Planting fruit trees in clay soil

This article covers a method that I used for planting apple, peach, and plum trees, among others, in clay soil.

#1 rule for planting in clay - amend your soil.

Not all fruit trees will like the same type of soil.  Do research on what to add for specific trees before planting.

Most fruit trees need well drained soil. Amend clay soils with compost. Loam soil is a 40-40-20 mix of sand, silt, and clay. When planting the trees on my property, I used a mix of compost, partially composted leaves, sand, native soil, and Scott’s humus and manure. 

The Blend

Compost and partially composted leaves mix - 1.5 parts compost, .5 part composted leaves mix 

Scott’s humus and manure - 1 part 

Native soil - 1 part 

Sand - 1 part 

You can mix this in a five gallon bucket or a wheelbarrow. I used a wheelbarrow. 

I also carved out a “bowl” the size of what I imagined the canopy would be. I then replaced the soil with the mix described above and planted the trees into the holes. 

Take care to unbind the roots without damaging them too much. We planted the trees high up in this mix so that we could add a continuous garden bed around them. 

We mulched over the top of the soil with partially composted leaves and then mulched over that with composted wood chips from a fallen tree stump that was ground on our property. 

We planted 24 fruit and nut trees so far...apples (Gala, Mt. Fuji, Pink Lady), plums (Methley, Satsuma, Santa Rosa), peaches (Red Haven, Babcock White, Indian Free), mulberries, figs (Chicago hardy), paw paws, pomegranates (Russian, Russian Giant, Kashmir, and Wonderful), and hazelnuts in this soil combination.  

All of the trees have thrived in this soil combination with the exception of the Red Haven peach.  We still need to complete a soil test to see what was going on with this one.  

We built a continuous garden bed around the plum, apple, and peach trees. We brought in truckloads of composted manure, dry and partially composted leaves, “topsoil,” mushroom compost* (by accident - I asked for “Super Soil”), and "Super Soil" to build the garden beds. I only bought two of these truckloads (the mushroom compost and the Super Soil).  The rest we got from horse barns that don't use Grazon (this is important), raking our yard, and raking my mother-in-law's yard.

We layered all of this on the ground above the clay to build a “raised garden bed.” As I layered these, I mixed them with my rake. This is from a gardening method known as sheet composting.  Basically, you allow the materials to compost in place. 

Keep in mind that all fruit trees won't like this mix, but the ones that we planted have (except the Red Haven peach).  

I hope that his helps.  I plan to put pictures of the process up later.  (When I find them).

*If you use mushroom compost - be careful.  Check on the practices used by the mushroom farmer that produced it.