The quest to grow vital soil in each and every patch continues – this time we dive into how to prepare your soil for bare-rooted trees and shrubs.
What does pre-paring mean?
We know that trees and shrubs love a fungal-dominated soil – so that fungal activity needs to have wood, needs to have timber on which it can grow and live and survive, and start to decompose and begin that nutrient cycling.
So that one time that I’ll let you get your shovel out of the shed to dig a hole to pre-prepare ?, I’d like to see you do that in advance of when you’re actually going to plant, to initiate fungal activity where the plant will need it.
Pre-paring should be done ahead of time.
To prepare, dig the hole quite large, then backfill it with some timber and bits and pieces of stick cover that over with the soil that came out of the hole.
When you plant back into that, that fungal activity will have taken over that space so that the tree or the shrub that you put into it will have access to that activity. Its roots can interlude and then the exudates it will feed, the fungi will benefit the tree and the plant will benefit, and as a consequence, success.
Pre-prepare the hole a month or six weeks in advance of when you’re going to plant it and you’ll be winning all round, maintaining that vital soil.
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