I have several chestnut, hazelnut, black walnut and spruce that I haven’t planted yet. I am still trying to get more in the ground before the end of this month. For the ones I don’t get planted, how do you all preserve you’re unplanted trees. I don’t want to lose them. When I find more time next spring, I could get them planted out in a permanent spot. When I was working at a vineyard and vine nursery in Germany, we would harvest young grape vines with first years growth. We would bundle them, pack them with soil/perlite around the roots, bag them and refrigerate. Does anyone do anything like this? Or do most of you use nursery beds? If you use nursery beds, how do you cage them to protect against deer and rodents?
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Do you have an empty area in a vegetable garden or flower bed? I would plant them all close together and fence off with chicken wire to keep the critters away over the winter. Dig them out next spring and plant them in their permanent spots.
You mentioned grape vines rooted one season. For those I would dig a trench in the garden and lay them horizontal and bury them. Mark the spot on each end with a stick. Dig them up next spring and they will be fine. Putting them in cold storage works great too if one has a refrigerated area available. The big issue in cold storage is to keep the humidity high so the roots do not dry out. Nurseries I worked at would put their grapevines in sand in a cold room with the roots in the sand and the tops above after bundling the vines up. We would prune them back too so not too long for storage.
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Are they potted or bare root in some soil beds?
I’ve had success mulching around the pots with leaves.
You can always bury them in the ground if they are in pots…cover with some leaves. Biggest issue for me would be voles and rabbits chewing on them over winter.