Most of my friends have bought their trees on sale from a farm store or big box store around here. Many of them don’t have the cultivar that they thought they were buying. That’s fine really, because a lot of times, they can’t remember what it is, or what they wanted anyway.
I have considered doing this as well, and then grafting it to multiple varieties and you have done. The unknown rootstock factor has been holding me back. How would you know what you were gettting? You wouldn’t, and so it would be a gamble if it would live or thrive. At least that’s my perspective. In heavy clay soil, not every rootstock is happy!! Not sure I want to put time and effort into an unknown rootstock, but the sale prices are appealing…
Unfortunately!!! I had several friends wanting to put in trees for the first time this year. By the time they asked me for recommendations, you were sold out of what they wanted. I am glad you are doing so well! When folks ask where to get trees, I give them yours and 39P’s websites. Being able to pick up orders and save on shipping is a plus. Buy local!
As mentioned,this will increase the pressure on the already tight supply of fruit trees.
We graft most of our trees ourselves, but purchase patented varieties. I agree the local mom and pop nurseries may be the best choice in the near future.
That’s a good point, for sure.
Yet, there’s a learning curve.
When the newbie gets on their ‘smartphone’ and starts surfing for trees,
they aren’t going to find you. And if they do, they don’t have much to go on
except trial and error.
Certainly a great idea to look for sources nearby first. But, there’s a learning curve.
If I keep grafting 75 to 100 new trees every year, I’ll have to part with a few of them somehow before too long…but I have no desire to get into the tree selling business. So far, sold or gave a few to the neighbors, that about it.
Prices will have to go up as the cost of the inputs
go up. But, some of the big companies are acting in such
a way that if it were gas or groceries, the government would
be after them for ‘price gouging’ I imagine.
KSprairie you mention unknown roots from the big box stores. Definitely so.
However, usually if the tag doesn’t mention anything about semi-dwarf or dwarf, then it is standard. And if it’s semi-dwarf, odds are pretty high it’s MM111. At least that is what I know about stock that originates in Tennessee, NC and Georgia. Doesn’t guarantee anything, but that’s likely the case.
Then, within a year or two you’ll have suckers from the rootstock or burr knots (if it is indeed M111).
These folks that are grafting or budding trees by the hundreds of thousands are using the cheapest rootstocks …which means the old ones…definitely not ones they have to pay a royalty on to use.
Hope that helps. The only problem with M111 in my view is the 4 to 7 years to come into bearing. I have 2 year old B-118 trees that will have some blooms this spring.
{The box stores most common error is where their supplier doesn’t have 25 of each variety they ordered…so they hang tags that match the orders. I have several Lowe’s stores I visit in the span of a a year’s time–more than once I’ve told the garden center manager “you’ve got some Red Delicious trees back there that are Yellow Delicious” --or some such!}
It is not just fruit trees going way up in price this year. Anyone order their vegetable seeds? I almost passed out when I did my vegetable seed order to the same supplier I always use. Even pulled out their 2020 catalog and compared to 2021. Prices on many seed/fruit trees, roses ect have all gone way up. Amazing how much they increased. I know supply is higher than demand currently due to the pandemic and all wanting to grow stuff in their backyards. However, I doubt the prices will drop after the pandemic is over.
Just mighty glad I can graft. Even more happier that many of my veggies are heirlooms as I save a lot of my own seed anyway. $50 for bare-root fruit trees (plus shipping) and $5 on average for vegetable seeds can add up in a hurry.
I have to wonder if nurseries offering bench grafts will find more business as some who do not graft/bud may have to start with smaller bare-root trees at a cheaper price? Perhaps they are already sold out too.
I think we should expect serious price hikes as well as very limited amounts for the next few years.
The recent weather events in the US will mean lots of people will lose their marginal trees. I expect a bunch of nurseries will also lose swathes of starters.
Add that to an increase in demand due to people realizing food costs are going up and wanting to be more environmentally friendly by producing fruit at home.
Prices here in Canada have been getting higher and higher so I’m glad that I’m mostly filled out on trees.
I’m trying to work now on propagation for some of the non-grafted stuff so they can be shared to those who can’t afford $40+ a plant.
I will politely disagree, there are almost no trees produced on standard root stock anymore. That in itself is almost a “specialty” root stock. Too much variation on seed grown root stock for mass production to feed the feed the “Big Box Store” nursery sections.
Yes definitely some prices going up and a lot of scarcity. The other thing I noticed of some smaller sellers who didn’t necessarily raise their prices was that the seed counts per packet went down. Usually a listing that says 15 seeds used to be at least 20, but now for many I ordered it is exactly 15 or maybe one or 2 extra. I’m okay with that if it helps them have more packets to provide to people and keep their prices down, but I’m definitely being a bit more cautious not to overseed when seeding my starter cells.
I guess it is a ‘buyer beware’ situation regardless of whether you are buying it for the fruit or the rootstock!
If you don’t know what you are getting, but you don’t care and are willing to take a chance, go for it! I have never seen trees marked down super cheap, so I haven’t been tempted yet.
I grew out a bunch of apple seeds and eventually grafted to the best looking ones. There was quite a bit of variation in them! Leaf and bark color varies, vigor, crazy upright growth, some twisted and down-turning growth, 1 has bad burr knots now (I may remove that tree), and one is weakly rooted. In my small n=15, I had a lot of variation. Those seedlings should have fruited last year, but the freeze during bloom wiped them out. I am curious to see what the variation of the fruit will be too.
I saw the point and think it was a very good point as well. You have to include the whole picture in a discussion of pricing. However, I placed an order from a California nursery with fairly competitive prices in January and their minimum wage is higher than the national average, albeit not quite 15/hr
As short sighted people try to stop consumption of fossil fuels…they forget that nitrogen fertilizer is produced primarily from them.
I’m sure that is
partly the
reason for
shortages and
the price
increases.
Rock phosphate and Potash have more reasonable increases.
I’m not sure how you can extrapolate a reduction in usage of a resource with a concurrent increase in price of that resource. That is the exact opposite of the theory of supply and demand on a macroeconomic level, provided economy of scale isn’t a factor. In the case of natural gas, economy of scale is not related to EV adoption to my knowledge,so I’m not sure what you are implying.
I noticed grocery shopping yesterday that a lot of things seem to have jumped in price…even noodle stuff seemed more then the last time i bought. Dollar store raised prices a quarter.
The price increases are multi factored. Shutting down oil and Natural gas pipelines have decreased supply. I know that the company that leases the gas rights from my well have all but stopped pumping gas from it, due to the lack of ability to get it to market, because of pipeline congestion.
Also, with the switch to EV, there is an increased need to produce energy to power those EV. Here in Western NY, most of our power is supplied by Natural Gas fired boilers. They are using a lot of gas, and costing the average home owner about 50% more per thousand cubic feet.
Not sure I want to put time and effort into an unknown rootstock, but the sale prices are appealing…
