It surprises me how many apples or peaches do not list the rootstock or variety. I remember getting a RedHaven peach tree on Home Depot online only to get a tree with no label. Then all Stark bros or Costco do is label the rootstock standard, dwarf or semi dwarf. I guess the majority of the people are not going to look into it as much as you or I but it would would good to know. It seems like very few sell a standard apple tree though. I found a few places but most seem to sell them on semi dwarf rootstock. Of course all of this is assuming the labels are even correct. 9/10 from a reputable nursery the labels will be correct but sometimes things happen.
Stark Bros just says " dwarf", “semi dwarf” on their labels. There are only a few nurseries/growers that I have gotten trees from that put the rootstock information on their labels. A few use color coding on their rootsocks to designate their different size rootstocks.
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Here is how Burnt Ridge sent the tree I ordered from them. Nice packaging and root system. Some places use wet newspaper or shredded up paper with a few hair roots. Their tree had a nice root system and a lot of smaller hair roots.
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Just looks like a small pot to me though so small roots.
The roots were enough to spread around in the ground. I should have taken a photo of them but it was getting ready to rain and I had to put two more trees in the ground before the storm started. I have had a lot worse looking roots from other places.
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Tree seems to have healed well but one of the grafts in the 4 in 1 cherry just died for whatever reason. The other 3 look to be growing new shoots. Told rain tree and they gave me about 19 dollars in store credit. Covers the shipping cost if I order from them again.
I had a bunch of orders with Raintree this year. Most were good and the plants are living while others that is not the case. I got a cascade pear tree and it was clearly dead on arrival. I got a cascade pear to replace the dead one and the alive cascade did not have the black tag so I think they marked the dead one dead but still sent it. The scratch test also showed 100 percent brown/black on the dead one. They did refund 100 percent of the item in store credit but did not refund the route cost or shipping cost. Like I said they sent a alive cascade pear after the fact so I don’t know why they sent a dead one before a alive one and one that was likely flagged as dead. I am hoping the thimbleberry I got is alive but that was a cheap plant anyway if it was not. My Warren pear, cascade pear that came alive, blackberry plants, tayberry plants, black gold cherry and Comice pear are all thriving from them though.
Yea I wish they also covered the shipping cost cause it’s pretty expensive from them. The other 4 trees I ordered from them are perfectly fine.
Weird they’d just ship a dead tree out, maybe it died on the way there, but they marked it black… Overall their customer service was good, not much to complain about other than not covering shipping costs
Like I mentioned the other cascade pear tree is fine so it is doing well. I should also mention the trees they did send me are the same size diameter or bigger diameter than other trees. The caliper on my black gold cherry tree is the same size of caliper as my cherry trees I have had for a year and a half already and the root system was massive. I think they try overall. My guess is your refund amount was so low because one scion died and not the entire tree. When I asked nurseries how they cover a multi grafted tree they answered that they cover it based on scion varieties alive in the past.
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Also I should mention that the only nursery I know of discounting big box stores that offers free shipping is Stark Bros. Even then Stark Bros is bipolar on sales and shipping. Sometimes you get a good sized tree for 21 dollars like Stark Bros has for their bare root Seckle right now while other times you pay over 60 dollars per tree. Sometimes Stark Bros has free shipping like right now, sometimes they have flat rate shipping and other times they charge upwards of 20 dollars for shipping. Like I said very bipolar in shipping/sales and they are the only ones that I have seen free shipping. With the cost Raintree charges they certainly could give free shipping though. It is the most affordable shipping option presuming you are going with one tree. Also if you buy right when they open presale in July I think there is pretty decent early sale discounts. If it is your first order you can use code MYORCHARD assuming you are getting two products which can help save on shipping. Even with shipping it is 15 dollars shipping per tree to me and around 2 dollars for their required route service which no one else I have seen requires and most have likely not even heard of.
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Rolling River’s trees are very small. Not great this year.
I’m working on an order of around 40 new bareroot trees for my hobby orchard to try some new varieties. For comparison right now the same bareroot tree at Raintree is $60, TOA is $46, OGW is $35, and Burnt Ridge is $26. Seems like quite the range for both the bareroot as well as in shipping. For a few trees I can live with whatever is easiest but at 40x this adds up fast.
I’m in the PNW and would prefer to support local but am now starting to look East to access to more varieties and lower pricing.
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I purchased a fig tree from Raintree in 2019, it was labeled to be a Brown Turkey. This year it finally fruited, but the tiny green figs never ripened, and do not at at resemble a Brown Turkey. After asking the opinion of several local fig growers in Seattle what they think the variety may be, all said it does not resemble the Brown Turkey variety that some members have. So I wrote Raintree asking for either a replacement or a reimbursement. After several correspondences the agent there finally agreed to give me a store credit limited to the original purchase price. After five years of anticipation of a variety that I dearly wanted, it’s very disappointing. If you can’t trust a nursery’s label, and this is the limit of followup the nursery is willing to do, maybe it’s time to look for other options!
Dennis
Kent, wa
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the difference in prices these online nursery offers bareroot their tree sizes are not the same. they dont even tell you what calipher or height you will receive just a price. on top of that the shipping prices. its not so easy to decide which nursery is better until you actually receive the bare root tree and the qaulity or size. and, on top of that mislabel tree adds on to the end cost of the buyer. all of that is taken in account only several years later when the tree fruits you hope it is true to the variety being sold.
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Some nursery are more honest about tree size. Stark Bros explains on their webpage you will be getting a small tree on their webpage and I think Trees of Antiquity and Cummins explain some things or allow selection of different trees from their nursery. Raintree I will admit I have gotten a tree DOA and was clearly DOA with a simple scratch test. They did refund me the tree cost in store credit though. I did have to pay for shipping though. All of my trees sold under Dave Wilson were decent caliper. The one apple tree not listed from Dave Wilson’s website came small but quickly caught up from One Green World. In terms of the nursery I have purchased from constantly listed on this site (Raintree, One Green World, Grow Organic Peaceful Valley and Trees Of Antiquity) the ugliest trees and the most failures I have gotten are from Grow Organic Peaceful Valley which coincidently has the lowest reviews on Dave’s Garden and has the worst shipping times of the ones I listed. One Green World and Raintree ship out in late March or April when the ground is unthawed and Trees Of Antiquity only ships one time in April while Grow Organic Peaceful Valley only ships to me in January. Not an issue if you live in CA where they are or somewhere just as warm but not good if you are planting when it is 30 out every day. I also had cuts and legions on my trees from Grow Organic Peaceful Valley which while the ones that came out of dormancy and survived the first year have been unaffected the gapes have gotten wider as the tree caliper has grown and looks kind of ugly. You can find things like this online so there are ways to judge nursery online.
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I agree with all you stated and would add you have to look at who sends plants that actually have roots. Then as a bonus you have to worry about your credit card being stolen, like Burnt Ridge.
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I’ve ordered from both. More than once.
I’d order from either again IF THEY HAD THE BEST PRICE or an exclusive cultivar I needed/desired.
I don’t think at this point I’ll be ordering from either in the coming dormant season.
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I had a really bad experience with Burnt Ridge. They raised their S&H weeks after I ordered, but then because they were out of an item they had to re-invoice, and they charged me at the much higher rate. In other words, they violated the contract of sale. I spent an inordinate amount of time disputing with documentation the over-charge. It was mindblowing how recalcitrant they were about it.
Some of the plants were okay. The apple tree was the tiniest I’ve ever gotten with any order. (I’ve somehow managed to keep it alive.) And the myro rootstocks had terrible heat cracking. It was a struggle to find cambium to graft to on some.
NEVER AGAIN! Burnt by Burnt Ridge!
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I got a email this week I think about Burnt Ridge not carrying a tree I got this year. They auto did a substitution for me with the standard size tree. I think I had the semi dwarf Montrose Apricot and they gave me the standard of it. Luckily they did not charge me but part of me also wonders if the semi dwarf one was more expensive.
wow that is weird did they sent you invoice copy before they run the CC? opportunity to make changes such as cancelling due to the extreme difference in shipping?