Organic Gardening will upgrade its login and registration system on
December 11. The new system is needed to support some of the major site
enhancements that we are currently developing. The new system is shared with
other Rodale sites, including Prevention, Men's Health, Runner's World and Women's Health.
Click here for answers to the most frequently
asked questions related to the new system.
Can an apple tree's trunk be covered with dirt without harmful side effects? This tree has already been here several years. We think it's Gala apples, but not sure. We're thinking about 6 inches on the trunk.
i just planted a peach tree and on the advice of user allmuxedup i put a hollow pipe going about 3 feet into the ground right next to it. i water the tree through this pipe so that the roots are encouraged to grow deep and follow the water instead of growing shallow due to sporadic surface waterings. if your are going to be covering the base of your tree with 6 inches of dirt. you may want to consider using a pipe or two to go down through the piled up dirt to keep the roots from seeking water at the surface. im not exactly sure if getting water will be a problem associated with piling up dirt around the tree, but using the pipe might be a good idea just incase.
NO, unless the tree is a standard. DO NO COVER the graft of the trunk to the root stock with dirt. Suggest that you build a retaining wall around the tree to keep dirt away from the trunk.
The graft is where the root stock and varietal stock meet. The root stock generally determines overall size and hardiness of the tree while the varietal stock determines what variety of fruit the tree will bear.
If you put the graft below ground than chances are the root stock will "sprout" and grow at the expense of the varietal stock. Root stock doesn't tend to grow well or even provide any fruit.
