Planting Tubestock to Beat The Heat

From Greg Holland

I recently came across a field trial by Hovells Creek Landcare that tested the impact of adding water crystals and slow-release fertiliser compared to nothing.

As you can see in Appendix 3 of their Practical Guide to Planting Tubestock Trees, both additives have a positive impact.

A couple of potential downsides follow:

• It is important to mix the water crystals deep into the soil (30 cm would be ideal) as this encourages deep root development as against simply having the roots curled around shallow crystals.

• Be sparse with the crystals - they expand considerably and using more than a teaspoon has been known to push the plant out of the hole.

• If using fertiliser it must be low phosphorous My experience with the use of Osmocote Native Fertiliser has been that it promotes too much leaf growth, which causes stress as the plant grows from both wind and excessive evaporation.