This is what the 4 russian rootstocks I got from BRN looked like after I potted them up in 2.6 gal pots.
In just a couple weeks they were sending out shoots and leaves and I grafted them.
The scion I had was nice 1/4 inch scion and worked perfectly on the rootstock.
You can see how high up the rootsock I grafted a couple of those… i had to go high to mach the diameter of the scion.
They were definately nice size wise. I did whip/tounge on all 4.
TNHunter
I’ve ordered from BR for about 5 years and I don’t have a single complaint. They have great customer service and the products I’ve ordered have all been great. I think I’ve had a couple plants not survive that were a little puny when I got them, but otherwise I’d order form them again without hesitation.
Nice watering can !
@jcf … yes… my wife got that for me for my birthday back in the early 90s.
2.5 gal… the shower head thing is brass and swivels so you can point it up or down or sideways. A very nice fine sprinkle.
It has seen a lot of use every year since the early 90s and is still going.
TNHunter
Im jealous.
I order from Burnt Ridge regularly. They’re just a couple bucks cheaper than the other PNW alternatives, and I have been mostly happy. Items are well packed. I get both named trees and packs of 10 seedlings. I have had a few failures, but no more tha from anywhere else. My only real disappointment is in waiting until I am expecting a shipment to tell me they can’t ship something (usually seaberry seedlings) so those items will be ordered from other places in the future.
Just had my first order- unfortunately they notified me some of my plants were dead after they shipped the rest of the order so I did not have time to modify it with a replacement.
Yes they did the same thing to me. Kind of irritating actually. Shorted me 2 of the 3 Quince I ordered but didnt tell me until remainder of order had shipped. This was 5 months later!
Also the Porters Perfection apple I got from them was so scrawny I had to pot it up and grow it out for 3 years before daring to put it in the cider block.
These people are re sellers for at least part of what they sell so I imagine they just take in all the orders they can and then when the wholesalers order comes in they fill what orders they can and then just tell the rest “sorry your plant died”.
I you want trees with good caliper, try Cummins. I bought 2 porter’s perfection on G969 that were large and very healthy.
They (cummins) have their big end of the season sale right now too.
They also tell you the caliper when you are normally buying.
I agree completely. Cummins has always been a good source for trees and rootstock. Very professional. I think that when you are a real nursery and grow what you sell the pride and professionalism shows through.
I have to say I disagree on this. My order this year had a lot more mortality than normal. It spent a full 10 days in shipping, from April 10 through the 20th. Maybe that impacted some of them.
Issues:
7 of 10 Thimbleberries lived
4 of 5 raspberries lived (though most took a long time to leaf out)
4 stone fruit trees: 1 did well, 1 is OK, 1 has tiny leaves, but appears to be clinging to life (very small roots), and 1 no leaf out
All fine:
2 Huckleberries, 2 Seaberries, 1 Goumi, 1 Hazelnut
The top of the Columbia Star blackberry didn’t survive, but it sent up a shoot from the roots.
I waited a bit to see what would eventually leaf out and sent them an email on 6/23 with the results and got this response.
We have a 30-day guarantee from the time you receive the plant for it to leaf out. We have a 1-month guarantee that our plants will leaf out for plants shipped from March – June. Your situation falls outside of our guarantee time. Below is our guarantee policy for you to review.
This policy doesn’t make any sense, since if I emailed them within 30 days, there would be several more plants on the no-leaf-out list. I waited another month and was able to confirm what really was dead and now they aren’t willing to stand behind what they sent out.
More important to me than the money involved is the quality of the plants. I’ve ordered from Burnt Ridge several times in the past and while I’ve never considered them a top nursery in terms of tree-quality, they were at least mid-level.
But this spring I also had an order from Mehrabyan which shipped at almost the same time, April 6th, though in this case, it only took 2 days to get to me. I’m not sure if the difference in outcomes is the reduced shipping time, or if was the better trees (more roots). But of the 7 stone fruit trees I got from them, all are growing well, with no fatalities and no poor growth. I would say the weakest growing tree from Mehrabyan is doing better than the 2nd best tree from Burnt Ridge (Candy Heart) and close to the best (Sweet Treat).
I just went back and found some pics of the Mehrabyan order, but don’t see any pics of the Burnt Ridge order.
Maybe I’ll pull up and take a pic of the Flavor King (dead) and the Indian Free if it doesn’t make it.
I went to Mehrabyan nursery in person to pick up my order and it was after a nut-growers’ convention that I had the privilege of attending. I met the Armenian owner who was a very based, sensible, intelligent, and well spoken in three languages despite some accent and minor mistakes in English, the trees he has are great compared to all the other bare root trees I’ve bought and I was even able to pick my trees in some cases, it was great and I had an enjoyable conversation with him and he gave me a few left over rootstock which I put to good use, tops and bottoms!
There are a lot more not here but this was how I used the rootstock tops as interstems on my “logs” of giant Geneva rootstock suckers that I cut off a friend’s tree.
That’s a chip bud on the end of the interstem, I think it’s Apricot Apple and probably alive in my sister’s orchard.
I got a very interesting response to my email:
Thank you for your business and we have reviewed your concerns and you have a good point. This is the first year we have done this guarantee policy and the 30 days. We evaluated what you said and we have changed the policy for customers. We will replace your trees, just follow the directions below and we can go from there. If you have any questions please email or call the office. We are in the office (Monday – Friday from 8:30-4:00 pacific time).
I’ve thanked them and asked for the refund. I thought about getting them re-sent next spring. But, it can be pretty pricey to pay for shipping for just a few trees. And I’m not sure how many (if any) trees I’ll need by that point. Right now I’m working to dig and graft suckers, so hopefully I’ll have some (small) trees to slot into the places where things didn’t make it.
For those interested, the policy they listed is:
Guarantee policy:
To be eligible for the bareroot tree guarantee you must contact us within the first 3 months for orders picked up or delivered in January - March ; within 2 month for orders picked up or delivered in April - May and 1 month for orders in June.To be eligible for the evergreen plant guarantee you must contact us within 3 days of receipt of the order.
Orders shipped in the summer and fall are not guaranteed.
