John
You are so lucky that those trees are true to labels.
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Iâve been very pleased with the quality of the trees and fruit from my stone fruit combo trees from Canadian Tire. Lots of Puget Gold apricots, some Frost peach, HardiRed nectarines and Green Gave plums off this tree every year starting from second leaf. 9 years old now.
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yes, but now that Iâm a little bit more knowledgeable about rootstocks I probably wouldnât buy any from HomeDepot again. ( Iâm totally lying!)
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John,
If I saw the varieties your home depot offered, I would by them, too. Around here we have âgreen applesâ and âred applesâ and maybe, Granny Smith and McIntosh.
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I think 5 to 6 years old.
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I know you wrote this a long time ago, but I work at a Big Box outfit right now and must concur. It was obvious to me most of the apple trees were grafted to M7 because of the suckers coming up thick and fast. At least half the ground in this town is deep sand and M7 wonât be the best choice for that. The labels are generic: âWill grow 18-25 feet tall and wide,â on a tag for Honeycrisp. Not happening, since Honeycrisp is a natural semi-dwarf. They had Red Delicious, Golden Delicious (neither of which I would foist on the unsuspecting public due to the need for sprays to bring a crop) and Gravenstein. No note on Gravenstein being triploid. I asked the buyer of a Gravenstein if they had any other apple trees in the vicinity of where they wanted to plant it. No. So I explained pollination in simple terms and they thanked me and said they would seek two more apple varieties in the next year or so. At least they had the space.
At least the buyer for this store had ordered some of the columnar new cvs. from Czech Republic that are disease resistant.
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Whatâs the point of buying fruit trees from a big box store (I mean unless you are somebody whoâs a complete novice and does not know better)? If itâs about low price, buy a bunch of rootstocks, graft them and you will have trees with known rootstock and variety at $2-3 dollars per tree, this beats the hell out of any Home Depot sale.
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In Canada we have far less access to major nurseries with exciting new fruit trees (potted or bareroot) compared to most of you in the States. Most of the trees, regardless of retailer, comes from the same US suppliers. Big box stores like Costco and Cdn Tire generally have the largest selection, the most grafted combo varieties and the lowest prices. Smaller local nurseries are almost always 20 to 50% higher and sometimes double in price. E.g⌠Costco single variety were $25 I think and combos were $39. Cdn Tire reg price was $35 & $50 but have 20-25% off sales frequently. The local nurseries had single variety trees from exact same suppliers for $50/ to $90/ and combos were minimum $70 to $100 at full price. Fuyu persimmons are only sold by nurseries and their jacked up prices were minimum $150 to $300 this summer. If the big box stores sold Fuyu then the added competition would drop the price by at least 20%. Since we are getting the exact same trees from the same US suppliers, I have no problems saving money buying some of my trees from Cdn Tire.
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Stan,
There are a few reasons some of us who are not novices are willing to buy Home Depot fruit trees.
Price, yes, esp. It is a discount at $10 a tree.
Varieties. If they have interesting, uncommon varieties.
Time saved. Those trees often fruit the same year we buy them.
Yes, there are risks of varieties not true to label and of unknown rootstocks.
As for buying rootstocks and grafting, I speak for those with small backyards. The amount of rootstocks we can buy is about 5-6 rootstocks. At about $2.5-$3 a piece plus shipping ($20+), each rootstock may cost $5-8 a piece.
Trees grown from rootstock takes a few years to fruit, sometimes more than a few years.
When I pay $10 or even $20 for a Home Depot tree that gives me fruit the same year or the year after, it saves me 3-5 years comparing a tree grown from a roostock. I assume all the risks coming with it. Thatâs why I would do it if the variety interested me and the price is right.
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For what it is worth I had decided that the three I purchased was on M7. These are doing the typical suckering and growing pretty fast. I grafted them over to slower growing varieties that spur up easily.
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Thanks for listing all the reasons, My reasons matched up with your perfectly. All three I purchased and planted in 2016 have a small amount of fruit and these are getting established faster than my other trees that I planted.
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I bought a Braeburn and Cortland last year at HD already fruiting so I get to try out. Also I have a tree I can graft over already.
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Agreed. I usually get some fruit by the second year, which is a real bonus.
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You are lucky, in my neck of the woods, even now ,with the sale price, you cannot, in Canadian Tire, get a tree under $60, and the multi grafted are listed at sale price $80 and higher, and this is the same price as the local nursery. As for Costco, every tree I have purchased from them has succumbed to our winters, even though the variety lives here. I am assuming it is the rootstock.
I need to know the rootstock, so I find it cheeper to graft. I can get scions for a good price, and the rootstock supplier charges $2 - $5 for one. As far as time to fruiting, some varieties will be earlier than others, but a few of my grafted apples have produced a few fruit on their 3rd leaf. ( second summer) Some grow extremely quick
After all that, I did purchased a big box apple tree this summer but the rootstock is hardy here. I wanted a larger crab apple with a nice framework already established so I can graft it over in the spring.
Price is certainly a determining factor for me and my problem is I that want to try all the fruit I can 
so grafting on a large tree, or doing my own bench grafting is the only way I am able to afford 60 different apples, 20 plums, and now 8 pears ( and counting) LOL.
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Went to Lowes today. Looked like they got a big shipment of fruit trees. Very healthy looking big trees for $23. Mostly apples, pears, peaches and plum. I might buy a pear tree from them I think.
Is it safe to assume that big box store pear trees are on OHxF rootstocks since a lot of nurseries use those rootstocks?
Also does rootstock on pear matter that much if you are in zone 7 and cold hardiness is not a big issue?
As a new Apple grower my first trees were from a Home Depot and I probably wouldnât have started growing apples if I hadnât seen them when I went shopping there for hardwares. Iâve been a defender of them even after learning how mislabeled they are because I truly believe I got the growing bug from seeing them there. And even as Iâve become more knowledgeable of rootstocks and growing fruit I would still grab one if I saw a good deal and an apple that interested me. That being said I would not buy a tree from them if I had limited land and wanted a specific apple variety. Ones I have purchased there. Golden Delicious- turned out to be Granny Smith, Golden Delicious- was a GD, Macintosh- was a Mac, Macintosh- was a Mac, but semi dwarf not dwarf, Honey Crisp- turned out to be a Gala, Two Jonagolds- turned out to be Pinklady, Winesap- was a Winesap, but Semi dwarf not dwarf, Sweet Sixteen- was a Sweet Sixteen, Braeburn- was a Braeburn. Cortland- was a Cortland, Fuji- was a Fuji, but semi dwarf
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One thing I like about Box Store Fruit tree, Half priced HomeDepot Apple tree let me practice bud grafting for the first time. And given my 100% expected failure rate will give me a chance to prices whip grafting in the spring. Not bad for $20.
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My last treei I bought from Home Depot finally gave me a bunch of apples. It was labeled a Fuji, well itâs definetely a Sweet Sixteen. The first two had the flavor of anise I guess. while not a bad taste itâs not an apple I would want to eat a lot of. The next few apples had that sweet cherry twizzler taste to them. I guess Iâll have to pick earlier to maybe get the sweet taste.
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