Hugelkultur around trees already planted?

Hello,

I'm new to this idea, so I dont know if creating a Hugelkultur around an already planted tree can work. Do you have
any suggestions regarding depth or some other aspect?

Since the trees are recently panted, they did not develop many roots yet, so I was thinking of digging around them
and place some wood, than cover it with earth again. After the roots develop, they can go into that part and extract
whatever nutrients or water they need.

Thanks.

In hugelkultur, it isn't that the roots grow into the woody parts and extract nutrients so much as the rotting wood acts as a sponge to hold water in the ground so you don't need to water as much. Unless your wood is already rotted sufficiently before you bury it, digging it in and now isn't going to help much as the tree will already become established by the time the wood is doing its job. At this point, plant lots of ground covers and mulch well around the tree and you will get nearly the same effect.

Actually I did the same thing as Tom and am hopeful that it does have a beneficial effect. I am dealing with shallow topsoil and dry summers - mulching and cover cropping alone won't make enough difference. The buried wood provides a big reservoir of stored moisture; and also opens up deeper soil strata for roots to grow. I guess I'll find out if it works this summer.

Many trees are picky about having their roots and lower trunk burried too deeply. Beds built outside the dripline might help the trees without smothering the roots or promoting rot and bug infestations in the bark.

yes you can dig some logs in around your newly planted trees, I've done that..you can also place logs on the soil around the newly planted grees, they act kinda like nurse logs and they keep the damaging forces out there away from your baby tree, mark it well, and rot and feed it..brush piles are also helpful around young fruit trees...i've done all 3