Fruit trees: bareroot vs container trees
bethiegirlaz
10 years ago
Featured Answer
Comments (9)
bamboo_rabbit
10 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Dwarf Fruit Tree -vs- Pruning Standard Fruit Tree?
Comments (18)Fruitnut, I have 2 methods and I'm sharing my trade secrets here (what the hell- I'm 6 months from 60 and hope to retire in 25 years anyway). I start some plants straight in the ground, planting them way too close in a fenced off area. Planting them close makes maintenance per plant much less expensive given that it's all done by hand (don't ask). For apples in my climate it takes about 3 years to size them up to about 1.5" diameter- at least when planted this close. I carefully dig up these BR and put them in short 20 gallon pots (wide and shallow) in a mix of 1 part peat, 1 composted wood chips or stable waste ( almost pure humus with some carbo lumps) and 1 sand, plus a little wood ash. They limp the first season but I sell them the next for around $180 per. At this point they are bearing, 12' tall and well branched and the foliage is back to mormal. Other trees I transfer to Carl Whitcomb grow bags in real soil and let them grow about another 3 years and sell them for $250 per, or less to contractors. The grow bags I use are his last edition because they allow more root out of the bag and I can grow them without any irrigation at all- even through drought. Irrigation would reduce production by about a year, I'm sure, but in my operation only my potted plants get any and they are set in the soil as well. I always take some trees in the grow bags, remove the bags and put them into 25 Gallon pots with the soil intact but surrounded by my potting mix which allows me to sell some larger trees during the growing season. Surprisingly the soil surrounded by potting mix works very well and you might want to try that method for your trees as the soil gives you much more bang per square inch and costs less. Repotting would require only replacing the artificial soil on the edge of the soil ball. It makes things real heavy though, and my soil is not too fine so I don't know how it would work with a more clay soil but I bet it would work just fine. I'm sure my prices seem outrageous by your regional standards but I'm less than an hour from NYC and here it's more than competitive- it's the best deal around- because I have scores of varieties and they're actually properly shaped for fruit production. They also plug in better than the competitions BB'd trees, especially the ones I have in pots....See MoreWhich bare-root fruit trees? It's order-time!
Comments (5)This will be my first attempts at growing fruit trees. So for next spring I'm looking at purchasing apples and cherries and maybe an asian pear. I've talked to a local extension service for my region and I'm going to go with an early, mid, and late season apple. Likely Pristine for early, Honeycrisp for mid, and Empire for later. Probably all on Bud9 rootstock. For cherries I'm going to get them grown on Gisela 5 rootstock and likely White Gold, Lapins, and Black York. Not sure about the Asian pear but considering Chojuro and Shinko...See Morebareroot fruit trees.....4 trees in 1 hole?
Comments (9)This is the pertinent portions of a thread from a few years ago that might help: Multiple Plants in One Hole The three-to-a-hole thing is a totally new concept to me. I question if that would work because each of the trees would grow at unequal rates. I have a Fuerte, a Reed and a Haas planted in close proximity (15 feet apart) and clearly the Fuerte is growing much faster than the other two. All three were planted at the same time, but the Fuerte is easily twice as big as the other two. If you put three trees in the same hole, wouldn't one eventually overgrow the other two? ___________________________________________________________________ Three in a hole planting is easy. To insure good drainage first make a 12" to 18" mound that is at least 4 or 5 feet wide. Then dig a hole in it large enough for the three 5 gallon size trees. Throw some slow release fertilizer in the hole. Make sure the trees are a few inches above the soil surface. They may settle a little. And you don`t want them planted too low. Cover the whole mound with a thick coat of mulch and you are set. The trees won`t grow any slower because they are sharing a hole. Its a great space saver. Reed and Pinkerton are Guatemalan and Fuerte is a hybrid. You need a Mexican for better pollination. Bacon would be a good choice. ___________________________________________________________________ For years I`ve done the 3 in a hole planting with all my fruit trees from avocados, persimmons, cherimoyas, asian pears and guavas to peaches, plums, nectarines, apples and apricots. I get good production from all of them. I`ve never had one of the three trees grow faster and take over the hole. It works especially well with stone fruits like peaches. In one hole I have a early bearing peach, a mid season and a late season variety. My avocado trees are still young so I don`t get that many avocados yet. _________________________________________________________________ Three in one or 4 in 1 up to several in one hole is a very good alternative to multigraft trees. I have pears that are not graft compatible so I planted them all in one hole, and they are not complaining. They've been busy supplying me with fruits for two seasons now. But then again, most of my fruits are multi-grafts, some I did the grafting myself. __________________________________________________________________ It is still possible to plant them in one hole if the difference in size is not great. So just find a bigger Granny Smith to match the size of your Pink Pearl. During the dormant season, you can dig out the pink pearl to bare root it. Make sure to prune the top to compensate for the root disturbance. You can prune the pearl to be the same size as that of granny smith. Then plant them back together in the same hole. Deciduous trees that go a period of dormancy are okay for this. I have even dug bigger trees, bare-rooted them and relocated them to the proper place. When the winter temperature is mild, I dump a lot of ice around the plant everyday for one week before I dig them out and bare-root them. You can not do this with Avocados and most other evergreen fruit trees like citruses. ___________________________________________________________________ ??? You're mentioning 5 gal plants.... I was under the, perhaps misguided, impression that to do this 'multiples in one hole' technique you had to use bare root trees. ???? ___________________________________________________________________ You don`t see bare root avocado plants. For some reason only "stone" fruits like peaches, plums and apricots are available bare root. I`ve only seen avocado plants in 5 or 15 gallon containers. The trunks aren`t as close as they would be if they were bare root, but it hasn`t made a difference in my trees. ___________________________________________________________________ I think the reason you don't see bare-root Avocados and Citrus is because they're evergreen trees. You can't really bare-root an evergreen commercially. __________________________________________________________________ ..so can i place all three 5gal buckets(with the bottoms cut out) in the hole?? will that work??? only reason ide like to do that is i once heard that the buckets serve as a guide for the roots to shoot more downward rather than outward.. that way the roots dont get all crazy and lift my back wall up in the future... but if you just drop all 3 in the hole bare root style so be it..whatevers best for the tree's is best for me. i love hass and reed never tasted bacon though .. anymore tasty trios that will work great together??.. ___________________________________________________________________ Â...See MoreHow Much Fruit Do You Get From Your Fruit Trees In Containers?
Comments (26)While citrus is young count the leave and divide it on 20. that is how many fruits you may leave on them to bear. On adult trees 10 leave is enough for photosintesing for one fruit. The better plant is doing with foliage - more fruits you will collect. So pay attention on a mineral fertilising of your trees and they will pay you back with the fruits!! That lemon of mine lost all leave in december and fruits never turn yellow - I had to collect them in april, so it could grow new leaves. This Meyer got 7 lemons This wild citrus is 5 years old, does not grow at all, but give me 2 fruits every year!! And it is very rare that you will collect more fruits than volume of your pot every year...See Morealan haigh
10 years agoAJBB
10 years agoahgrower Horne
10 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agocanadianplant
10 years agoquillfred
10 years ago
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