I was browsing Youtube today and saw a video. In the video they mentioned some of the issues I have had with bare root trees. First year most leafed on and then they wilted and died. Second to 5th year I noticed many would just never leaf out. The may show a green layer underneath at first but eventually will turn brown and just die out. The sales reps are often times resistant to replacements and if they do they force you to pay for shipping. Nursery will claim numbers like 97 to 99% will leaf out but many just don’t. He mentioned that years ago you were looking at a 50% price reduction but in today’s market they are pretty much the same price as a typical tree. He talks about how it will take a year or 2 to rebound because the plants had its roots cut off so much. From my experience many of these are true. This year I was literally sent a chestnut tree that was likely around 6 feet with a 3-5 inch root hair as its roots and a small chestnut had equal roots. The small chestnut is living and has shot up growth. The big chestnut of course never came out and of course the nursery wants me to pay shipping for the replacement for the big one. I personally am getting quite sick of buying bare root trees at this point as so many have been duds the last few years and so many cancellations too. Here is the video for reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz1VO0BBoA8
Some of his advice contrasts with my experience. I put in a lot of bare root trees this past winter. I did lose two trees, but the rest are doing great. In fact, I have apples and cherries with near 3’ of growth so far this year. On the other extreme, the bare root Asian pears I planted leafed out, but haven’t grown. They are all planted in full sun.
My experience is that 20 % of bare root trees die, no matter what I do. I do not know why; I can see no difference between the trees that grow well and those that die. Some do have more/better roots and I think that is good, but not the total answer. I now have about 120 fruit trees and fruting bushes that are up to 6 years old and some producing fruit.
Pour packing and allowing the roots dry out is a major issue. As soon as I receive a tree, I put it in a bucket of water and in the shade if possible, until planting time. After planting, I will water it every day for several days and then twice per week until it shows some good growth.
It really “pisses” me off two pay $60 for a bare root tree only to find it is half dead in the package, probably due to poor packaging or maybe in a cooler too long before being shipped. I am very good at reviving a weak plant or tree, but I can’t bring a dead tree back to life.
I got 3 bare root trees (that had been potted) at Ace this spring and two failed to leaf out and the third leafed out then died. Just got a refund today, I’ll wait till fall to replace them.
I’ve had some success with bare root too, but it seems that some suppliers absolutely murder the root system. I didn’t take a photo but these are 6ft trees with the largest roots pruned to about 4-6" in length. Must be better for shipping but sure is a bummer when you invest months into a tree for nothing…