[USCC] Compost and tree planting

[Will Brinton]

Hello Composters:

I wonder if it is time for a "soil lesson for composters".

There are many horticulturalists I work with that do NOT recommend 
adding compost to a tree hole. Not all of this is their ignorance of 
compost, as some would like us to believe. They are in fact "pro-soil" 
and especially "pro-native soil" people. They believe in soil, and the 
plant's ability to establish a relationship with it that is long term, 
sustainable. It's wrong for composters to berate them without better 
information or appropriate training,  particularly under the 
circumstances where we have no standards for compost that relate to this 
use.

I am very concerned that people may overlook the value of the tree being 
installed. I recently put in some  1-2" caliper trees and paid $400 - 
600 per tree. I used a dusting of very, very mature compost, not wanting 
to disturb the native soil acceptance.  At my Long Island compost 
seminar recently hosted by Marder's Nursery, the nurserymen said the 
trees they are planting are in the neighborhood of $3,000 each, and they 
are very cautious about what goes in the hole. With container media it's 
different, as with amending topsoil prior to turf installation.

One noticable outcome if you use too much compost in a hole, is called 
subsidence. Essentially all the OM will decay, eventually creating a 
depression in the ground, that is often harmful, and not easily 
corrected.  These are just some considerations before we go off the 
"deep end" with compost, when there are so many appropriate, better uses.

Will Brinton

Rhonda Sherman wrote:

>Michele,
>
>I ran across the "don't use compost when planting trees" recommendation
>just a couple of weeks ago while scanning "The Rodale Book of Composting."
>Everything you were told by your local urban forestry group is stated on
>page 223.
>
>I was surprised when I read it, as I hadn't seen anything like that before.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Rhonda Sherman
>Extension Solid Waste Specialist
>Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department
>N. C. State University, Box 7625
>Raleigh, NC  27695-7625
>Phone 919/515-6770; Fax 919/515-6772
>E-mail: rhonda_sherman at ncsu.edu
>http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/people/faculty/sherman
>
>
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-- 
William F Brinton Ph.D
Woods End Laboratories, Inc.
Mt Vernon MAINE USA 04352
+001 207 293 2457