Mountain Mama Package (5-Tree Appalachian Mix)

When your box arrives

Open the box the day it arrives and plant within 2 to 3 days if you can. 

Check the peat around the roots. It should feel like a wrung-out sponge. If it has dried in transit, sprinkle it with water and re-wrap.

If you can't plant right away, keep the bundle wrapped, damp, and cool. An unheated garage, shed, or cellar between 35 and 45°F will hold the trees for about a week. Keep them out of sun, wind, and freezing temperatures.

If you need longer than a week, heel them in. Dig a shallow trench in a shaded spot, lay the roots in, cover them with loose damp soil or mulch, and water.

On planting day, soak the roots in a bucket of plain water for 1 to 2 hours and carry the trees to the site in the bucket. Pawpaw roots are the most fragile in the box. Never let them dry, and handle them as little as possible.

Where they go

Plant the chestnuts on the north side, the pawpaws 22 feet south of them, and the redbud on the sunny southern edge. The whole planting fits in about 65 by 65 feet of open ground.

Tall trees go north so they never shade the smaller ones. The pawpaws sit where the chestnut canopy will eventually reach, which gives them the sheltered edge they like.

If your site is narrower or oddly shaped, keep the pair distances first: chestnuts 30 to 40 feet apart, pawpaws 8 to 15 feet apart. Keep every tree at least 20 feet from buildings, septic lines, and overhead wires.

At a glance

The chestnuts become the canopy, the pawpaws the understory, and the redbud the edge. Both crop trees come in pairs because each needs a partner to set a crop.

These are seedlings, so every tree is genetically its own. Size and timing will vary a little from tree to tree.

Planting, step by step

Plant any time the trees are dormant and the ground isn't frozen. All five go in the same way.

1. Stake out the five spots from the layout before you dig. Call 811 a few days ahead to have buried lines located.
2. Clear grass and weeds from a circle 3 feet across at each spot.
3. Dig a hole twice as wide as the spread roots and just as deep as the root system. Rough up the sides if your soil is clay.
4. Set the tree so the root collar sits level with the ground. The collar is the color change where roots meet stem.
5. Let the taproot hang straight down, never curled or bent into a J. Chestnut and pawpaw both have long taproots, so dig deeper for them if needed.
6. Backfill with the soil you dug out. Skip fertilizer, compost, and potting mix in the hole.
7. Firm the soil with your hands to close air pockets, then water with 2 to 3 gallons.
8. Mulch 3 to 4 inches deep with wood chips across the cleared circle. Keep the mulch a few inches off the trunk.
9. Put a tree tube or wire cage on before you walk away.

On heavy clay or ground that stays wet, plant on a low mound 6 to 8 inches high. This matters most for the chestnuts.

Chestnuts

Give the two chestnuts your sunniest, best-drained ground, 30 to 40 feet apart. They will be the tallest trees in the planting and the longest-lived.

Site. Full sun and acidic, well-drained soil. A slope or ridge suits them better than a low spot. Chestnuts fail in soggy ground and in limestone or high-pH soil. Keep them 20 feet or more from patios and play areas, since the burs are spiny.

Pollination. Chestnuts are wind-pollinated and can't pollinate themselves. Your two trees pollinate each other, so plant both.

Blight. Sunken, orange-tinged cankers on the bark are chestnut blight. Hybrid trees usually wall it off and keep growing. American trees often die back and resprout from the base, and the sprouts can still bear.

Care. Train each tree to a single trunk for the first few years. Water through the first two summers. Avoid lime and wood ash near the root zone.

Harvest. Nuts drop from mid-September into October as the burs split. Gather them every day or two, wearing gloves. Cure them on the counter for a few days to sweeten, then refrigerate. Fresh chestnuts spoil at room temperature.

Pawpaws

Pawpaws are slow for two years, then steady. Shade them while they are young and keep the pair close together.

Site. Moist, rich soil that drains, with shelter from strong wind. Mature pawpaws fruit best in sun, but seedlings scorch in it.

Shade. For the first two summers, keep each tree in a tube or behind shade cloth on its south and west sides. Remove the shade once the tree is about 3 feet tall.

Pollination. A pawpaw can't pollinate itself. Your two seedlings pollinate each other, so plant them 8 to 15 feet apart. Flies and beetles carry the pollen, not bees.

Care. Water weekly through the first two summers. Pawpaws hate drying out more than any other tree in the box. Deer usually leave the leaves alone, but bucks still rub the trunks. Root suckers will slowly form a patch. Mow them or let them fill in.

Harvest. Fruit ripens in September. It is ready when it gives like a ripe peach and comes off with a gentle shake. Eat the custard-like flesh and discard the skin and seeds. Ripe fruit keeps 2 to 3 days on the counter or a week in the fridge, and the pulp freezes well.

Eastern redbud

The redbud is the box's pollinator tree. Its pink bloom opens in early spring, before the leaves, when little else is flowering.

Site. Sun to part shade in soil that drains. It tolerates clay as long as water doesn't stand. Plant it where you'll see it from the house or the path.

Bloom. Expect the first flowers 4 to 6 years after planting. The flowers are edible and make a tart, bright garnish for salads.

Care. Redbuds resent being moved, so choose the spot once. Prune right after bloom, and only to remove dead or crossing branches. Water during dry spells for the first two summers.

First-year care

Water, weed control, and protection from deer decide whether a bare-root tree makes it through year one. Everything else can wait.

Water. Give each tree 3 to 5 gallons once a week from leaf-out to leaf drop whenever rain falls short of an inch. One deep soak beats a daily sprinkle.

Weeds. Keep the 3-foot circle clear of grass and top up the mulch each spring. Never use a string trimmer near the trunk.

Deer. Keep a 5-foot tree tube or wire cage on each tree until the branches are above browse height. Leave trunk protection on a few years longer, since bucks rub young trunks in fall.

Voles and rabbits. Wrap the base with an 18-inch cylinder of hardware cloth. Pull mulch back from the trunk before winter so voles can't nest against the bark.

Pruning. Remove only broken or dead wood the first year. Start shaping in late winter of year two.

Fertilizer. None in year one. From year two, a spring ring of compost under the mulch is plenty. Stop feeding by early July so new growth hardens before frost.

Troubleshooting

Most first-year worries are normal behavior for a bare-root seedling. Check here before giving up on a tree.