I have noticed some good deals at the big box stores once they sell most of the trees OR it gets later in the season. The only issue I have is normally they never say what rootstock they are on.
In fact the fruit trees I have seen at Whole Foods just say " apple" “pear”, " cherry".
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I think potato starts, onion starts, and strawberries were all 3 bucks a pack at Walmart this weekend. Seems like a good price if you are in the market for the varieties they had, to make sure they are in hand.
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Another reason why I’m glad I learned to graft my own trees other than being able to have ones not commercially propagated.
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Actually “top” these or just an extreme thinning around the top?…
Both. You need to keep one central limb (apical dominance) higher than the others.
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I stopped by today and was tempted by a multi-graft Asian pear (20th Century, Chojuro, Shinsheki, and Kosui). But definitely not a deal at $80. The single-variety trees were $60.
I’ve found cheap trees at Costco in the past, but the issue was that they are very hard to find. They have them and are sold out very quickly. Many of the varieties were interesting ones, some not found elsewhere from Burchell.
Last year at our Costco I counted about 3 weeks they had them. Issue is they started to break dormancy after a week or two. My local Costco and local stores always have the basic varieties. Bing Cherry and Rainier cherry for cherry types, Honeycrisp apple and 1 or two other kinds I forget. The thing that stood out to me was the prince almond. That is something I think is more uncommon here.
I bought a Stella cherry on impulse at Costco ten years ago, labeled as an ultradwarf. It clearly was not. But it’s a great tree.
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Seeds do seem higher this year, and less variety. But, I did pick up some seed potatoes (Pontiac and Yukon Gold) for 60 cents a pound at a local southern states store last week. If you wanted sweet corn from their bins, you had to buy half a pound. No thanks, I don’t need to plant half an acre of corn! We got our corn at a local general store, still expensive tho, about $20lb.
Tractor Supply had their usual bagged bare root trees, and many of their boxed berry plants. Haven’t seen any trees at Lowe’s yet.
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I couldn’t resist getting boxed berries from tractor supply at 15% off plus a coupon for my birthday month. It made the prices close to reasonable, plus the varieties they have are patented and hard to find elsewhere. Nice “boutique” plants for landscaping and potted arrangements.
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Honestly my Costco does not even label rootstocks or say things like ultra dwarf. A cherry on ultra dwarf rootstock is still going to be 8+ feet though. A standard cherry tree may get 35+ feet though so it is all relative
Which varieties in your area? I wonder if they mix up the varieties by region or every TC gets the same plants.
At 60 cents a pound you didn’t buy corn seed…because they required you to buy 30cents ??
I’m a little perplexed…
No, the bulk stuff, like corn, beans, etc required you to buy half lb minimum. The seed taters were 60c pound, or $25 for 50lb. I got about 15lb of Pontiac and 7lb of Yukon Gold. Cost about $13.
I was at a dollar general today and found some Burpee seeds there, I picked up a few packs, including some Brad’s Atomic Grape. It’s a unique purple/red/green elongated cherry variety. I had originally only seen them in Baker Creek’s catalog, and they are expensive ($4.50 for 25 seeds). Here’s a link to them on BK’s site-
This Burpee pack has at least 25, closer to 50 seeds in it, and I got it for a dollar. Don’t know why they’re selling at Dollar General so cheap, but thought I’d give them a try, along with a variety called Mamie Brown’s, a pink beefsteak.
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I’ve bought several berry plants from TC, a lot of raspberries. I think one of them is still around, but the others…
But, about 5 years ago, my wife bought me an Oregon Champion gooseberry from them, and it’s now my biggest gooseberry plant I have. Quite large, about 4ft tall, 3ft wide, and very thorny, but also quite productive.
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One of the Baby Cakes appears to be DOA, but we’ll see if it bounces back. They do have a “guaranteed to grow” warranty, so whatever that means, I might be able to get a refund.
Found a couple of deals today.
Walmart- Allstar and Quinalt strawberry bare root 10 for $3.24 I bought one pack of each but im going back for more. Each root and bud looks as good as anything ive bought from Indiana Berry etc. Look closely thru the green plastic and if you see little plants in there they are good. Its in a big rack with onions and other bulbs etc. Soil was dry as dust… not sure how long they will live on the racks
Rural King- Seed packs 10 for $10. I bought some corn seeds and pollinators that ive been wanting to try but didnt pull the trigger at the higher price.
I wondered what that tasted like, I’d never seen it except for at Tractor Supply.
Oregon Champion is alright, I guess, but I’m not an expert on gooseberries. I really didn’t know anything about them, until we moved here, my wife’s family had grown them, so I planted some for her. The OC berry turns from green to purple when fully ripe. To me it just tastes like a small crunchy grape, more tart than sweet.
We harvested about a quart or two of them last year, put them in the freezer. Haven’t done anything with them yet.
We also have Jeanne and Poorman, but they have never produced much, even tho they’re 5 years old.
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