P.S Just to clarify, I am planting 20 trees, most are 1 gallon and some are 5 gallon trees. When I plant, I always dig a hole 2 1/2 times wider than the container the tree is in.

Ilove, you've pretty much answered your own question! Yes, the bagged soil will have different drainage properties than the native. This could-in your worst case- lead to drainage problems in the immediate area of the backfill. It is really best to use native, and second best would be to mix the two, as the product bag stipulates.

Sorry.......+oM

Hi Tom! We've decided to use the Miracle Gro Garden Soil for Trees and Shrubs at the amount of no more than 50% and then use at a minimum 50% of our native soil since it is so sandy, gravelly, etc that I believe it could use a little bit of nutrients. Ive read that sandy soil can use some nutrients that other soils have an abundance of. We are lucky that our soil is so fast draining and has a lot of rocks and a great amount of air. Our soil is FULL of earthworms every where you dig. lol And they need at least 25% air to survive so I know we have that. I dont honestly think making a 50/50 concoction of my native stuff and this bagged soil is going to do any harm.

We aren't going to buy any topsoil. We'll just suck it up and deal with the digging.

Keep in mind though that even if your existing soil "can use some nutrients", you are only supplying these nutrients to a tiny, insignificant part of the total area to ultimately be colonized by the roots.

Do you have a rototiller? Another thing you could do is til up a planting bed rather than individual holes. Using the machine, you would then have sufficient loosened material for your backfilling needs. Plus, you could then amend a more significant part of that eventual rooting area with your bagged stuff. Just a thought.

+oM

Assuming the soil structure is as good as you indicate, I would probable dig a smaller whole. The larger whole is beneficial under less than ideal soil conditions which is the norm, but if the soil conditions are excellent, then it because less critical. Do make sure to roughen the sides of the hole however. With a smaller hole, you are more likely to be able to recover enough soil off of the sod to properly refill the whole. I'm sure someone will disagree, but IMHO, in this particular case, I would expect it to work out just fine.

JMHO
Arktrees

I'm not sure why you need to discard the grass and its roots when you plant. It seems like a lot of effort. Couldn't you just invert the sod and then use a tree mat or other covering such as cardboard/newspaper to stop it regrowing around the tree?

Here is a link that might be useful: tree planting video

I talked to my husband when he got home from work last night. We're not using any of those bags of soil. We're using all native soil. We've also decided to plant these trees over 2 days. He works second shift so we don't have all day to do it.

He's just going to dig a hole in a part of our yard and then when he's done with it will fill it with some topsoil or something.

Funny that someone brought up a tiller. We already tried that idea. Well, sort of. We tried to rent one from Home Depot earlier this week, and they said we couldn't rent it yet because it's too muddy outside and they don't want any mud getting on the machine. We told the guy we would never return the machine with any mud on it but he insisted no one can rent the tiller yet.

If all we were doing was planting trees it would be one thing but once we plant we are committed to putting up vole fencing around it. We've already got all the poles put up. Where we are planting we can see vole trails everywhere. Not to mention we also have to stake these trees (I stake every tree I plant for 2 seasons) because they are going to be in the prevailing wind section of our yard. The trunks and branches on these 2 foot European Hornbeam fastigiatas are so tiny! They look like they could snap right off.

I smiled to myself this morning when I re-read my original post. I was completely panicked when I wrote it. I'm calm about it now. We're planting half today and staking and fencing them, and then the other half tomorrow on his day off. It'll be fine. I see people on videos all the time dig a hole to plant a tree and put the dirt back in and have enough to backfill, but we never do. And we put every bit of dirt we dig out of the hole on a tarp so as not to lose any of it but we still don't have enough.

No one that plants trees on a grass turf will have enough soil to refill the hole. Reason being is that if you dig a 2' round hole 2 inches deep, it will be all grass roots. I usually plant our 1 gallons about 2 inches abouve the soil line so water runs away from the tree. So after I take the grass roots out, I can't really to any deeper... I'm left with almost "0" soil to refill the hole. Now if your planting in an existing bed, you don't have grass to deal with and you can probably refill the whole with native soil.

I usually dig a hole in a part of our yard so I can get dirt from.... actually I dig multiple holes. Once I'm finished getting dirt from those holes I just toss the grass chuncks/roots back in. It all works out even... your taking dirt from the hole, but replacing it with something else. Then you can easily buy a bag or two of topsoil to reseed those holes... I don't bother doing that to mine because I dig in what will be 'future' large mulch beds. I plant around 50-60 trees a year, mostly dwarfs that only grow 4-6" a year.

I do usually mix small handfull of black topsoil in with the native soild when planting each tree. Only because we have clay and it makes it easier to work with.

Rick

I always "follow the gophers" as they have a nice habit of making large piles of topsoil with no roots or grass just for me. They are so thoughtful... it almost makes me forget how much they like my bulbs

i didnt read all of the replies ... coffee buzz is hitting too hard toady ...

what i do .. is take the sod.. 2 to 3 inches sliced off the top ..

dig the hole 2 to 3 inches deeper ...

throw the sod in the bottom upside down .. step on it good .. and then plant the tree above ...

and then.. wait for it.. i have enough loose soil to refill the hole ...

upside down sod... is not going to grow back up thru the 8 to 10 inches of the one gallon pot depth ...

as you have come to agree .. NO BAGGED MEDIA ...

it adds organics down below ... its native soil ... and its isnt so fluffy that the plant will sink ... i cant see a downside ...

ken

ricksample - have a look at the video I linked to above and see what you think to it. They are planting trees in grassland but there is no need for any extra soil. You can just invert the sod in situ. The roots are not a problem. They will just rot down. Or use ken's method and put the sod at the bottom of the hole. Even less likely to grow back.

I took Kens advice and it does works great. Keeping the grass in the hole does provide organic material down below. Since I plant all of mine raised a couple inches, I still had to add additional native soil from a hole I dug in the yard. Overall it did cut down my planting time. Thanks!!