Howdy Gang,
Last fall I ordered a dozen fruit trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. They arrived a little later than I would have liked due to some unseasonably cold weather and snow in our neck of the woods. If I remember correctly, they arrived the third week in May. We weren't able to get them into the ground until Memorial Day weekend, a week later. During that time, we made sure that the wrappings stayed damp and kept them in the office at the shop, where it is 70ish degrees all year long.
We had plotted and tilled the spots in our wannabe orchard plot at the homestead. We worked in a bag of compost into each tree's spot. Planted them with the top of the root ball just above level, back filled around and then mulched with wood chips. We then placed a drip ring around each tree. Now, I'm not sure if it was just due to the super hot and dry summer we had or if we had done something incorrect when planting these trees, but they never came out of dormancy and just died. The twigs on them snapped when you went to check the bend on them.
I'm wondering now if I should have potted those trees the first year and kept them at our shop. There I could have monitored them almost daily and possibly headed off any problems before they became major. What is your experience with planting bare root trees? Is it similar to what we experienced?
Last fall I ordered a dozen fruit trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. They arrived a little later than I would have liked due to some unseasonably cold weather and snow in our neck of the woods. If I remember correctly, they arrived the third week in May. We weren't able to get them into the ground until Memorial Day weekend, a week later. During that time, we made sure that the wrappings stayed damp and kept them in the office at the shop, where it is 70ish degrees all year long.
We had plotted and tilled the spots in our wannabe orchard plot at the homestead. We worked in a bag of compost into each tree's spot. Planted them with the top of the root ball just above level, back filled around and then mulched with wood chips. We then placed a drip ring around each tree. Now, I'm not sure if it was just due to the super hot and dry summer we had or if we had done something incorrect when planting these trees, but they never came out of dormancy and just died. The twigs on them snapped when you went to check the bend on them.
I'm wondering now if I should have potted those trees the first year and kept them at our shop. There I could have monitored them almost daily and possibly headed off any problems before they became major. What is your experience with planting bare root trees? Is it similar to what we experienced?
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