Jennifer,

It would have been best to plant them 2+ months ago but that ship has sailed. My preferred method is to rinse as much of the soil off the rootball as possible and put the tree in the native sand with zero soil amendments. Once in and watered well mulch the tree 6" deep in a circle 6+ feet across.

If you amend heavily the roots like to stay in the original planting hole. In the native sand they will range out and that is what you want. The heavy mulch (I use wood chips) is crucial as it keeps the circle cool and moist which aids root growth. It may seem silly to mulch a tiny tree in a circle 6 feet across (I go 10 feet right off the bat) but the roots will expand fast and as the wood rots it makes nice soil.

The reason for not wanting the original mix on the tree is it is normally potting type soil but once you put the tree in the ground the sand tends to wick the water out of the mix and you just end up with a tree that is constantly dry. It is just easier to start it out in the soil that will be home.

Wow, I somehow manage to be two months late with pretty much everything. Which is why I only have 8" tall tomato plants right now.

I will plant without amendments then and mulch heavy. What caught my attention about these ones when I went to plant them earlier was that instead of potting mix they had sand in the pot with what looks like pine chip mulch. It looked like the sand in my yard which is what caused me to stop right there and ask how to plant them.. lol

I'm sure these are pretty rootbound too as the pots are just bulging.

Jennifer, don't think of yourself as two months late - think of yourself as ten months early! With Bamboo's advice, I bet your tree will do great and you'll be eating delicious peaches in no time. :)

Carol in Jacksonville

If they are rootbound you will have to do something about that. Score the rootball or? You will have to play it by ear when they come out of the pot.

They actually ended up not being that badly rootbound, I loosened em up a bit, but, they weren't as bad as some stuff I've seen. So far so good, though I think it would probably take awhile for a tree to look stressed by transplant. So, here's hoping for some peaches next year. :)

Peaches impress me with just how fast they grow.