So long story short: here I am, ready to get my trees next week and still no holes dug yet. Winter in Colorado was unusually awful and I was buried from December through 3rd week in March. Had a couple weeks to dig holes in nice weather -- didn't, wife said too early ... and it's been crap weather since (rain all day, or snow). So this weekend the weather MIGHT cooperate ... being 50's on Sat and 60's on Sun ... so I'm thinking about getting a ditch witch with a 36" hydraulic auger on it and doing the following for each hole I dig. I have a bad back -- yeah, it's been repaired -- but I'm using the machine mainly to make things easier on myself and yes, faster. The hole locations have been determined on my plans, which have changed a bit since I last posted the plans here ... and I still need to mark them in the yard and make sure they avoid the utilites [ which have been marked ]. THe buried utilities should be 19" down (or more). When I trench my entire back yard for sprinklers, I never had a thing and was working with a 10-14" deep trench. The utility company said a minimum of 17", but that was done before my builder back-filled and additional 6-18" on top of the original grade. So I'll rake back the mulch in a 4' (or 5') wide circle around each hole location, then auger out the 3' diameter hole, only down 12-15" max. This is for the dirt to have somewhere to go without ruining too much mulch in the process. [Q: should I even worry about my 4-5" of mulch?] The plan would be to rake the mulch back around the tree (not too close) after the trees are planted. Then I'll back fill the outer 10-12" of the 3' hole by hand (shovelling) the edges to create a bowl shape hole which is full depth in the center 12-15" and then tapered to the edges with the back fill. Do I need to rake the mulch back, or could I just auger into the mulch and all? Any ideas or comments appreciated. THe local "colorado experts" still say amending is normal around here, but I'm tempted to skip it and let the trees finds happiness in what I have. I could mix some mulch in if that would help. My mulch is about 2 years old and nice and black (soil-like) on the bottom. Planting about 15 bare root trees and 15 balled and bulapped. I'm having to kind of guess on the actual size of the trees since I really don't know till next week when I go to pick them up. They are advertised as 1.25" caliper. Thanks, Scott

Tam, I decided to also post my response to you for Laaz to read.... Tam, as you probably know I am the person that introduced Coconut Husk Chips (CHC) to the members of the citrus forum. I had experimented with them for a couple years, and worked out the formula that I thought best. I purchase 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch CHC from the Crystal Company of Saint Louis, MO. Here is the mix that I use on all of my citrus trees. 4-parts CHC, to 1-part peatmoss. To every 5-gallons of this mixture I add one cup dolomite, one cup Osmacoate Slow Release Fertilizer, and a SMALL hand full of STEM (Soluble Trace Element Mix). Sometime I use straight 1/4-inch CHC, and sometimes I use a mixture of 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch CHC depending on the size of the seedling or tree. Coconut Husks absorb seven times their weight in water, and more importantly release the water to the tree's root system as required. Another advantage of CHC is that they have a natural pH of 6.4 which is exactly the pH required by container citrus plants. I have over the years UN-potted citrus form time to time to check on the Osmacoate beads. I wanted to see if they washed out from the mixture, and they have not. The reason to use CHC's are: 1.) to obtain a medium that will hold a large reservoir of water, and yet also retain maxim aeration for the roots system. 2). To provide the proper medium pH for citrus. The pH of 6.4 is CHC's natural pH. 3). To provide a superb medium that is very light weight, enabling containers to be shipped or moved with less effort and at a greatly reduced cost. In your case the shipping charge should be greatly reduced. It has now been approximately 4 years sense I first used CHC's. Two years in my research and approximately 2 years by members of this citrus forum. There has not been any problems (NOT ONE) by members that have converted their trees to CHC's as their potting medium. I have found that CHC do not require any additional fertilization than normal potting soils and that slow release fertilizers work well. I would not add the water holding crystals that you asked Laaz about. I think it would cause the medium to hold on to too much moisture, and would also tend to lessen the aeration. However, you certainly can experiment if you wish. - Good luck to you, your new farm in Virginia and all that you hope to do. Take care Tam. - Millet

My Oroblanco seems kind of a little sickly as well. It might be that since Oroblanco has more pomelo parentage in its genetic pool than your average grapefruit, that might be making it a little less hardy in less than optimal climates when the winter temperatures start dropping. You see, Oranges, Grapefruit, and Oroblanco are all on a continuum between mandarins and pomelo. Genetically speaking, Orange is about 25% pomelo and 75% mandarin (it is believed). Grapefruit originally resulted from a hybrid between pomelo and Orange (and so very much resembles pomelo in appearance and flavor, though there are distinct differences). And finally, Oroblanco is a hybrid between Pomelo and Grapefruit. So you can see that it is nearly a pomelo (although technically it is considered a grapefruit). Anyway, the more pomelo parentage a hybrid has, generally the less cold hardy it will be. Before the advent of grapefruit, there were very few parts of the U.S. where pomelos could have been successfully commercially grown. That is probably the reason why grapefruit has become so well known in the U.S. and pomelo hasn't. I'm in no way suggesting you can't grow pomelos or Oroblanco where you live, I'm just suggesting a possible reason they may not be doing as well as the other citrus. In fact, summers are so long and hot in Indio that it is one of the few parts of the country where pomelos will be able to ripen to maximum sweetness.

sunshine, I just took some pictures. Hope you'll be able to see it with all the crowd around it. I have a lot of plants and have to keep them in groups so the wind doesn't knock them over easily. ))