On 1/19/2016 9:28 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:

Fruit trees - mine have been in the ground for 1 and 2 years , they aren't
doing so well. Suggestions for a fertilizer that's eco-friendly ? These have
never had anything but a little fish emulsion last summer , and I'd like to
see them grow more , they haven't gottan any bigger since they were planted
.
--
Snag


We have the same problem, a kumquat and a fig tree in the backyard. We
had to dig holes in the gumbo clay and I'm afraid we didn't dig the
holes wide enough or deep enough. The trees are growing very slowly but
are still producing a decent crop of fruit. We usually add a little
composted cow manure every few months and that helps.

At our former home we had very deep loam soil from eons of tree leaves
falling on what had, a long time ago, been a sand dune (think ancient
bottom of the Gulf of Mexico). Fruit trees shot up like they were on
steroids there. I miss that soil and am willing to bet that under that
five feet of clay in the back there is another ancient sea bed that
would have done the job. Albeit that the clay was laid down to keep us
from having to pay for gubmint flood insurance.

I'm thinking of devising something that I could drive down around the
trees to penetrate the clay some more and then add fertilizer of some
sort to help the roots spread wider and deeper.