Fruit Gardening

You’re ready to plant your favorite plant, you have your soil ready, shovel, and favorite gardening gloves on. You start digging away at the dirt but then you notice you hit a hard surface, you try to force your shovel again and discover hard rocks! You wonder to yourself, rocks? Could it be beneficial to my plant or can it hurt it? Lucky for you we have the answers below on how to deal with rocky soil and if they are beneficial to your plants.

The answer is rocks in your soil can cause damage to your plant’s roots if not removed. Heres why. Soils that contain rocks are more compacted due to there being less space taken up by all the rocks. This can affect your plant’s roots and nutrient intake as they need a softer soil base for there roots to push through and grow and absorb.

Why are rocks in my soil?

Rocks can be in your subsoil for many reasons. When new homes are built a layer of subsoil is used to fill in a yard for the future lawn. Usually, this subsoil is of the least expensive earth filling they can use to pass inspection. Often this layer of earth soil is rocky and not optimized for the longevity of plants but rather for lawn grass that does not require much-optimized nutrition compared to that of a fruit tree.

It could take up to 4 times as long (or even longer!) and might be quite the workout on your back trying to remove all the rocks from your soil when digging a hole for your plant. Also, since the earth crust is made up of rocks – the constant movement of tectonic plates deep down in the earth constantly forces rocks up to the surface.

Does having rocks in my soil mean I cant plant?

Not necessarily! If you have a great spot picked out in the yard for your favorite fruit tree or flower that receives plenty of sunlight and have rocks there are options available for you.

One option you have is planting on a raised bed. Consider purchasing some gardening soil one that is best optimized for your plant’s needs. We recommend using a soil amendment that is rich in organic matter such as compost. Compost manure is a great solution to add to your raised bed and into your rocky soil as well as it will provide excellent nutrition for your plants to thrive.

Composted animal manure is one of the best things to add to your garden bed or dug hole. Diffrent manures will range in their nutrition content for your plants and not always completely balanced fertilizers. It is recommended to add a complete garden fertilizer such as 6-6-6 to your mixture to provide optimal nutrition.

If you want to add organic matter to your plant bed, we recommend digging a hole at least 2-3 inches deep first (depending on how rocky and how far you can dig down) then add another layer of 2-4 inches of organic matter (such as compost manure). Then mix the organic matter with the native soil using a shovel, your hands, a tiller, or digging fork.

How can you remove rocks from your soil?

Of course, you could do the hard work and remove the rocks as you dig because eventually, you will remove enough rocks that you can dig freely once again. For those who have a bigger budget and want to use machine power – we strongly recommend using a Tiller.

Whether you are a seasoned gardener or just a beginner, having the right tools at your side can make your life as a gardener much easier and enjoyable when doing the hard work. Using a tiller can help break down soil and remove rocks from the earth and subsoil.

Another reason to remove rocks from your soil is to prevent damage to lawnmowers. Often rocks can damage the blades of a lawnmower and make it difficult to tend to your lawn.

How to Plant In The Ground Once Rocks Are Removed

Now that you have removed the rocks from your soil, you will want to amend your hole in the ground. Dig the hole at least twice the size of the planter size to ensure it is rock-free enough. If you can, it is recommended to at least dig a hole at least twice as deep as the size of the potter it came in to allow soil amendments to occupy enough space for future root development.

Mixing a good compost into the soil is key. Your plant needs all the nutrition it can get to provide you with the best plant possible. Compost is also great because it improves the soil’s ability to hold water and important nutrients. On the other hand, it attracts important organisms such as earthworms, fungi, molds, bacterias, sowbugs, and larva all-important microorganisms that are essential to the health of your plant. As time goes on, the nitrogen in the compost is turned into materials that your plant can intake.

You might also want to consider making your own compost ditch from kitchen scraps.

Removing Rocks From Floridas Sandy Soil

In Florida most of the soil is sand – and often can contain rocks. It is important to remove these rocks because they can damage root development and make it difficult for roots to absorb optimal nutrition.

Removing rocks from Floridas soil may be difficult at first due to the compactness of the sand. We recommend using power tools that help you remove rocks and heavy sands such as a tiller. Once the rocks are removed it is important to add a soil amendment such as compost to help optimal plant nutrition.

Soil Amendments To Add Nutrition To Sandy Soil

Soil amendments added to sandy soil can be essential to providing that boost of nutrition your sand needs to survive and thrive. Here are great soil additions to add to your sandy soil.

Vermicompost- Have you ever heard about raising red wiggler worms in a bin to produce rich compost from your everyday kitchen waste? By giving your worms kitchen scraps such as leftover fruit peels, coffee grinds, vegetable leftovers and so much more – but be careful not everything in the kitchen is compostable! (Learn what you should and shouldn’t compost here).

Vermicompost consists of rich nutrient worm castings and a liquid referred to as “Worm tea” that fruit trees and flowers just love to have.

The Sugar Apple aka Annona squamosa

Growing Sugar Apples is a rewarding process, but growing sugar apple from seed is an even more rewarding feeling! Have you tried to grow your own sugar apple from seed but are having trouble? Read below to find out how you can successfully sprout your sugar apple seeds and get growing your own very own fruit!

Step 1: Select Your Healthiest Sugar Apple Fruit

Growing your sugar apple all starts with first selecting the right seeds. The way to guarantee a high yield when germinating sugar apple seeds is to make sure you are getting them from a reliable parent-fruit. Select only the best sugar apples you have – the best ones often can be characterized by their bright green skin, harmonious sweet scent, and sweet creamy taste. If you are in an area where the sugar apple fruit is not available, I recommend ordering them off of these trusted sugar apple seed distributors

Once the fruit is selected (or ordered) enjoy the delicious fruit as you remove all seeds from the fruit to prepare them for the germination process.

You can order sugar apple seeds grown from Florida from here

Step 2: Create The Best Environment Growing Environment For The Sugar Apple Seeds

Sugar apple seeds are known to be tough germinaters! Creating the best environment for them to sprout is essential – here is how

• Create a ‘mini’ greenhouse. These miniature greenhouses are perfect to grow your sugar apple seeds. Here are very affordable mini-greenhouse starting kits that can be used to start the growth.
• Use coconut coir to start the growth – NO GARDENING SOIL OR ANY HEAVY SOILS/ DIRT… The reason? Coconut coir is a very soft – natural and nutritious base that allows the roots of your seedlings to grow with ease – many gardeners use heavy soils that prevent efficient seed growth.
• Creating a mini-greenhouse will allow humidity build-up giving the seeds the correct combination to start growing.

Step 3: Planting The Seeds The Annona Way

Seeds should be planted in an upright position where the sugar apple seed hole is facing up towards the sky. Make a small hole just fingernail depth (about 1/2 an inch) and place 1-3 seeds in each of your seedling pouches. Cover up the sugar apple seeds slightly but DO NOT add pressure to the tops of the seeds, lightly cover it with your selected soil.

Step 4: Watering And Maintenance.

Watering your newly planted seeds is very important. Many times gardeners will experience difficulty sprouting their sugar apple seeds due to many reasons. When watering your sugar apple seeds make sure to…

• Keep the soil moist for the first month of their lives as well as in a 50/50 shade + sunshine area.
• Depending on how you covered your greenhouse you want to allow a few hours every day for the seedlings to receive wind – this will help strengthen the roots and base of your new sugar apple saplings
• Mulching your new saplings ensure the best coverage for maintaining soil moisture levels without going dry.

Problems while growing sugar apple seeds

Many things can arise to sugar apple saplings while growing them – here are some to watch out for

• Adding fertilizers to the soil – Adding fertilizers to sugar apple seeds can do more harm than good – it is better to let the seedling absorb natural nutrients through the air, water and soil rather than adding fertilizer. Too much fertilizer can kill young seedlings and burn their leaves before getting a chance to grow.
• Fungi- Adding too much water and not enough sunlight can cause fungus problems in your greenhouse that starts in the soil and spreads to the seedling – killing the seedling. Avoid this by placing your seedlings in a well sunlight area where it will receive the proper heat to stay at a correct moisture level.
• Soil staying to dry – At the same time, sugar apple seeds need to be moist enable to sprout for at least 2-3 weeks. If the soil is too dry the seeds will not absorb enough water to be able to sprout.

Growing Sugar Apples or Annona squamosa is a very fun and rewarding process to embark in. Not only are these wonderfull fruit - but they are a beautiful tree to have in your yard and enjoy!

If growing sugar apple from seed is just too long of a process and you want a faster solution – check out here on ordering sugar apple trees already grown for your garden!

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