I received my rootstocks on Saturday and I put the roots in water for a few hours and now have them in 5 gallon buckets with sawdust. I’m in MN and the weather forecast calls for below freezing temps. Should I put them in a heated room (mud room) or will they be ok in my garage, I think the temps will be around 20-25 degrees in there. Thanks !
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Something in between temp-wise would be nice, say just over freezing. You don’t say what your plans for these root stocks (or their type, apple, peach etc) are and that may make some difference. Are you planning on bench grafting them, letting them grow in a bed or outside for a year before grafting, something else?
I stored my apple root stocks in the box and plastic they came in (after re-moistening), in a root cellar which was in the mid 30’s F. I bench grafted them and put them back there for another month before potting them. If you are planning to grow them for a year before grafting, then planting outside now should be fine, just as you would do with a dormant grafted tree; below freezing won’t hurt them.
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Sorry Steve, you are right I should have been more specific. It’s plum and cherry rootstock, I will be bench grafting later this week. I’m a little worried about how cold it’s going to be the next few days. I suppose it would be almost better to have them inside to get the sap flowing, although I think they are.already coming out of dormancy
I don’t have much experience with plum or cherry, but in general something close to commercial cold storage would be best (just above freezing, not drying). Could you pick an spot in the garage that is a bit warmer, say right by a house wall, and/or put a few 5g buckets of water around them to temper the temps.
I’ve had the opposite problem, my garage being too warm. I would store unplanted trees near the overhead garage door, which would keep the trees at or below 40F pretty well.
Possibly also digging a trench for them and covering with leaves or straw.
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Put them on the floor by the warmest wall in the garage and put a few old blankets or similar insulation on top of them. That should add a few degrees.
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When I have bench grafted plum and cherry I have found it worked (high success) well to have the root stock breaking dormancy when I grafted them.
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I ended up putting them in my mud room overnight (the nights are going to be ridiculously cold the next week (!?!)), making sure the heating vents are off and make it as dark as possible, I will start grafting this week, so I’m sure they are going to be fine. Now the wait is on the weather to finally warm up, thanks for all your advice !
I have 12 plum scions to graft and no room on my existing few trees. I bought 4 lovely small branched rootstocks (bare root and dormant) and plan to put them on those but I was told by an expert that they will not take if I plant them and then graft them this year. How can this be any different from bench grafting and then planting, especially if I wait till they are pushing buds? I am confused
I have planted myrobalan and cleft grafted to it a couple of weeks later with good success. I like to see my plum root stock actively growing before I graft to it.
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Thanks, I got myself in a bit of a pickle by buying a few too many plum scion varieties. It is good to hear that I can graft this spring and not loose a year. I planted the rootstock a few days ago, they are just starting to show life but not much. I will wait a bit yet as the weather is not good for grafting yet anyway.