Hello Group!
i have a question, wonder if someone has some advice.
TL;DR: if i plant young trees in a spot with very bad soil and plan to build up soil (spread compost) over the coming years, should i plant the trees on a little mound so that the root collar will stay on top and will not ger burried?
i am in Aegean Turkey, Zone 9b but a bit up the mountain, so there is definitely a few freezing nights per winter, especially during these cold weeks, there is reliably strong cold wind from north.
We have one area that is not in the valley, where the cold air accumulates, further up the hill, but below the hill top, so protected from the wind, south facing, on our land the best spot for tropical trees, so i am thinking about investing in the excavator work to build terraces there, also building a bigger sloped terrace/road, that carries rain water to the spot, there i will put tanks to collect. (we are talking about maybe 3 planting terraces with spaces for 5 to 7 trees per terrace)
unfortunately the spot has very little/bad soil, we can do our best to save the topsoil and spread it on top of the terraces but even then, not much nutrients there, in other words i will have to build up soil with compost over the years.
But planting the trees would be best to do as soon as possible so they start growing anyways (we are not getting younger 😉)
and now comes the issue: from the r/arborists sub, i have learned that planting trees is always best to plant very high, so that the root collar can breath. but if i imagine to (over the coming years) add maybe 5-10cm (2 to 3 inch) compost, it will burry the root collar again.
in such a situation, would it make sense to plant young trees on a little mound that is maybe half a meter (2-3 ft) wide, maybe 15cm high, so that the tree will stay ontop of any added soils/compost?
i will have to drip irrigate the trees anyways because the summer is too hot/long/dry to get it solved purely by land design. (it will definitely help, long term, but water hungry citrus plants are anyways not native for eastern mediterranean dry forests, so it is anyways just an experiment.)
would be thankful for experiences and advices!