Use disposable diapers when planting bare root trees! You say What???

Several years ago, I made it a habit each spring to purchase young sapling trees from the Clearwater Soil and Conservation office.   These trees are economical and you could purchase large quantities for good prices.   The difference in buying these trees and the trees you buy at a local nursery is that you have to wait longer for maturity.  They range in sizes from 15 inches – 3 feet in height depending on the variety you are buying.    Each year I made it a pact to buy at least 200 trees and each year the survival rate was quite low.  I had trouble keeping these trees watered.  They needed a constant supply of moisture to start growing.   It seemed I could keep up until it got really hot and dry outside.   My soil on my property is poor consisting  of  gravel, sand and clay.

My kids were small at this time and I always felt it was a waste to use disposable diapers as I knew they would just end up in the landfills.

One day I had an idea!  I took one of my son’s wet diaper and threw it in a bucket of water.  It swelled up about the size of a basketball.  I was amazed at the amount of water it could retain.  Lifting it out of the bucket it was heavy, but no water dripped from it.

I laid the diaper on the picnic table and opened it up, then took it apart.  The plastic peeled off the cotton liner easily.  I threw the plastic away and took the inside liner and noticed that the water was absorbed by  small gel particles.

I then dug a hole about 15 inches deep in the driest part of my land.   I dropped the cotton liner in the hole and added 4 inches of dirt.   I placed a deciduous sapling tree on the 4 inches of dirt and filled the hole to the top.   I watered it a bit but did not water it the rest of the summer.   That summer it was dry and we received very little rain.  The tree did not appear ever to show signs of wilt.  The vegetation around it  looked stressed.  The tree grew almost 2 feet that year.    In the fall, I dug a hole next to the tree and noticed that the tree roots had established themselves around the the diaper cotton liner and branched out from there.  My conclusion was that the diaper liner attracted moisture and that the tree was satisfactorily  supplied moisture when it was needed.

The following spring, the tree was one of the first trees to leaf out and seemed very healthy.   I purchased 2 plastic garbage cans.   Two for holding wet diapers (not the poopy ones).

1.  Purchase clean unused diapers from Walmart, the cheapest ones you can find.

2.  Fill your garbage can full of water.

3.  Add Miracle Gro to your garbage can 2 tablespoon per gallon.    Stir well.

4.  Throw in a package of diapers into the garbage can, be sure they soap up all the water they can.

5.  The well absorbed diaper put into another garbage can

6.  Dig your hole for your tree.

7.  Lift out one diaper and rip off the outer lining and let the mushy mash fall into the hole.

8.  Throw in about 3 inches of dirt.

9.  Place the root of the tree in the hole and cover with dirt.   If it is a large tree you may want to use 5-6 diapers.

10.  Water your new planting well.

The mash inside of the hole will attract moisture to your tree while it gently fertilizes it.   During the dry spells.  Your tree will have an added benefit of moisture.  I have found that the rate of success jumps from 30% – to 95% on small trees that I purchase from Soil Conservation Service.   For larger trees,   it works as well.

11.  With any new tree planting make sure that you apply at least 4 inches of mulch /2-3 feet wide.  I use diaper mash for all sorts of applications for plants, trees, shrubs.   IT WORKS!

We will get into the benefits of mulching at a later date.

Have fun,  feel free to call me should you need further advice.

Dave

.

The following spring I contacted day care centers and close friends to save their used wet diapers of which they did.  At one point, I believe I had over 1,000 diapers waiting to be harvested and recycled.  By this time, my kids were assisting.   I know my son for one thought his father had lost his marbles.  That spring I planted over 1,000 trees in and around the property with the same success with the 197 trees.  If you were to come out to the garden center I could point out to you which trees were planted in diaper mash.      Since that time, I have seen in garden centers an absorbing  granual that you can dip your trees in that probably has the same effect as the diaper mash.

I wish now that I would have taken pictures of my diaper mash assembly with my kids helping.   I got quite a reputation in town and was often called the  “diaper man”.    People laughed at me all the time, but my experiment worked.    Sometimes when ideas pop in your head, dare to be different and try them out, you might just surprize yourself and others with a new discovery.

Incoming search terms:

• bare root trees mn
• bare root trees minnesota
• using diapers in planters
• bare root perennials mn
• buying bare root trees minnesota
• trees clearwater county
• bare root tree success rate
• autumn blaze maple mn
• minnesota planting bare root trees
• diapers in the garden