First Time Order From Burnt Ridge-Review

General Fruit Growing
#1

In case any of you are wondering. Burnt Ridge does send year round. You just have to do away with the warranty. I just received five items from them and thought I would give my thoughts on my first time order from them.

$28 Persimmon- Nice roots, but only a six inch stick. Maybe less.
$28x2 Two potted pawpaw- Came potted and not to bad looking. 2 foot tall.
$23.50 Bare root euro pear- Not bad. Roots 80%. Just over 2 foot tall. Uncut top.
$28 Bare root asian pear- Total waste. No roots, just a stub. 3 foot tall and thick. Cut top.

Conclusion- 50% satisfied. Most likely would only order potted plants from them in the future.

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#2

Iā€™m sure some of the stuff Burnt Ridge has is grown by some other vendor. That includes rootstocks. Which means, reject the merchandise from the suppliers and disappoint everyone who orderedā€“or accept some duds and disappoint some.

Iā€™ve been ordering from some named nurseries (Gurneyā€™s for example) for over 50 years.
Gurneyā€™s ainā€™t what they were in the 1960ā€™s for certainā€¦and them and Stark Brothers I seldom order from anymore unless they have something unique not available elsewhere.

Somewhere around 30 years ago I ordered from Burnt Ridge. And sporadically over the years since. But in the last 8 years, Iā€™ve ordered from Burnt Ridge all but a couple years.

Blueberries, currants, gooseberries have been the most common thing, along with rootstocks, on my order from them. Blueberries, picking an item Iā€™ve re-ordered regularly, have always been bigger and healthier, and at a lower price, than say Raintree Nursery, for instance.
Shipping from 2,500 miles away seems reasonable too.

Have I ever gotten a substandard plant from Burnt Ridge? Probably.
Have I gotten disappointing results from other mail order nurseriesā€¦yes.

If you know a certain company sells tiny little bare root plants that donā€™t live, you learn not to order those. But, you still can order something that is hard to ā€˜ruinā€™ā€¦like daylily roots or iris rootsā€¦from a questionable nursery at bargain prices and come out OK. (Michigan Bulb and Four Seasons nurseries come to mind.)

The farther removed you get from mom and pop founders who put their heart into a company, the more likely at some point youā€™ll be disappointed.

And, I have an order in for mid March shipment from Burnt Ridge again this year. Iā€™ll expect all will be OK with my order. But, if not, I donā€™t have a problem coming back to post that also.

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#3

@BlueBerry A lot of what burnt ridge has is grown in pots, with the soil washed for shipping. I have had excellent luck with those from everywhere. The bare roots I got from them is about what I have seen with all of companies. Sometimes you get an ok one and more often you donā€™t. I knew that when I put the order in though. Just couldnā€™t find them in pots.

You hit it right on the money. None of them are what they used to be. I have ordered from about six different ones now and so far they have all been a mix of good and bad. Iā€™m going back to my old anti-bare root ways though. Only potted again from here on out.

Do you think that the rootless asian pear could make a comeback? It was a stub with one small feeder root hanging on.

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#4

You have to explicitly ask Burntridge for larger size trees or rootstock. They will oblige but always charge more. Their larger size rootstock are much bigger and worth the extra IMO

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#5

That wasnā€™t the problem. When they dug from the field they chopped off all of the roots. Pretty much all of it. To better explain. The box was 8x8. So imagine taking a six foot tree and cutting the roots to fit in a 8x8 space.

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#6

They double tagged one of my goumis. Iā€™ve emailed them, but havenā€™t received a response yet. The mulberries I received from them were good roots, but weā€™re smallish. Hopefully they bud out. Iā€™m worried about this spot I just found on the Kokuso.

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#7

I was ready to get one of their mulberries. What size were they? About two foot?

If it starts growing that wound will heal quickly.

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#8

The Kokuso is about 2. Silk Hope a bit bigger. Closer to 3. El Dorado might be a foot and a few inches. Much smaller.

#9

I bought my Carmines from BR. They came out of dormancy and took off.
Youā€™ll be fine.

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#10

I received several jujube varieties and a Nikitaā€™s Gift persimmon from Burnt Ridge yesterday. Most were 4 ft tall and had extensive roots. Some roots were too long for my 15 gal pots so I had to trim 4 inches all around.

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#11

I tend to avoid potted. Usually horribly rootbound IME.

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#12

Wellā€¦Iā€™m not even sure if it is a Carmine with the two tags. Iā€™ve never heard of Tillamook Goumi.

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#13

Tillamooks are sold by One Green World. They definitely look the same as Carmine.

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#14

The potted ones you buy online arenā€™t old enough to get root bound. Plus they use air pruning pots.

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#15

That must have been the larger size that @ramv was talking about. What I bought was all they had at that time. If they are as nice as you say, I would have paid the extra money too. I only had one that was really bad. The other was just super small. I judge them by the roots more than the size though.

#16

I donā€™t know, if you could post a pix that might help. But, give it a try, it might work. Since it has no roots, donā€™t fertilizer it with anything powerful until the second season.

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#17

@BlueBerry They went in the ground immediately. Stuck with it now, so might as well see what it does. If not the soil will be easy to dig for the next one. On the burnt ridge website the plants that say gallon are the ones that are grown in pots with the soil washed off. I would for sure buy more of those from them. Just need to make sure I can get the larger size next time. I have bought a lot of those from other vendors and have yet to see a problem. Field grown bare roots is where I always seem to run into trouble.

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#18

Well, in sympathy with your point, I got a ā€œSugar Caneā€ jujube from them last year that was pretty scarce on anything but a taproot. But, itā€™s alive as of Tuesday, so I donā€™t have a quarrel.

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#19

Iā€™m with you, @BG1977. I donā€™t prefer potted for that very reason.

I was considering ordering form Burnt Ridge this year, but they just have too many negative reviews on Daveā€™s Garden Watchdog for me to feel comfortable taking a chance with them. I especially dislike not being able to get in contact with a company that I have ordered from if there is an issue. It seems like they are notorious for not getting back with customers in a timely fashion. Thatā€™s a hard pass for me.

#20

You canā€™t judge them by that. Only the pissed people do reviews. They are one of the larger ones, so the odds of angering someone is increased. Even me. I didnā€™t give high praise, but like bluberry said they are good for some things. I will order from them again. Just wonā€™t buy any of their field grown bare root trees again.

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