Did I plant my fruit trees ok or do I need to replant?
Hi! I just found this sub, so I figured I should ask around just incase if I planted my bareroot apple and peach trees alright last night or if I should replant them? I saw a few things on this sub, so I just want make sure the roots won't girdle. I generally followed James Prigionis' youtube videos on planting bareroot fruit trees. As follows for both bareroot trees (they were soaking in water while I dug the holes) I dug about a 3ft wide square hole and about two feet deep, Separated top and sub soil, made sure the roots were flared out and not wrapping around and that the rootstalks were at least 3 inches about the ground (to about where the tree's root flare was), backfilled with some sub soil and amended the top soil with some left over peat moss for the peach tree. But for the apple I had to amend some of the sub soil as well as the ground was much harder I had to use a pick axe to break up (glacial till/ sandy/ a little clay, in puget sound area in western washington state) but I make sure the hole was wide and squarish and poked at the sides with a pitch fork, I wanted to make sure the roots could spread out. After both trees were back filled with native soil and some amended peat moss, I did NOT stomp down on the soil I just wiggled the trees to make soil the soil was in place and then I watered some, added a top dressing of finished, not hot, compost and created a 3ft wide berm from the compost, watered again, and then finally added a 2-3in layer of arborist/wood chips around the trees (no mulch volcanos, it was spread out), but gave a little breathing root around the trunk of the trees, and finally gave both trees and deep watering. And to not I presoaked the hole for the apple tree since the soil was much more compact to loosen up the soil a little. My main concern was if I maybe added to too much peat moss to cause girdling? Maybe about 25-35% to the native soil? And I did prune the apple tree to a central leader per James Prigioni's videos, but still need to prune the peach, just need to rewatch how to for the peach specifically. Apologies for such a long post, any help if very much appreciated! :)
Posted Mar 6, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC · edited