This is the time of the year when we find ourselves fruit tree shopping for leafless trees in front of the box stores at steep discounts. Today i picked up a red delicious apple and an ayers pear for just under $20. The apple is a standard so it may be 10 years until i eat an apple from it. The ayers was a semi dwarf bargain i nearly overlooked. The ayers has several overcrown crossed limbs that i will remove in the spring and graft on 333 rootstock. How is your bargain shopping going? I know they are always beat up seconds but the scion wood costs that much right?
Last year I scooped up a Fuji and a Sweet Sixteen at Home Depot for ten bucks a piece. They both looked pretty bad except I made sure their limbs were good and their grafts were above the dirt line. this year they took off well and I think I’ll get to have a few apples on each of them next year to try out. This year 14 bucks got me a Cortland and a Braeburn.
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Great shopping John! There is nothing better than good deals!
If money is the issue, I’d much rather have a healthy rootstock, which you can buy retail for like $3, than a mistreated apple tree.
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Murky,
In most cases your right a bsrgain is no bargain rootstocks are $1-$4 and scion wood can be free or cheap. In my case i may really kick myself if the roots are in a ball inside the pot but im not sure about that yet. The advantage is i will have trees in the ground soon and they have a huge headstart on the bench grafts or bare roots. Its not the mo ey its the year of time for me.
I hear you, but I cringe to think of how that tree has been treated. I hate to allocate a planting space, and put the effort into protecting and watering a tree when it already has a strike or two against it.
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I like a bargain. Both the Fuji and the Sweet Sixteen are in great health. The fuji was a good size last year and already wanted to give me apples this year which I cut off to give it more time to grow which it already is ten feet high in my tall spindle planting. I could spot a diamond in the rough.
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Congrats. And I’m the guy who only got a handful of apples from my orchard 
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Home Depot has Bing, Lapin, and Rainneer cherries for $12.00 dollars. I might buy one this week. It’s only five miles away from work.
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Let me know what variety your big box trees turn out to be in a few years.
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That is not really a joke. You really don’t know if you’ve wasted your money until you know the tree is true to label, unless you don’t mind grafting. But in that case you might as well buy a rootstock.
A better bet is to buy from a fruit tree nursery that’s having a sale- unless your source has a good reputation. Lowes and HD don’ have that.
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well my Crimson Crisp from Grandpas was actually a Crimson Gold and my Macintosh from a local ( not cheap) nursery was actually an Arkansas Black I think. My Golden Delicious from Home Depot Turned out to be a Granny Smith so really your taking your chances from anyplace you buy from, but I agree it’s a crapshoot buying fruit trees from big box.
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No, that is misleading. Everyone makes mistakes but that doesn’t mean everyone is equally likely to make a mistake. Reputations are built on relative competence, not absolute competence.
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Rather than rolling the dice and hoping your tree really is what the label says
it is, I’d rather buy from a reputable nursery, such as Fruit Tree Farm or Vaughn’s.
where I know I’m going to receive a quality true to name tree, at a more than
reasonable price. You get what you pay for.
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In the case of what I bought I’m ok if I’m paying a low price like this. One thing about Kansas is we have no shortage on land. The pots , potting soil, and rootstocks I could not buy or ship for that price. I don’t disagree with the advice people are giving about the negatives of bargains either.
I can already tell you my Macintosh, Jonagold, golden delicious, and Winesap four years in the ground gave me many healthy apples and all true to their tags.
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John,
I would feel good about those purchases you made because the excellent results speak for themselves. I think what some people are saying is for others benefit that might read this forum. I don’t want to speak for them but I think they are saying someone could get in trouble bargain shopping at certain places. Your an educated shopper and as mentioned you know a diamond in the rough. I like bargain shopping myself and that’s unlikely to change.
I love bargain shopping and like to get clothes at at least 50% off. The last work boots I bought were that and they’ve begun falling apart about twice as fast as they should have due to weak glue and a lack of stitching to hold the soles to the leather tops. In this case I broke about even but overall I’ve probably come out quite a bit ahead over the years.
Fruit trees are my living so I don’t cut corners or try to get bargains- but I buy wholesale anyway so I’m getting them for cheaper than the deals you guys are talking about anyway. However, I have bought trees in the past from disreputable sellers (to get varieties I couldn’t get elsewhere) and just because you get away with it with a few trees doesn’t mean it is a bargain except in the way a winning lotto ticket is a real bargain.
Alan I already have my established trees and now it’s all about getting a bargain when I can and squeezing them in for a. Little bit more variety and interest. If they aren’t what I thought I won’t be to bothered by it.
About ten years ago, my neighbor bought two Red plum trees from Home Depot. One tree turned out to be a green plum with a slightly red blush, and the second one was true -to- label but very mediocre in flavor.