I got all the trees in today but had all the holes dug last fall so just needed to touch them up. Planted 25 Juneberry and Black Currents. Will water from a crick that runs about 40 feet away. I have a 300 gal tote I will keep full and water from it instead of starting the pump every time I need to water them.

Nice work. Hope they all produce well for you in the years ahead!

Chris

^ I hope so, the ground is very poor in most of the west, so that is always a challenge. Then wildlife is the other thing that will be a problem. I have high fence and sloped outward will see what happens. I haven't had much good luck in the past with wildlife but will give it a try again.

I know the challenge with the poor soil well. I planted a load of trees here and I can't say any of them did that good. Some are alive yet, but it is a real slow grow. I have a maple that is 20+ years old and its not quite as big around as a base ball at the base. Maybe 10 feet tall at the most. I haul it water too. The buffalo berry's and ceders did about as well as anything. I planted wild plums and sand cherries that somewhat grew. I never have got enough cherries to make a jar of jelly. Coons are hard on the plums.

^ I checked on some plums today, I planted 5 years ago. They are alive and have leaves and haven't grown 1 inch in 5 years. Lol I nevah took much care of them thou. I will dig some of them up and bring them into this spot and nurse them along.

I did mix some very old aged manure with native soil when I planted these. I worked up ground in a 3 feet radius and went about a foot deeper and filled in with quality dirt. I did some research and will be using a fertilizer as times goes to help with the poor soil.

All the native wild berry trees/bushes are getting older and would like to get some new growth started.

Black Current makes awesome jam and you don't need pectin.

Getting plants off to a good start is crucial. If they are somewhat neglected that first year and make poor growth they never really recover from that.
My theory is that deleterious organisms get the upper hand in the root system and in the future hold it back.

beaverpeeler >>> you have any tips for success for poor soil conditions?

About the time the wild plums are getting close to ripe, the coon come in and clean them out. They break a lot of branches climbing around. I had coyotes come in and feed on the wild plums one year. It seems like they like them as much as the coon do. I have to haul water too, so that take the fun out of planting too much. I have a 425 gal pickup tank. I drive up to a slough with a 2" pump and hose to fill it. It takes as long to load the pump and hose as it does to fill the tank.

^ nevah had problems with coon or yotes but birds are an issue once they start to ripen. When they are ready I pick daily while they ripen over a 2 or 3 week time frame. If you aren't picking the birds will be.
Last year I got about 2 5 gal buckets full of wild berries. I wash/clean and freeze them in bags and use all year long. The old stands on wild native Juneberry and Currents are old plants and starting to show there age.
If I can get these going they will survive and do well. The trick is to get them going to adapt as soon as possible.

Every time I hear bare root I think of aching backs from a few thousand bare root lobolly and a dibble.

It would be helpful if you were to know what makes your soil poor.
If you can... get a soil test to see what you're up against. A one time charge of about $35-45 is money well spent. A good soil test will show a graph of nutrient levels and what are lacking (or perhaps excessive) plus tell you a couple of important things like pH and organic matter content. The good tests will tell you what to do as well.

Get the pH in the 6-7 level (slightly acidic). This is more important than anything. Make sure you have dug a good hole and don't add anything into the backfill unless you have heavy clay soil and then you probably have to add some well composted manure or peat. In general adding compost as a mulch is helpful and adds a lot of micronutrients as well as small amounts of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Plus it helps to hold weeds back and retain soil moisture.

I see that in the pics you have one year whips. One always need to prune back at least half to 2/3rds of the whip so that there is a reduction of transplant shock. (Root capacity was reduced when dug from the nursery so the top also needs to be reduced to be in balance).

And finally if your soil is generally just poor mountain soil; rocky and sandy, consider adding some home-made biochar. Not enough time to type out all the benefits of biochar so google it and how to make it. It can also be bought from high end garden supply outfits.

One more note on the biochar. I have a friend that has a large market garden down in southern Baja. Very poor desert soils and he swears by biochar, says it has a huge impact on how well garden veggies do.

Whiner! NewHouse114 and I used to plant a thousand pines or doug firs a day with a shovel or hoedad working in reforestation back in the day.

Times they are a changin bare roots are still a pain as most are older with oversize roots last trees i planted were the containerized 1 1/2 in dirt hole auger works good my 2 sons and i planted 1000 white pine in 2 1/2 hours

beaverpeeler >> thanks for the professional advice. Yes I need to get a soil sample and see what the makeup of soil I have. I call it poor at best.

I will research biochar and see what I can do there.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Longleaf is mostly containerized plugs due to its longer taproot and uses a special plug dibble. Much nicer to plant but still hard on the back. More longleaf going in these days as it's a better tree, though slower growing, and the climax species of the two.

Hopefully your trees did well this year.

I planted 10 norway spruce this Spring, and they are all alive, but I watered them regularly.

Anyone plant trees in Fall?

You guys are braver than me. I only plant bare root trees when they are dormant, fall or spring, preferably fall.

I'm not sure if it's true but I've heard that if people water trees ~frequently but not enough each time that they can develop an unfavorably shallow root system