Raintree refusing to ship

Last time i ordered from raintree they sent me a dead tree and replaced it but charged me shipping. Well the 2nd tree they sent was also dead. That was 8 years ago and i’ve never ordered from them again.

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Now-a-days, it seems as if you can dispute the charge through your credit card company and get a full refund when companies send out DOA material. Why should the customer assume risk for a company’s product? I’m not about to buy a +$70 tree plus $25 for shipping AND assume all of the risk. Are they crazy? I totally understand that brick and mortar stores have overhead costs, and people have to make a living, but if you can’t provide quality products, appropriate delivery times and good customer service maybe you shouldn’t be in this type of business.

I’m not really ranting for myself though, lol, because I stopped buying fruit trees years ago. Why should I buy a tree for $70 - $120.00, when I can buy rootstock for under $3.00 (and I’ve started growing out my own, so there’s another savings) and a stick of scion wood for under $10 (or $6 -$12 postage for a whole bunch of trades)? No thanks. Unless you are grafting nuts, it’s really not that hard. :wink:

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Never knew we can dispute for dead on arrival :scream:

Yeah they insisted the trees of my first order were alive but it was clearly not.

I think they die because they hold them for too dam long. I know my favorite places get their stuff in from February and they ship out as soon as they get it to the places that aren’t too cold or if you ask them not to hold it if you’re in a cold area.

If they get them with everyone else from the main growers in really early February and they’re holding until end of March for the majority of people… that’s almost 2 months just cause

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Not to derail the topic of crappy dealings with nurseries lol. Which sucks! But i see you grow BB’s. This year I got 3 blueberries and one of them is very red in color now. The O’Neil. Southmoon and Sunshine Blue seem rough but ok. Should I be feeding them in winter? At least nitrogen?

Your best is ammonium sulfate if they’re growing. Would help if we knew your zone.

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9b near the Sierra foothills. I normally feed them Down to Earth Acid Mix but stopped when it started getting cold. I give a little elemental sulphur every few months and water with 1T vinegar to about a gallon of water.

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Forget the vinegar. The granulated elemental sulfur under pine bark nuggets. The nice thing about ammonium sulfate is if you have hard water it helps acidify it. I always am sparse in my usage of ammonium, but it is excellent.

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I would start feeding right before they break dormancy or a month before, which ever you prefer. Then again as they start to fruit.

I use g&b acid mix for most of them so i don’t add anything else for most of my pots. For the ones in regular soil, i use soil acidifier and worm compost whenever they look like they start to turn light green.

I don’t mulch or use pine bark nuggets because i don’t know where to get them. However, i do plan on getting a wood chipper and making my own soon though.

I don’t fertilize in the cold or dormancy period, only before and then throughout the season

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My water is over 7ph. The few times I didn’t add vinegar it started to fry te blueberries. So I stuck with the vinegar.

I’ve been trying to keep it organic and have never used the ammonia sulphate before. But I have heard of people using that for BB’s. Do you feed anything else besides ammonia sulphate?

Also some varieties like to change colors in the cold :heart:


Forgot which variety this is since i took the photo a bit ago, but it’s so pretty to me

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Wow that so cool I love those colors!

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Yeah, some will just fall off, others will change colors.

I should probably tag the ones that do so i can make a nice line of them later on :sweat_smile:

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I just took these pics. They’re rougher looking than I thought. Dropping leaves. Is that normal when it gets cold? Also do you prune them? These are in a 15g.


Dropping leaves from cold is totally normal. I sometimes strip them if I’m pruning. I do prune but minimally. Basically i just like to snap off the damaged parts during periods of really cold temperatures but it looks like i may have to do more this year since some of my plants are quite large and old now

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Ammonium sulfate, diluted, is the best.
Not aluminum sulfate.
Vinegar gets diggested in hours.
Also use rainwater when possible

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Thanks. So are all the Ammonium Sulphate brands all the same? I have Miracle Grow Acid Loving for my Gardena plants I believe is an ammonium sulphate.

Do you just use regular tap water in between feedings? Right now they’re getting rainwater of course. But summer no rain.

The bagged ammonium sulphate I see are 21-0-0 do you apply other fertilizer for the blooms and berries?

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I have no idea what ammonium sulfate is😅 i just use the down to earth, acid fertilizer and epsoma soil acidifier is all.

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All ammonium sulfate is the same - 21:0:0

It provides both Nitrogen and Sulfur. And acidified the soil.

I gave up on blueberries after last year. My bushes are in an out of the way spot. And I was bad at watering. So most of my bushes died.
I’m ripping the rest out and composting them.

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I also use kelp, well water between feedings. I also add a little plumbers sulfurc acid to a 50 gal drum of well water to bring the ph down to 4.5 at thebeginning of year, and middle, and water with that .

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Selling stuff they aint got, terrible , go elsewhere. what if you bought things with money you aint got , how would they like that.

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