5 Gallon Heavy Duty Fruit Tree Installation

5 Gallon size fruit trees:

1. Dig your hole about 1.5 times as deep and wide as the either the tree container, or the root system on bare root.

2. Depending on your soil composition, pH, etc. you will want to “amend” your soil with the appropriate planter mix such that the medium to return to the hole is 50% native and 50% amendment.

3. Add the new 50/50 mix to the bottom of the hole, and then add about one gallon of mixed B1 fertilizer to stimulate root growth into the hole.

4. While it is absorbing and settling, to get the air out, form and add your 5-gal Diggers gopher basket per the instructions, being sure to center from side to side.

5. Insert the tree into the basket and “settle” the tree and basket to the soil below and center from side to side.

6. Add your 50/50 mixture all around the sides of the basket, being sure to tamp down with your hand to get as much air out as possible.

7. Cover up to just below the where the root crown meets the trunk.

8. Add about two gallons of your B1 mixture, slowly, allowing the soil to absorb and air pockets to be removed.

9. Place a “grow tube” around the trunk of the tree and push the tube into the soil about an inch or two. (You can purchase these at an ag-supply house or online)

10. The plastic tube which is about 24-30 inches in height has a number of benefits: 1. Prevents Rabbits from getting to lower branches and bark, 2. Prevents Squirrels from climbing tree, and 3. Aids in support of the tree while it is rooting in conjunction with your Digger’s Gopher Basket

11. Now bend the “above ground portion” of the basket inward into the tube to insure closure of basket as well as support for tube. This accomplishes several things:

1. Gophers, especially young gophers will venture out to
the surface at night and will crawl over the basket wire if they can and then into the basket and down to the roots, this prevents that, and

2. The basket supports the tube, which supports the tree/root system while it establishes itself and may well remove the need to stake the tree (5-gal), thus supporting the tree a little, but also making it establish a strong root system from the beginning.

12. Lastly, install drip irrigation that feeds the water at the canopy line, put a barrier around the trunk to prevent mulch from getting near the trunk which prevents pests, bacteria, and disease from having a warm environment to breed, and place your mulch over the drip to retain moisture and limit evaporation. I find that the ¼ in, predrilled drip line put around the tree like a necklace is best so as to get to all the feeder roots.

13. Watering frequency and amount varies by region, humidity, heat, wind, etc.
Bottom line, without Digger’s Gopher Baskets, the gophers will get your young tree roots once they sense the moisture from watering and your tree will be dead!