I just purchased an Italian Stone Pine Tree Pinus pinea 21"H from Home Depot to plant as a centerpiece in the circle in front of the house for Christmas. Are there any particularities I should know about before I plant this? Is it good to mix Composted Mulch with the backfill or just spread it around the tree 3 inches deep after planting? Any advise would be appreciated.
Tease out the roots from the gunk that these seedlings are usually sold growing in, and spread them out into the native soil. Don't add anything else to the soil, just a thin layer of mulch on top after planting (and make sure this isn't touching the tree's stem!). Water well, and again when the soil gets dry, for the first few months.
Assuming Tuscon is suitable (check Sunset WESTERN GARDEN BOOK) a quite large tree is possible in time.
Yes, it is; saw some fairly large ones, maybe 15m or more tall, when I went through there a few years ago.
Thank you for your response. This gives me an idea of what to do. I have plenty of mulch so that's no problem. I plan to put it in the ground on Sunday December 7th in honor of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not very big...but something!
Note that amending of the planting hole back-fill is not beneficial to all kinds of plantings, not just pine trees. Reducing the potting soil/field soil on the original root-balls is beneficial, as otherwise you are likely to have the same effects on movement of water through the rooting area with an intact soil ball as with a liberally amended planting hole. Amending of back-fill is thought beneficial because as long as the plant is not killed or held back by dry or wet conditions in the planting hole produced by the intact root-balls and/or amending normal top growth resumes after the plant roots into the unmodified soil beyond the hole. It was discovered that amending of back-fill was not, in fact promoting growth and establishment when organized tests began to be conducted using numbers of plants, with part of them untreated. These investigations date back over 40 years.
Thank you for your response. After reading the posts I do not plan to add anything to the original soil that was taken out of the hole except 3 inches of Composted Mulch 3 inches deep around the tree after it is planted except near the trunk. The soil here is very fertile since it is on a slight slope which has seen water runoff for millions of years.
