After discovering my orange tree would not grow, I went to get a new one to replace it. Last Sunday, I just planted a Washington Navel Orange tree, and documented the effort.
I dug up the old tree and it was easy. The root was thin and had not gone deep. There was a nice smell from the root ball. It’s unfortunate I had to throw the tree away.
I planted the new tree with a regular garden soil. I opted not use the “special tree mix” since I saw the current soil was already soft, had a nice dark earthy color, and full of worms. I covered the whole thing with top soil and created a little circular water reservoir by stamping them down with my feet.
The master gardener at UCCE wrote to me:
“When you plant your new tree be sure and protect the graft area from the sun for the first year. Your nursery should sell plastic sun barriers that go around the base of the tree.”
I went ghetto with the sun barrier and used a piece of trash bag. I twist-tied it together and got myself an instant graft cover around the base. I think it will work as intended: to prevent one-off growth from the grafted area.
So now I’ll wait and see how this one turns out. I have to check up on it once in a while to remove any damaging insects, and to ensure there’s no other overgrowth. Here’s hoping my green thumb prevails this time.
Update: Forgot to include the instructions tag on how to care for the tree.
Update 2: Got a letter from Barry the Master Gardener about the sun barrier and potential mold issue:
The sun barrier should not be secured tightly to the trunk as that could cause girdling of the tree. The barrier should be loosely attached with air space between the trunk and the barrier. However, if your conditions are so damp that mold or mildew are a problem, you could paint the base of the trunk with a white latex paint.
Good luck with your new tree.
Barry – Master Gardener
Building IT
Jot It Down
hi Rudy,
I love your “ghetto” graft-protection solution. I didn’t know that you need to protect the graph from the sun for a year… I wonder why (will it sprout there if there is sun, but not if there’s not?).
I would guess the one thing you’ll want to watch on your ghetto-tree-bandaid is that it doesn’t stay wet and allow mold to grow… but it sounds like you’re aware of that.
Good luck on the new tree! Steve
That’s a good point, Steve. I haven’t thought about the potential mold issue. But, even if I use a “pro” version of the sun block, I don’t see how I can avoid the wet/mold issue. So I guess I have to confirm with the Master Garderner if the plastic is still necessary.
Good luck this time, looks like you’re on track.
Because plastic doesn’t breath, most gardeners recommend against covering plants with plastic. Black plastic might be an even worse solution because it’ll generate more heat as it picks the sun up.
The whole graft situation reminds me of a story one of our friends told us about his Dad who collected branches from different apple trees all over the world and grafted them onto his one apple tree in the back. It ended up growing all sorts of different apples…
The black plastic just shields the graft from direct sunlight. However, I didn’t wrap it too tightly so there’s wiggle room inside. Like Steve said, water still goes in so it might be a potential mold problem. So far I haven’t seen any mold. With temperature anticipated to rise above 80F here, I think mold will be the least of my problem.
Grafting is interesting. I should learn to do that, including with roses. Frankenstein gardening… that’s what it’s called.