North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Because there has been so much talk about organic matter as a possible salvation for contaminated soil I thought it might be appropriate to point out that very rich soil is not the ideal for growing quality tree-fruit in my experience.  It's like the old adage- feed the tomatoe nitrogen to grow leaves not fruit.

 

I like to enrich a 5' diameter circle for a young tree which I do by using mellowed horse stable waste as a 2 or 3"  mulch over newspaper.  If the soil is terrible or of limited volume I'll add a lot of compost, mixing well into the top few inches.  In this case I may expand the diameter.  This is all to speed establishment, once establishment has occured, I notice that I generally get the highest quality fruit in the least rich soil.

 

I'm sure this is old news to most experienced fruit growers but vegetable gardeners usually assume the richer the better and in the case of vegetables this is almost true.  Fruit growers are happiest with moderately rich soil to promote moderate growth.