The retail online nursery industry has imploded

I agree. I think people are going to be quick to kill the expensive plants if Covid-19 goes away or gets normalized.

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I hope they will be more responsible and keep the pets they have adopted

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Iā€™ve experienced this from Bay Laurel as well, though I should note that their plants have done fine for me despite that.

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They do fine, just would grow more the first season if they left more root. It matters to me.

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Hey Elivings1,
I ordered from Mehrabyan Nursery last spring. They were the only nursery that still carried NY9 (Kenmore) plums that are resistant to black Knot. Prices was rather amazing, and the trees were on the small side, about 3-4 ft grafted whip. They made it through the summer fine and will know by May if they made it through the upstate NY winter.
Here is their contact info

Our mailing address is:

Mehrabyan Nursery

259 Seven Mile Drive

Ithaca, NY 14850

contact@mehrabyannursery.com

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Dunno. Some are definitely disappearing but I keep finding new ones. Cricket Hill has all sorts of fun stuff now, and the things I ordered last year came much larger and healthier than I expected. Whitman sends great stuff and is still going; Burnt Ridge seems to send smaller stuff in my experience but always healthy. Rare Roots and Sooner seem to have great selection, though this is my first year ordering from them so I canā€™t vouch yet. Iā€™ve seen a couple other regional odd edible growers starting to ship that Iā€™ve bookmarked but not tried ā€“ Winter Cove, Quackinā€™ Grassā€¦

I find it hard to tell if itā€™s actually a decline or just several of the first generation of online sellers hitting hard times or retiring at once and us old-timers knowing them all by nameā€¦

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A 3-4 foot tree for the price the sell them at is not bad. My trees from Stark Bros were likely no more than a foot and a mini whip and they charged 60+ dollars for their plants. They came very healthy so I was happy with it. Weather the small peach trees will make it through winter is yet to be told. I have more trees coming from Stark Bros and have found both Stark Bros and mehrabean nursery very accommodating so far with my orders. Heck Surik from mehrabean called me back after hours.

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I have had great success with fruit trees and grape vines from Isonā€™s Nursery in Georgia. They have a wide range of fruits, berry bushes and fruiting vines.

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I love Whitman Farms. I have been ordering from her for years and have never been disappointed. Plants received are always larger than I expected and healthy.

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In the spring if you have a Rural King nearby and they are like mineā€¦ last year they must have had 1000 fruit trees or moreā€¦ for fairly cheap. Big trees like 7ft tall. Im not vouching for the rootstock or varieties but the trees were way too big to fit in a car for around $20 or so per tree.

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Probably notā€¦most are barely keeping the lights on and employees paid.

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I checked the price I paid at Mehrabyan Nursery. It was 20.00 dollars each. And shipping was 32.00 for all 3 trees. I think I came out way ahead on that one.

I grafted my Fukushu kumquat onto a 3/16 inch Diameter Flying Dragon Seedling 8-28-2020. It started growing end of September. It now has a Minimum of 15 feet of linear branch, trunk and twig grow and has started a new flush of growth that will and another 10 linear feet across its 25 new shoots. Feed, Lights 16 hours, aerate roots. Get 4+ years of growth in 1.5 year before planting it outside.

In its 15 inch, 12 gallon container.

Very nice. I donā€™t have a good place to do the indoor grow :frowning:

They changed their shipping price. Now, itā€™s $34 for the first tree + $3 for additional tree. For 3 trees, the shipping price is $40. Still cheap, but itā€™s not as great as it was.
I was looking at them a few months ago, before they raised their shipping price. Since theyā€™re unknown (I searched this site for reviews), I went with Cummins, a better known nursery.

I understand lack of room. I have a very small yard and I donā€™t have the room outside. These tree have to go up on my roof 43 Feet above the road to get to any sun light. That being said it sounds like your trees can grow outside in ground. If your lows are at least 15F use Seville sour orange for a faster tree with slight fruit improvement over FD and Pile leaves around the tree trunk and graft when the temperatures drop below 20F. This will grow a larger tree that will produce more fruit.

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Yes, my trees on Flying Dragon are surviving. I have a Yuzu that at least 6 years in the ground, maybe 3 feet high, and a Sudachi going into its 2nd winter. The Yuzu has fruited once, 3 fruit.

I also grafted Shangjuan lemon to Flying dragon this spring/summer 2021.

I canā€™t be counted on to protect the graft union below 20, maybe when I retire. Many years we wonā€™t get that low.

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It is the ā€œJAY OWE BEEā€ That gets in the way of the important things in life.

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I think itā€™s the decline of the independent nursery businesses in general, not just online ones. Weā€™re seeing the same thing in farming, alsoā€“itā€™s all the agrarian businesses. What I have gathered is that businesses are not necessarily failing, but the cost-benefit or risk-reward ratio of running the business isnā€™t good enough to keep people engaged. People just donā€™t want to go into such a demanding, low-margin, high-risk business. I know in my region (Virginia /Maryland) we lost two major long-standing highly-regarded nurseries in the last handful of years: Benkheā€™s had been open for almost ninety years with multiple successful locations when they closed, because none of the family kids wanted to take over from the retiring parents. And Lazy SS Farms had a very successful online business with a lot of hard to find specialty plants, but no one bought the million dollar business and property when it went up for sale on the ownersā€™ retirement.

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Behnkeā€™s was awesome. I guess I just wonder if something will fill the void, even if itā€™s basically just hobbyists who do some propagation and sell things on the side.

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