Cherry Blossom in compacted soil

Hi everyone! I’m new to this forum and just wondered if I could get any help/advice.


I’ve ordered a container grown tree which should arrive in the next few weeks. It is a prunus Kanzan (cherry blossom tree). The tree has been growing for around 9/10 years and is therefore quite tall, around 4.5-6 metres (Picture attached).

So far, I have dug a hole with the depth and width given to me by the nursery.

A little bit about my garden - I don’t know which soil type it is exactly. My house was a new build about 10 years ago and the ‘soil’ beneath the grass is awful. The soil consists of almost only rocks and took us about 2 hours to dig a decent sized hole. It was a struggle to even grow grass in the garden. I will attach a picture below. I believe the soil that we have is compacted.

My questions are:

1.) I want to mix in compost (we have a large mound of it at the back of my garden) with the soil I have dug out - Is this a good idea? I have read that you want to encourage the tree to grow in the native garden soil, while others say to use both native soil and compost, so just a little confused as to which would be best to do?

2.) As my tree has been growing in a container for 9-10 years, is the anything that I could do to ensure it has a better transition to the soil in my garden?

3.) How long will it take my tree to reach the desired spread? For a tree that is 10 years old, I assumed that it would have a slightly greater spread. Perhaps the growth has been limited because of it being in a container for so long, but I don’t know for sure.

I think my main worry with this tree is whether it’ll grow in such compacted soil.

Thanks again

 

I've never planted anything that big, I get the feeling it will need a fair amount of attention in the coming years until it gets established, mostly watering for a few summers perhaps.
And some secure staking.
It looks like you have dug a big hole, hopefully bigger than the rootball, and I'd personally mix some of the soil you took out the hole with any organic matter you have to back fill it after you put the roots in there.

Once established it will probably be ok in the stoney soil.

I dont think it would have grown in that container, I think they field grow them, sometimes trans planting a couple of times to get a more fibrous root .

It might have been dug last winter and containerised for sale.

 

Hi @Nicolette and welcome. Your specimen as shown is very small spread for a Kanzan - they get pretty wide and hefty! Wikipedia claims 8 metre spread . They start off upright like yours but seem to go wider later - the ones in neighbouring gardens to me looked wider than high. So I'd make sure it's well away from any buildings, as the roots will do likewise once they're released from the container.

 

Hi Pete, thanks for your reply.

I didn't realise that they were field grown before being put into a container.

I’ll be sure to water it regularly, however the water doesn’t seem to penetrate very deep into the soil and usually just “sits” on the grass in my garden.

 

Hi Caroline,

Thanks very much!

Yes, I’ve made sure to keep it several metres away from the house.

 

Might be best when watering to set a hose to a slight drip and let it stay around the root area for an hour or two at a time.