The Best Type Of Soil To Use For Flourishing Birch Trees

Birch trees are a beautiful way to add fall color and year-round texture to your yard's landscape. Whether you have your eye on a black-and-white paper birch, a shaggy river birch, or another member of the Betulaceae family, you should try to plant your new tree in loamy soil. In general, birches prefer growing sites with damp loam, adequate drainage, and full sun, though some varieties are content in partial shade. 

Loam retains just the right amount of moisture and lets tree roots breathe by promoting airflow. It's composed of large sand particles, medium-sized silt particles, and tiny clay particles. Sand allows air to move through the soil but doesn't hold much water, while clay does the opposite. Silt holds a little water and doesn't become compacted quite as easily as clay. If your soil contains lots of sand or clay, you can add compost to make it more loamy. 

When preparing your birch tree's planting site, don't mistake topsoil for loam as topsoil and loam have a few key differences. Though topsoil may be loamy, that's not always the case — it's just soil that resides on the uppermost foot of ground. Sometimes it's sandy, sometimes it's full of clay, and it's usually a dark color if it contains an abundance of humus. Sand doesn't hold nutrients very well, so soil with a lot of these particles is likely to need more organic material. Though clay tends to be nutritious for trees, it can lead to standing water, which promotes root rot and other diseases.

If you're not sure how loamy your birch tree's new home is, do a soil sedimentation test with a mason jar. This will give you some clues about its composition. Fill ⅓ of your jar with dry soil from the planting site, then fill the rest of the jar with water. Shake the jar's contents to combine them, set the jar on a table, and monitor what happens next. Sand will settle in the first two minutes, silt within an hour, and clay within a day or so. Mark the jar at each of these points to help you remember how much sand, silt, and clay you saw. Loamy soil contains 30-50% silt, 10-30% clay, and 25-50% sand.

Want an even quicker way to check your soil's health and composition? Just squeeze a pinch of it. Make a little ball of damp soil with your thumb and finger, then try to flatten it. Loamy soil will create a "ribbon" that's around one to two inches long. Sandy soil will fall apart, whereas clay-heavy soil will form a longer ribbon. Clay is also likely to have a sticky consistency. Sand, on the other hand, will feel coarse or grainy. If you need to add organic material to improve the soil's structure but don't have compost to hand, organic mulch can help. Eco-friendly mulch options include grass clippings, wood chips, and fallen leaves.