twice weekly during hot dry weather by sticking your finger into the soil under the mulch an inch or so. If dry, water. Watch out for pill bugs eating bark and aphids on leaves.