in the planning process we want accountability for the key factors to ensure success
the place to start is with choosing the site itself and there are five key factors for
the site and the first one is you want good air flow you don't want a lot of structures or dense
vegetation around it that's going to impede the airflow because good good airflow will reduce the
chances for disease development that can affect the foliage and the fruit itself so good air flow
and you want good sun exposure you don't want it you should have at least eight hours of direct sun
on your site for each day to ensure good growth the third item is the
to avoid frost pockets low lying areas that are prone to frost in the spring
if you if you have to use an area like that you really need an emergency response plan which
is basically just overhead watering until the frost has has melted off and and temperatures
have risen above 32. the other thing on the site is you want to make sure you have good access to
it you want to be able to get to it without any obstacles so that you can maintain the site and
for harvesting and just for your own enjoyment and while you're looking at the site you always want
to be aware of any possible utility line issues overhead lines or underground lines you want to
take all this into consideration before you ever start to plant now once you've covered those areas
you want to the next step is to um look at the soil itself the soil should have good drainage
you want to avoid low pockets that will collect water and cause water log soils waterlogged soils
will kill the roots of the plant and ultimately kill the plant itself so you want to make sure
that there's good drainage you might have to consider mounding the dirt on the site
doing any amendments to improve the contour for good flow of water
on the opposite end of the spectrum you've got
if you're on a slope you want to make sure that you've got water retention and erosion control
so you can consider terracing and that type of situation once you've looked at you've chose your
site and you've looked at the soil you also want to consider testing the soil and the water source
testing can be done at at labs or you can talk to your extension office about it but
but unless you're really familiar with your soil and your water source there's potential there for
problems and and so again we want to account for that before we actually start planting
and on the soil we're looking at what type of soil is it what's the ph what kind of nutrients
are available is it heavy clay as it's real sandy so there's there's a lot to consider there this is
this is going to be what provides life to your to your tree so you want to make sure that you
know what you're dealing with with water the most common problem is excess salts and if the water
has too high of a salt level that can be toxic to the plants so again you want to know what you're
dealing with account for all these factors once you've done that process with the choosing the the
site and you know your soil well and your water source then you're ready to design and the design
needs to accommodate the mature size of the trees with proper spacing you also want to consider
again the sun exposure you don't want to plant on the south end of the of the bed
one of your tallest trees is going to cast shadows on the rest of your plantings
so you want to have take that into consideration and have good sun exposure and you also want to
make sure that you have thought about possible future expansion because
future expansion when you when you're in the designing stage that's already accounted for and
instead of after the fact thinking you know i wish i would have done this differently because i want
to expand in this area so again you've accounted for all these factors now if you've received your
trees and you haven't gone through and accounted for all these key factors that we've outlined
you've got two options you if you feel like you know your land pretty well
and you're comfortable with it you can go ahead and plant it however if you're uncertain
about making sure that all these key factors are accommodated then i would consider planting the
trees in a pot and then that allows you to study it and get your test run and anything you need to
do to prepare and plant the trees in the fall because fall is a great time to plant the site
could be anything from a field to a small backyard all of these key factors still apply
if you're in a small backyard yard you're limited on where you can plant but you still
want to account for the good air flow and the sun exposure and all the points that we made
a larger field gives you more flexibility but there could also be more issues that
more changes in the land as you go through it that could affect the overall growth so
if we've accounted for all these key factors our plants should thrive and not just survive