Short question - how do you like to store bare rooted trees if you can’t plant them right away?
Longer story - I recently received 3 Cornelian cherry trees in the mail, 2 bare root in the same bag with shredded wet paper, dormant, with with what appear to be fresh grafts, and one potted. I expected them all to be potted, but looking back at my communications I can see they said some were “field grown” so I guess I should have expected otherwise. the grafts look pretty new and they still have grafting tape, which I wasn’t expecting, as they should be at least a year old. I use grafting tape on the tops of my fig cuttings when I root them, and after a year outside they get pretty ratty.
I have a full time job and 2 little kids so I can’t drop everything to plant new trees if I get them. I decided to wedge the bare rooted ones between my potted figs (10 gallon tall back grow bags) in the garage so they can stay cool and dark for a few days. I’m now wondering if I should have put them in my basement fridge instead since they are still dormant, so they could be cooler and darker. I have several more plants coming in that were on preorder and just wondering what other people would do if they had to store bare rooted trees with new grafts for up to a week before planting.
I like planting bare rooted trees, I just always worry If I can’t get them in the ground fast enough.
I am always really excited when my trees come in and drop everything and quickly plant or pot immediately. However I think with bare root we tend to over think these things, I think it would be pretty fine relatively neglected for a week or two if not let to dry completely out.
If you have room in your basement fridge, I would do that! As long as you keep the roots plenty moist they will stay dormant for months. A couple years ago I had extra bare root chestnut that I kept in the fridge, dormant, from mid April until early August… grew fine.
That’s exactly what I do. I dig down into the north/east side of the pile at an angle and then lean the trees into the pile and cover up their roots well. I do pack the soil down hard so it doesn’t erode or slide off in rain. I often have to leave them for 4-5 weeks because the ground is too soggy or it’s actively pouring when I’m home weekends. They are always fine.
I put mine in black plastic bags and threw some potting soil over them. it’s been too rainy, my toddler is now a menace if i leave her alone for more than 5 minutes, and i haven’t been able to get anyone to really come by and help clear the area until about last week. I got my trees about a month ago or so. I just had them wrapped in black plastic bags and sprayed water on the roots every few days or so but throwing potting soil over them has made them happier so far
If the soil is soft enough to get a shovel in the ground you can heel them into the ground until you can plant them. I’ve done that several times over the years when it is sort of too early to actually plant them where you wanted.
I have, due to periods of illness, left mine in their boxes with wrapped damp roots for weeks with no issues in our cool garage. Even if they have started to leaf out a little they have all been fine. These are apples, pears, and peaches. If it’s only a week I’m guessing they will be fine in either situation you proposed.
Idk it’s my estimation that if you have time to wedge them in or pot them, then you have time to plant them. Planting a bare root tree takes a couple of minutes max, now if you’re getting in dozens or something then it’s an ordeal. I’ve never gotten more than one in at a time. Hopefully I get a large property to build out a legit orchard one day then I’ll have that issue.
@Gkight … I can temp plant a bare root tree in my nice soft compost pile in a couple minutes and water it good.
But to get something proprly planted in ground out in my orchard…and composted and wood chipped… that is a different story all together… can easily be a 2 or 3 hour job.
Under my 3-4 inch layer of decent top soil there is a deep layer of red sticky rock filled clay… and I mean rock filled… many rocks fist sized to head sized.
I break up that red rocky clay layer removing larger rocks and replace rocks with compost.
Normally a wheelbarrow full of compost goes in each planting hole.
It would be nice if we all had some nice soft sandy loam soil a couple of feet deep. Not the case at all here.
And when it is wet… best not to mess with the red rocky clay… it really needs to dry out 3-4 days after a rain before you attempt a in ground planting here.
Gotcha, we just have sand so a couple shovels and sprinkle some granulated fertilizer takes the same time as you temporarily wedging them. I can’t imagine 3 hours to plant a tree no matter the soil outside of Hawaii volcanic rock.
I heeled in 15 apples and 7 peach trees in the sandiest portion of my orchard. Finished planting tnem today before the line of storms rolled through at 3pm.
Voles found two apples that were just heeled in on Monday. They didn’t bother the ones that had been there for 2 weeks. Random chance I guess.
It takes me roughly an hour a tree, maybe a bit more, a lot more if I need to go to the store and get equipment. I measure distances from other trees and mark locations with flags, dig out the sod and dig a big enough hole, roll out a section of 4 foot tall hardware cloth and cut a 5 foot length, then make it into a ring with removable zip ties. I’ll then plant the tree with mycos and backfill with existing soil. I then get about 2 cubic feet of mulch from my pile and place it around the tree, pound in a 7 foot tall metal t post and put the ring of 4 foot tall hardware cloth over the post and around the plant. I then hammer in a bamboo pole opposite the post to prevent the ring from swinging in the wind and zip tie the ring to both the T post and bamboo pole. 3 trees last night with me rushing took about 3 hours, and I luckily had everything I needed.
Most of the time is spent making protection from deer, but if they go a single night without protection they could get browsed and easily ruined.
Depending on what part of my property, it is either a layer of topsoil followed by a clay loam mix, or just tons of rocks and bricks and what not. always fun (sarcastic) to pick out a growing spot and not be able to get an inch dug from all the rocks and clay.
I thought it would take me “less than 15 minutes” to plant a tree the other day… turns out i was heavily mistaken
If i didn’t have someone to help me cut some logs, it wouldn’t taken all day for one tree lol. Between moving soil and getting the hugelkulture of my raised beds right, it took me about 4 hours for one tree not including the time it took me to make the beds
Exactly. If you dig in very wet clay, you will end up with a planted pot- bound tree because the hole will retain its shape.
We have flooding here, although the water has receded, we are expecting more rain for the next 7 days other than tomorrow. So I’m going to be way behind schedule.
it’s been too rainy, my toddler is now a menace if i leave her alone for more than 5 minutes, and i haven’t been able to get anyone to really come by and help clear the area until about last week. I got my trees about a month ago or so. I just had them wrapped in black plastic bags and sprayed water on the roots every few days or so but throwing potting soil over them has made them happier so far
not including the time it took me to make the beds