Amending soil in yard for fruit tree planting

[nullzero]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  Biochar or charcoal sounds like a promising idea.   

Anyone know where I can purchase biochar?  Perhaps though it will e more convenient and or cost effective to just buy charcoal and crush it up. 

Brad

Go the charcoal method, just make sure its 100% natural wood charcoal made from mesquite or other woods. I looked into biochar the prices were very high. Go to a local store that sells grilling supplies and find out if they sell the 100% natural wood charcoal.

What I did was just crushed up the blocks with a hammer, I put a thick cloth/old towel over it to crush. Here is what it looked like after I was done with it.


Here is a picture of some of the chunks in the mix.

[CTMIAMI]

May be buying a heavy piece of canvas and placing the Charcoal there and drive the car over. It needs to be broken down as much as possible.

[nullzero]

May be buying a heavy piece of canvas and placing the Charcoal there and drive the car over. It needs to be broken down as much as possible.

Thats a good idea as well. The pieces were not as small as I wanted them. But I am sure with the large pieces mixed with the smaller dust size pieces it has been helping the plants out. I may try that running over car idea with the charcoal.

[starsmile]

Re: mounds for trees... I didn't know the yard would flood... it doesn't usually! But I lost a few papaya and almost lost an avocado in Isaac. I planted my most recent Mango on a mound.