This year I planted myself a little orchard consisting of a Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp and Yellow Delicious (all semi-dwarf). I just completed it today with the planting of the Honeycrisp. The spacing between each tree is 25 feet. The problem is that the Yellow Delicious seems to be dying. I planted it and the Red Delicious about 3 weeks ago, the Red is doing fine.
I am pretty sure the problem is the fact that the area I planted it in seems to have been back-filled with ash from a coal stove at one point (probably 30+ years ago). When I dug the hole and planted it, I didn’t think anything of it. I just assumed it would do fine.
The tree still does have a lot of green. But all the leaves are spotted, a few have dried out and the little apple on it withered. My plan to save it is to dig it back out, along with a few buckets of dirt/ash from around it, and replace it with new soil (from Walmart I guess) and maybe some of the bagged manure from Walmart.
I hope it isn’t too late to save it. Any ideas or comments would help.
It may be un-savable. I would do a pH test on the soil near the tree’s roots. If it has a lot of ash in it, it may be very acidic. It might be possible to mix in some “liming” agent into the soil and raise the pH, but it might take too long to for this to save the tree.
you also want to plan on the root area for full growth trees, out as far as the branches. so your concern in not just the hole that you put the tree into but also the whole area it will occupy.
Thanks guys. I have a PH testing kit for a pool (not the kind that is a dial gauge, it is a chemical testing kit. I think that made since). would I be able to use that to test the PH of the soil?
And also I think I will use a post-hole digger to check the area around the tree and check the PH and actually see if it is ash or soil.
This may be very obvious, but I’d also check for any aphid or ant infestation nearby or on the tree, as new fruit trees are vunerable to having the life sucked out of them (literally) by those little fellas.
Fruit trees are very tricky and some just die as well. I think they have been grafted and bred to the limit of their tiny lives. I have planted some apple and pear trees and had them lose 90% of their leaves, but I’ve kept watering and after 2-3 years they finally appear like healthy trees- now if I could just keep the chickens from dust bathing under them and exposing their roots!
So I would keep watering (maybe a major root was lost during transplant) and not mess any more with the hole and pH. If it dies, do the pH test (and remedy if needed) and put in good compost and get the hole ready and healthy. And then in November buy a replacement tree and try again!