What to use as backfill?

Discussion in 'Outdoor Gardening in the Pacific Northwest' started by dt-van, Mar 7, 2011.

  1. dt-van

    dt-van Active Member 10 Years

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    I will be planting some 1-2 gal Eleagnis ebbingii under an established Beech tree this spring because I have found them to be one of the few things that will do well in the dry shade and bad karma environment produced by Beeches. From past experience I know I will need to dig out a large area of beech roots just to give them a fighting change of getting established and am wondering what I should backfill with if amending is such a bad idea. The existing soil is so thick with roots it is impossible to tell what it was like originally, but it was probably some sort of commercial "topsoil" put in by the developer. I doubt that the Eleagnus will manage to penetrate through the beech roots into the subsoil which is probably a couple of feet down. Any suggestions?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 7, 2011
  2. Tree Nut

    Tree Nut Active Member

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    You could just re-use the soil that came out minus the beech tree roots that you will have to chop out. However, I don't think you will hurt anything by amending the soil for such small plants (in comparison to the large tree whose roots must go far in all directions). The amended soil will be very inviting to the tree roots though...
     
  3. jimmyq

    jimmyq Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Why assault the Beech?
     
  4. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    The main problem with amending of planting holes is how it affects the movement of water into and out of the planting hole. The smaller the hole, the more of a problem. Large areas, like farm fields will only have interaction between the edges of the field and the area around the field. The bulk of the crop is too far away from the unamended area to be affected.

    Plants in amended small individual planting holes that survive the effects of the amending grow away normally after the unamended soil outside the hole is penetrated by their roots. This produces the false impression that they were assisted by the amending.
     

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