Apple tree transplanting/moving

[alan]

Yes, there are text-books about commercial nursery production and I have one. Didn’t get an iota of useful info from it- my business is too unconventional. I also routinely ignore common advice, such as only keeping trees in same pots for a single season- I let the roots grow out of them into soil and every year or two dig up those roots and wrap them around the outside of the pot and bury again if I don’t sell the trees.

Anything that I dig and don’t sell in fall, I leave in the ground where it was growing and try to sell it as a bare root the following spring. But I also move trees from the fenced part of my nursery outside of that once they get well above the browse line, and when there’s time I try to get a lot of that done in the fall.

[JohnnyRoger]

@alan

I do produce apple trees in bags as well, but to transplant to 25 gallon pots, which I can sell any time

@alan

Also, contractors far prefer them to bare root trees.

So “contractors” or customers purchasing trees in 25 gal pots will transplant them out of the pots ***after breaking dormancy, ****later in the spring, summer or fall?

@alan

and the trees recover faster than similar BandB’d trees.

What are BandB’d trees?

[alan]

Balled and burlapped. Yes, potted trees can be planted anytime, and my trees work better than potted trees in nothing but potting soil because the bag trees are grown in soil. After cutting the bags you set the rootbals in the pots completely surrounding them with potting soil, which amazingly enough, creates decent drainage but also allows trees to go about 3X as long between waterings. Some seasons here the rain is enough.