There are a number of important things to remember when planting trees.
1) You must not plant them deeper than they were in the nursery. In other words you must plant them to the soil line on the stem.
2) The hole that you prepare must be wide enough to take the root ball comfortably. The tree roots must not be crammed into the hole and there must be enough room to spread them out.
3) Most trees need to be staked at first to prevent them rocking about in the breeze. The stake must always be put into the ground first and then the tree planted against it. If you do it the other way round, ie, if you plant the tree first and then you drive the stake you’ll damage a lot of young roots in the process.
The hole you have dug must not only be big enough to take the roots, it must always be filled with good compost and not any old rubbish you have lying about. Care taken at planting time will reward you later on, for the tree will establish itself more quickly. The soil should be well firmed, with your boots treading around the circumference, not against or directly on top of the root ball as this would tear off the young roots. Having planted the young tree you must make sure that for the first year or two of its life you keep a circle of bare ground around the tree free of weeds and grass, which would otherwise use up the valuable fertilizer you will be putting on. Allowed to grow right up to the tree, weeds and grass just slow the growth down.
One other point needs to be understood. In its first few years a tree needs to establish a framework of branches to support all the flowers it wants to produce for your delight. To do this it needs nitrogen which is essential for the production of shoots and leaves. It may get some of this from you when you put some fertilizer on. It will also get some from the atmosphere if the ground around the base of the tree is kept free of weeds and grass.
Trees like Flamboyants which belong to legumes (pea and bean family) can fix atmospheric nitrogen in their roots. Once the tree is well established and is producing flowers, it needs less nitrogen and you may with safety allow grass to grow right up to the stem.
A final word or two on planting and staking: Imagine having a bandage on your arm or foot which is too tight. It will turn blue because the blood circulation is being slowed down. In extreme cases you may lose it. It is the same with trees that are tied too tightly to the stake. Never use wire or strong twine for this work, as they will almost certainly cause damage as the tree stem tries to expand or when it moves about in the breeze. Run the string through or around a piece of bicycle tube or type placed against the stem so that it doesn’t get cut, or tie the tree to the stake using a piece of a sacking cut into a suitable strip.
Better still try and obtain proper tree ties which allow easy adjustment periodically.
A hot item: Here are a few thoughts about peppers which play an important part in Guyanese cuisine. Although my mother was born in India and introduced us to curry at an early age, we never at any time as far as I know saw fresh chili peppers in the house. It was always prepared with powders and pastes, and apart from ornamental peppers I never clapped my eyes on fresh peppers until I arrived in Guyana. The markets were always full of not so chilly chile peppers – tiger tooth, scotch bonnet, wiri-wiri, cayennes and sweet peppers. All are related to tomatoes and potato and all of them come from South America. Not so black pepper.
Black pepper is from India, where for many hundreds of thousands of years it has played a vitally important part in cooking and medicine. It was first brought to the fringe of Europe by Arab traders between India and Venice, and is recorded as being used by the Greeks and Romans over 300 years before the birth of Christ. It must have been dreadful to prepare meat and fish dishes those far off days before refrigeration, and black pepper as well as many other spices formed an important part of the battle to preserve food or mask the fact that it was going off.
It seems that black pepper plants prefer a bit of shade and can be planted in the shadow of the house or tree. In fact often cuttings are planted right against a tree or house to allow the vine to grow up. I suppose if you live on the first floor you can just reach out and pick when you like! When the fruits are dried they are the black peppercorns of commerce. White pepper is produced when the fleshy pulp is taken off the fruit and the hard round seed is ground to a fine powder. Bon appetit.
Until next week take good care of yourself and may your God go with you.