What did you get Muddy?
Hopefully they will turn out ok and I think the odds are in your favor.
You seem like you have a plan (shading and sun acclimation), which is good to give them the best chance they have. Reading this though Iām kinda glad I didnāt bite on the late sale as tempting as the prices are.
I hope the roots were in good shape, even if they werenāt wrapped.
Good luck your way, and tell us how it goes.
I ordered a MacFree on 5/30 and got the shipping confirmation email on 6/2 with tracking. It arrived on 6/4 and had just the first sign of green tip in a couple places, roots were about halfway covered with the very wet shredded newspaper.
Most of the stuff Iāve ever gotten from Starkās has been real good, but I donāt think Iāve ever ordered more than four trees at one time though.
On 5/1 Stark Broās replaced the fall planted peach tree that didnāt make it through winter, and that was one of the cases where the shredded paper was halfway up the tree and the roots had nothing. But they didnāt look bone dry, and I soaked it good and it took right off.
I donāt know what the answer is on keeping the shredded paper around the roots, but I bet if they could figure that one out there would be fewer complaints and happier customers too.
As an aside, I got four trees in from Grandpaās Orchard on 4/24 and a couple of them had the same issue with the shredded paper not being on the roots. VERY nice trees though, and all seem to be doing very well.
Really glad Iāve not had to worry about acclimating stuff though. But I think youāre doing all you can Muddy.
Thanks, all. Other than the worry that the roots may not have gotten enough moisture during transit, which will stay a concern for awhile, I donāt think the shipment was as bad as my first impression. Even under heavy shade those leaves started greening up within the first full day. Only two had totally opened all their leaf clusters, and from the rapidity with which the others started pushing theirs, they might well have only started breaking through during shipping. One was still totally dormant on arrival. Also, with soaking, several rootstocks started developing roots and/or leaves on the trunk just above the original roots.
Appleseed, you asked what I got. Itās embarrassing. because I think I was flat out stupid to get this much at a time of year when I know the weather is very likely to make me close to non-functional for most of the day, but Iāll tell you. Itās okay to laugh your head off. Might even make me feel better. 
What did not get sent - Anjou pear and GaLa peach.
What arrived:
- Arkansas Black apple, dwarf
- Harglow apricot
- Hardired nectarine, dwarf
- Shiro plum, dwarf
- Spring Satin Plumcot, dwarf
- Olympic pear, dwarf
- Johnson plum, dwarf
- Santa Rosa plum
- Zestar apple, dwarf
- Goldrush apple, dwarf
- Flaminā Fury peach
- Sweetheart cherry, dwarf
- Crimson snow nectarine, dwarf
- Desertgold peach
- Blackgold Sweet cherry, semi-dwarf
Iāve not had any problems with my orders from them in the past.
Everything had been pruned down to whips. Calipers ranged from less than pencil thickness to over an inch. I donāt know what they mean by āprofessional pruningā, unless itās a way of saying that they pay people to cut off all scaffolds and and cut the leaders and all roots to size to fit in their boxes.
I bought two apples from the end of season sale at Stark and planted them the day that I got them.
They started turning green in two days.
Now 5 days later they have leaves all over them .
Wowā¦17 treesā¦you werenāt messing around. If they didnāt bill you for the Gala, you might reconsider it. I too looked at it, but itās reported medium susceptibility to bacterial spot scared me off. Maybe bac spot isnāt too bad in your place, but here itās awful. It is otherwise a good peach though by all accounts I read.
You got some nice varieties there. Glad to hear they are doing well, I really figured theyād be ok. Being cut way back like you described might end up being really beneficial for giving them a good start in the heat of summer. Less leaves to supply water to when it getās smoking hot.
Good luck and post some photos if you get a chance.
Starkās refusal to identify rootstock really rubs me the wrong way. I have ordered blueberries from them, which arrived in perfectly adequate condition. They have a decent selection of blueberries. If you place a big enough order, the overall price per unit comes down and can be a real value. I ordered several ābloobsā from them. The stand-outs are Jersey (growing very vigorously) and Bluecrop (fruiting well despite its recent transplant).
I have a theory about Stark refusal to identify rootstock.
I believe that they know what rootstock they grow and provide them to the commercial growers.
Everything left is thrown together and sold to the consumer who only needs a few trees.
I donāt have a problem with that because the best trees that I have are from Stark.
Saw this post and ordered a couple of sale items from them a couple of weeks ago. They arrived this week along with some replacement trees for a fall planting from Starkās that did not survive the winter.
All arrived this week in VG shape, roots still moist, and buds about to burst/bursting but that is OK since we are done with frosts for a while. Biggest problem was with Fedex, which essentially lost one of the packages for a couple of days, but the trees made it thru OK.
All in the ground now and looking good. Hopefully they will do well here.