fertilizing trees?

[jiminpa]

what fertilizer do you use for planting trees? i've been planting chestnut and hazlenut trees for wildlife, would like to give them a good start.

 

[Brushwacker]

I used to work at the state tree nursery and they would recommend 12-12-12.
I am sure if you did soil test you could do better and when it comes to state level employees they often don't know what their talking about but sometimes they do. Don't remember the cut off date for fertilizing but after they growed half the summer or so the weeds would benifit more then the trees from the fertilizer. I found that eliminating any grass with the roots around the base of the tree gives seedlings and small trees a huge boost and plenty of water the first couple years .

 

[raspy223]

I appreciate Brushwhacker's experience above, though mine is a bit different, I can respect different ways to get to the same destination. I've been planting trees for a few years, going on 120 trees now and I've got more to learn, for sure. I had a Landscape Architect neighbor swing by a couple years ago and traded dinner for advice on my layout. She recommended top dressing around the new trees and to not supplement down into the soil at all. She even tried to discourage me from removing all the cobblestones from the immediate area of the new trees. I was planting dwarf fruit trees at the time and this property is full of cobble stones, so much so that I've taken to using them in gabions around the place. I wanted the trees to have a couple years of easier growing until they had to start growing around all the rocks. Anyway, I put composed horse manure around the drip zone of every tree in the spring and cover with simple wood chips that an arborist drops off to my place 10 times a year or so. The mulch discourages the grass and weeds and the compost, I hope, is doing the trees good. Nothing else can use it since the trees are the only thing growing there. The trees seem to be growing fine, they put on about 12" of growth every year or so. My late spring frosts have whacked most of the buds in the past years but now that they are approaching 4 years old, I'm hoping this will be the first year that most of them can fruit, spring freezes depending!

 

[Wood shed]

I use well composted horse manure, been doing so for years. It is readily available, provides the advantages of mulch plus adds nitrogen and other soil nutrients. Some will say horse manure has weed seeds and causes weed growth, not been a problem for me. I see weeds sprout and grow in my black top drive way so does it have seeds in it too? First on my list when returning home to Ohio is to fertilize my newly planted English walnut, chestnut and sycamore trees in this manner.