In the first part of Top Tips for Growing Cherry Trees, I talked varieties, pollination, fruit tree sizes, and the pros and cons of potted vs bare root trees.
In part 2, we’ll look at site location for your trees, planting your trees.
Planting Your Cherry Trees
Site Location
Choosing the place you plant your trees is important as you want to give them the best possible start.
You want to make sure you plant them is the best possible location, considering what else you want in your yard.
3 Keys to Fruit Tree Site Location
- Make sure your tree has full sun, at least 6 hours, preferably 8hours of sun.
- Plant in a location at is protected from harsh wind.
- Don’t plant in a “first pocket”, a low place where the frost lingers. This risks late frosts killing the flower buds.
How to Plant Cherry Trees
The saying “dig a $100 hole for a $10 tree” applies here.
The idea is, no matter the price of your tree, you want to be sure to provide it the best initial growing conditions you can – hence a $100 hole.
Dig a hole that is at least two feet wide for a small tree. As you dig, put the soil on a tarp nearby.
Once the whole is dug, Support the tree upright in the hole. Fill the hole in layers, start with compost, then a layer of native soil along with some mycorrhizae and rock dust, then more compost, then native soil with mycorrhizae. Keep layering until you have filled the hole.
📢 IMPORTANT❗ Do not plant the tree so the graft line is buried. Make sure you can see where the variety (scion) was grated onto the rootstock.
Very gently tamp the soil. You don’t want to compact the soil too much that is cannot get air and water in, but just enough to hold the tree upright.
Wrap tree trunk to protect from critters eating the bark.
Stabilize the with tree point stakes.
If the tree is not in a fenced area, I recommend adding a minimum 4’ poultry net fence around each tree to further keep deer from munching on your new tree.
In the last post of this series, we’ll talk about handling diseases and critters for your cherry trees and talk maintenance.