I realize we have many members starting their first major orchard in 2024. I wanted to point out that as i have before, it is highly economic to grow out your own fruit trees rather than purchase them from a retail nursery. Maybe you dont want to grow them from a stool bed or seeds, and i dont myself usually. I do like to buy rootstocks and graft them a year or two later. It is more work, but the payout is worth it.
If you spend $4 or $5 for scions and less than $2 for rootstocks how much money will you save?
If you dont need a bundle of 50 or a hundred rootstocks buy a few for $4 or $5.
Im not saying every orchard over charges because they donât but i will point out i made this thread for a reason $100+ per fruit tree is highway robbery unless there really is something special about those trees The price of fruit trees is too expensive
I paid $70 each for trees that were Dr. Bell creations which were very hard to find.
Iâm not bringing up digging up wild pears and grafting scion wood you traded for but that would actually be free fruit trees. @TNHunter has a great variety of free rootstocks available to him. Think you would enjoy checking out his posts on persimmons etc. They are worth reading!
The best all around best deal on 1 year whips left is Maple Valley I think. 39th had good deal but most of their 1st year seems sold out. But I like for 13 bucks you get choice of rootstocks including some Genevas at Maple Valley.
Iâm definitely buying a couple of bundles of rootstock from one of the big 3 rootstock houses. And if I need a few more; I see Mehrabyan has frequent 10 for 30 buck deals on common rootstocks, Too. Other then that I definitely plan on buying 5 Dolgo seedlings.
I do not think any nursery necessarily overcharges on Rootstock. It seems really hard to parse out what consumers want; and what is on available from wholesalers. Compounded by not wanting to be stuck with rootstock that will likely be an investment delayed to the stool beds.
I did my first âstoolingâ and obtained a half dozen rootstocks in 2023. Probably going to bury some of my failed grafts over past couple years and try supplying some more.
But, this spring, I should have more than 150 available roots, so I can spare a couple to try raising more roots myself. Plus, I have seedlings getting big enough to graft to.
i think most nurseries are charging fair prices seeing the labor shortage and out of control inflation. some like fastgrowingtrees.com for instance have always been highway robbery. im thinking of starting to dig some seedlings growing around these old, abandoned farmsteads. if the land isnât posted, no one cares. some of these old trees have a few doz. seedlings coming up around them. they are all likely standard size but theyâre free and guaranteed to be at least z3 hardy seeing the age of the parent trees. if i were starting over again, id be a grafting/ trading fool.
Go to âThe price of fruit trees is too expensiveâ topic and there are some posts there.
I need to log off and get to an appointment (or cancel it).
This is slightly off topic but I think worth a post for new orchardists. Watched this video today and thought this guy did an excellent job giving an overview of his orchard, methods, pest control, etc. Less about financials, but a clever combination combination of orchard and bakery for financial diversity and grafting. He uses Bud9
saved about 100 seeds from local apples and ones i foraged. ill be also trying my hand growing seedlings this year. if we all grow some and share what we donât need, imagine all the free rootstocks we will produce. as long as people donât mind standard trees, but those can be tamed by proper pruning and by what apple you graft on it. i can see a natural dwarfing crab like Clarks doing well on a wild standard rootstock. if the folks that trade these seedlings share the soil, conditions and zones they were grown in, we can taylor which ones grow best for certain regions. câmon folks! sow those seeds!
Theyre bench grafts they do for you on the rootstock of your choice, not 1 yr whips unfortunately. Iâve had a 100% success rate with the half dozen or so I planted out. Definitely worth it and I am a huge fan of Maple Valley but dont buy them expecting anything other than a bench graft.
Their trees @25$ a pop are the real bargain imo. Nice selection of heirloom apples some pears too. I appreciate them a ton as a repository for genetics personally. But Iâve found that their shipping rates are very fair which i like.
People that are able to graft their own trees can put together an entire orchard for the price of one normal priced fruit tree. The prices seem to go up more all the time on grafted trees.
Pretty much. I grabbed 50 m7s from willamette for about 160 shipped although it was a tad more than I wanted. Scionwood about 60 bucks for different varities. You could easily spend more on two trees from one of the shadier storefronts like fastgrowingtrees
What do you consider a whole orchard haha? Tallying up what I got over winter and I think I will be well over 100 fruit trees by the spring. Got awhile before bearing but whoa boy not sure what my plans are long term.
I consider that an entire orchard. Sorry if we infected you with the orchardist bug that bit all of us. It seems like now i know very few people without 100 grafts or fruit trees. There are a few exceptions that like gardening better. This forum is definately like minded people when it comes to our excessive love for fruit!
hahaha! I am not @svr68 but I ask myself this question a lot - like âWhat am I getting into! What have I done? Why does this cost so much?â
In my case, it was more of an accident like, âwhoops! I bought a house that came with 60+ fruit trees - what do I do now?â Then, I discovered I was enjoying taking care of them and bought more trees. I can see how if you have the space, you could go from 0-100 pretty quickly.
Once you learn to get rootstocks for free or for not more than 3 to 4 dollars at mostâŚ
and you discover you can trade scions to obtain varieties you donât haveâŚitâs cheaper than a lot of other hobbies!
Plus you can âvacationâ in the backyard, not spend $6000 at Disney.
