@murky, that picture was taken [correction: late afternoon]. The window faces due south and the cuttings appear to be getting their fill of photosynthesis from daylight, but there is no supplemental lighting.
I need to mix up a fresh batch of potting soil and use the 1 and 2 quart pots that I’ve been accumulating to up-pot the fig cuttings, then I’ll transfer them out of doors and acclimate them to increasing amounts of sunlight.
Does Raintree gets creme of the crop stock from the wholesalers like DWN?
They seem to have more selection but I don’t think Raintree gets anything better than say Bay Laurel and I think after I got my trees Raintree raised their prices higher than places like Bay Laurel by a large margin. Some of my Raintree trees have done well while others are dead. They have made it clear to me that they will not be refunding me for anything more so I have not looked at them. Besides I think I have enough trees and bushes now. What I will say is Raintree has trees that seem to die slowly and not overnight. Last year I had 2 pears die but only one came dead. I had a black gold die but it was sending up suckers far before it died and the winter just finished it off. So I would say go for them with selection and not because you think they are stronger.
I’ll chime in.
I’m very happy with both Raintree and Groworganic. They have both delivered healthy, dormant trees that have woken up and done well. Both their customer service has been good, but I’d like to especially say Raintree has been far beyond what I have experienced in customer service.
I actually won’t even exactly call it customer service as all my questions were addressed before I made a purchase.
They both were more reasonable on prices too… $40-60 for the trees I bought.
I just found Bob Wells in NETX and got a few nice trees on soil from them for a good price.
@clarkinks OP was right! The price of nursery fruit tree went crazy over the past few years. He’s was also right that people like me, took time to research, learn to graft and air-layer, so they could start an orchard. No way I can afford orchard prices for the trees, I would like to put in. But I can afford rootstocks, scion wood and pots.
I hope that all makes sense, because it does to me.
that’s how i did my apples i put in this spring. grafted semi dwarf bareroot rootstocks with scionwood i traded for. i didnt figure what the cost per tree was but it wasnt much. i didnt even pot them up. planted them strait away. only 1 scion didnt take but the rootstock did. ill just graft that one over next spring.
Somebody needed to say that…good post.
This year I bought a bundle of 100 B.118 rootstocks, about $200 shipped. From the word go I sold 40 rootstocks at $4 each to people so my cost on the 60 I kept went down to $40. I sold a bunch of the grafted trees at $30 each so at the end of the day I had about $800 to spend on my orchard plus four new trees I’m keeping.
I almost forgot; I sold five of the failed grafts as ornamental apple trees for $20 each.
Finally, bought my trees for the 1st time this year. I was obsessed with apple trees last year. Saw, a local apple tree tucked in the corner of the store with 1 citrus tree that have no label or price and away from the other fruit trees. The apple tree is on M111 root stock and in a 3 gallon container. It ringed up close to 50 dollars with tax, but the tag have the price for 33 dollars. They honored the price tag. They probably forgot to take the price tag off the apple to reflect the new price in the system.
StarkBro’s have certain pears and apple for 18 - 24 dollar for sale. Got 4 pears and 2 apples from them. In addition, I’m growing apple from seeds and it’s free.
where did you buy those rootstocks? that was a good deal.
From Treco (treco.nu). I got the 1/4" rootstock and it was truly as in ‘at least’ 1/4 inch, it was all evenly on the bigger size of that. Next year I’m probably gonna go with the 3/16" as it should be easier to match softwood to it.
They were a pleasure to work with.
I checked and Raintree nursery is also selling rootstocks, I don’t think they did before.
I liked Treco…in 2021 they were even cheaper as I recall. Nice rootstocks.
Also, congratulations on figuring out ‘free trees’ for yourself after selling some.
i may start doing the same with apples, pears and plums. not much to do from mid apr. to mid may here with the shitty weather. might as well make some money then. there’s a guy about 70 miles south of me thats selling 3ft trees on facebook for $15 each plus shipping or can pick up at his place for free. id probably just sell to the locals.
I’m about 9 1/2 years from retirement. When I do I plan on doing a few things for fun and profit, including a small backyard orchard operation. I’m using the time now to learn and test assumptions.
As Murphy said, no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. Basically this year I wanted to sort out the logistics of grafting and selling 50 trees, even on my otherwise busy schedule. I learned a lot and I’m keenly aware that the experience doesn’t extrapolate to the 200 I would want to do in retirement. But it did let me sort things out that would have come to haunt me even worse at the larger scale.
Im adding the thread below for shipping a couple of fruit trees for $73 to the to expensive list from Trees of antiquity. Jerry @jerryrva wanted 2 apple trees. I understand inflation is out of control the last few years. Gas prices are finally down a little which has not eased shipping costs because the price of vehicles is 5x higher than it was. Fruit trees are so expensive it is slowing progress in the industry.
$49.95 x 2 $100
Shipping. $70
$85 per fruit tree!!!
This year i purchased 2 pears for $70 each !!! from Grandpas orchard. One thing we can bet on people have had enough of this inflation!
Improve your grafting skills everyone scions and rootstocks are much cheaper to ship because they are not as large or as heavy.
Trees of Antiquity and Grandpa’s Orchard add way too much handling fees to their shipping charges. Case in point, Grow Organic in California charges $25 shipping for 2 jujube bare roots to East coast, Maple Valley Orchard in Wisconsin charges $35 to ship 2 bare root apple trees.
TOA and Grandpa are outliers, not the norm.
If apple trees sold for $1 over 100 years ago – and they sell for $39 or $45 or $65 today, considering the dollar has lost almost 99% of it’s buying power due to inflation…
trees are only selling for half the amount they did back in 1910 or something!
Oh, and postage from 1cent for a letter to 69 cents?
So, I guess shipping rates also are cheaper than 100 years ago!
where do you get your inflation numbers? Quick unverified Google search seems to put 1924 dollar worth about $18 today
BTW, I canceled a tree from my Burnt Ridge order and the shipping went up from $23.93 to $26.95. I can’t complain about the total. The nursery is 100+ miles or so North of me.
97% inflation would mean it would take $1.97 to buy what used to be $1. Almost double.
From the Bureau of Labor and Statistics:
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
