Hey all… Just curious, got a few trees from Gurney’s today (my bush cherries).
Still got snow on the ground so can’t plant yet… so I was curious, can i leave them in a bucket of water in my unheated shed for a week?
I’d usually at least put them in a pot with moist dirt until I want to graft. but I don’t have bags of dirt available right now (had a bag of Promix-B that’s kinda frozen since top opening got snow in it hehe) and was hoping I could leave in a bucket of water to keep roots ‘moist’ (very moist hehe) with no big issue since plant is dormant. Anyone have an opinion on this?
No, that could waterlog and rot the roots
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Put the roots into a plastic bag with a few wet paper towels or wet newspappers and secure the bag around the trunk. This will keep the humidity level high but won’t drown your roots. Store in a cold location like an unheated garage.
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What those guys said. I suspect that, being dormant and all, you could just stuff them all raw and nekkid in a snowbank and wait until the snow melted!
“Back in the day” (so they say) people would collect scions and stick them in the snow next to an unheated outbuilding. Should work.
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I put mine in a bucket or big storage tub and cover the roots with damp sawdust or mulch. I one had a tree live 3 weeks and start putting out new root tips when stored this way, and they’ve always transplanted well. When I first started I killed a tree by leaving in a bucket of water just 2 days- roots turned to mush, so the posters above are right…don’t do that!
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@speedster1 I do something similar, but alas no soil at the moment.
I’ll do as some suggested, and just throw them in the plastic that came in the bag with some moist newspapers and paper towels and then make the trip to home depot to get good non-frozen soil later this week.
I am tempted by the snow bank idea though @marknmt ;).
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You can also check another thread called " What to do with too early delivery?"
Same situation as you are in now.
The trees are dormant so you don’t have to be worried. Few weeks ago I was in the same situation and the ground was frozen. I had 30+ trees and I just threw them all on a pile, roots together and threw snow on top of the roots. They will last like this for a long time cause the snow will melt during a day and keep the roots wet. Just make sure to supply them with fresh snow, you don’t want the roots to dry off.
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As long as there are no hungry mice doing the rounds under the snow. I would have just kept them in the shipping box, shoveled out a space in the snow, covered the box and a bait station with a tarp and covered it all with snow. I’ve done this, and even slightly budding trees are good for 2 weeks easy, if there is no snow, a shaded spot will likely be fine if you don’t have a hot spell- if there is, you might want to cover the tarp with a pile of leaves. .
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I put scions from North Star cherry in a snow bank this winter, then put them in some Rootone powder and planted them in a 5 gallon bucket. Maybe some will root and I can offer own-root pie cherry trees next year.
Buds still look plump, and I put wax on the cut upper tips.
Here’s hoping.
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