Stark Bro's Sale - (In case you wondered...)

I’m not sure if you’re looking for options, but I take 3 foot lengths of rebar, and pound them in the ground around my tree, wrap hardware cloth around that, seal the hardware cloth with woven metal wire, then use the metal wire to attach the cloth to the stakes, so the fence isn’t going anywhere unless the animal pulls up the rebar. I don’t do this, but I suppose if you wanted to go the extra mile, you could bend some smaller rebar into a U and use it to stake the hardware cloth into the ground.

I’m sure any animal can get through anything if it’s sufficiently motivated, but I’m thinking that might make the deer move on to an easier target.

But then again, I’ve never seen a landscape problem that I’ve felt rebar couldn’t fix, so you might take my words with a grain of salt…:wink:

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I, too, have been pleased with Stark Brothers and have had good luck with both the quality of my trees and the one time I had a tree die they couldn’t have been any easier or nicer to deal with and put in a replacement order immediately. I will tell you that I got a mislabeled tree once, but in my experience that just isn’t all that unusual. It still made a good tree and I didn’t even ask for a replacement.
I mention all this because some people here don’t like them at all, and I totally believe that they had bad experiences. It just goes to show that each situation is different.

I have to second Kevin’s plug for Stark Bro’s. We’ve (wife and I) been ordering from them since 2012, love the site, easy to use, great service, and we’ve always been really happy with what we’ve gotten from them quality wise

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I think the only reason I wouldn’t use Stark is because they will not tell you what rootstock your tree is going to be on. I don’t know why that’s so hard for them to do. But because of these good testimonies, I might consider it now if they were having a very good sale and take my chances with the unknown rootstock.

I certainly can’t and aren’t complaining about Stark Bros. I got a killer deal on the trees and they were fine for what I paid for them. The rootstock situation there kinda sucks but I’m no rootstock expert anyway. I’ve had 2 trees die since I started my orchard. One from from Raintree and they replaced it no questions asked. The other was from Lowe’s and I pissed around and never ended up returning it. So my fault there.

Once I verify the tree is dead I’ll contact Stark.

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My kind of landscaping!!

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BobC, Ha ha ha! I don’t even need the subliminal messages, I can hardly stop myself as it is! This is like a fruit growing addicts support group for me… except I’m not sure I’m ready to admit that it’s a problem yet… It’s great to discuss with other like-minded folks! Man! I might wait on that Sweeheart apricot… By the way, I just saw the pics of your trees! Very impressive, I must say! Nice work.

@BobC – So THAT is why I keep coming to this site and then ordering more trees I don’t “need”. Subliminal messages! I feel so much better knowing it’s not my fault that I can’t control myself, its that my mind is being controlled by others. Good to know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a sudden urge to go place a tree order…

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I’ve used this info for rootstock info.

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Speedster, my guess is they will offer you the credit refund, but if you pick out a tree ahead of time and request it when you call, they might give you the exchange.

BobC, that’s some good information! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks. I’ll give it a shot. Trouble is I don’t see a whole lot of interesting apples on Starks site right now. They have some peaches I’d be interested in but I don’t want to push it. Can’t hurt to try though.

Has anyone tried Kindercrisp ? Sounds like a kid or crab sized Honeycrisp. The kids would probably like something like that.

It might be pushing it also but I’d like to have their new Ruby Darling, scarlet crush, or Pink Lady.

I remember reading about those apples a while back but didn’t see them on Starks website. If I go there and click on apples I don’t see them. If I search their site I do see them. Weird. Scarlet Crush sounds very interesting in particular.

Ha, you’re right. They are not on the apples page but they are on the first page that comes up when you go to their website. I get the paper catalog is why I seem them so much.

Is it a zone setting that doesn’t allow it to show for up for you? Just thinking out loud.

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I’m using my phone so that might be the reason.

I did a scratch test on the Pristine and it is indeed dead. So big props to Stark Bros. I called and told them the Pristine apple didn’t make it over the winter and they offered to replace it or give me a credit. I told her to replace it and after checking stock she realized they were out of stock with Pristine. Asked me if there was another apple I wanted and I told her I’d like to try Either Scarlet Crush or Ruby Darling. She said no problem I could have either. So I selected Scarlett Crush. She said they only have it in dwarf which was fine with me. Tree should be here by end of week. Good service that I did not expect.

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I’m almost tempted to get a kindercrisp…i like that it ripens late August…probably pick even earlier then that.

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Today I received the Scarlet Crush apple from Stark. The tree looks fine but the tag is quite curious. It says Stark Scarlett Crush Apple yet right below that it reads, “Cherry Parfait #19”. Google search shows nothing. Do you think that it could be the original nursery name prior to the marketing name Scarlet Crush?