Doesn't sound good. Even a bare-root tree should have plenty of small fibrous roots on, not all cut off.

Resin

My experience is a bit different. Bare root fruit trees are very common and generally tend to be pretty skimpy in the root department. They prune back the roots for ease of harvest/storage and to facilitate shipping. But if planted promptly, they respond rather dramatically and will regenerate feeder roots rapidly. They also tend to have minimal branching at this stage of their life as they are still not much more than saplings.

Still bad practice, though - the more root they cut off, the less easily the tree will establish, and the more likely it will fail.

Resin

The trees are 4 feet tall, "whips" I guess they are called. They did have the large roots mostly intact, just not a lot of small ones. I do hope Gardengal is right--I certainly gave them the best start I could (compost and peat, planted them slightly mounded up for drainage, a good sunny spot).
By the way, I ordered from Miller's, at the advice of my sister who likes them. The blueberries, currants, and gooseberries I got from them started leafing out the day after I planted them--it has been nice and warm here! I know they get mixed reviews, but my stuff looks good so far, and I'll wait and see on the trees!

Yeah, it's not ideal, but that's the way mail order bare root tree stock is typically presented and handled. FWIW, failure is not all that common if the trees are planted promptly under correct conditions and tended to carefully during their first growing season.

sounds normal to me... done hundreds that looked just as you described .... trees have been around millions of years... and are extremely resilient .... if you don't kill them with too much love.. or benign neglect ...

get them in the ground ASAP .... even all in one hole to hold them over ....

water well at planting ...

and water properly for the rest of the season ... proper watering is letting them ALMOST dry between waterings and then watering deeply ... and letting them dry again ... insert finger to 6 inches and test your soil to find out how water moves through your soil ...

a good bed of mulch around each tree will keep the soil cooler and reduce weed competition as well as keeping the lawnmower and weed whip away ...

timing is about right for my zone 5.. maybe you should have done this a few weeks earlier in your zone... but you should be fine..

next year ... you should water them in drought ...

then they should be free range thereafter ...

just provide good water.. skip food, unless a soil test indicates your soil is lacking something... and prune them in year three, after they get themselves sorted out ... right now.. more leaves means more energy productions means more roots means faster vigor ... we can start shaping them in a year or two ....

good luck

ken

Sounds good--I planted them as soon as I got them, a week ago. There were good planting instructions with the trees. One thing--should I use any sprays for fireblight? I do not want to spray at all, but this one disease sounds like a potential problem for pears, even Asian pears. Maybe there are organic sprays? I intend to do more research on that!

The only reasonable control for fireblight IMO is to plant stock with known resistance to this disease. Failing that, one may have to get into the antibiotic sprays that are available for this problem. I'd not want to get into that though. Too much bother. Before doing anything, check to see if the cultivar(s) youve selected has any degree of resistance to this bacterial disease.

+oM

Well, I chose these trees (Hosui, Chojuro, and Shinseiki) based on a list of recommended cultivars from my local extension. They basically recommend, in general for all pear trees, to look for fireblight and cut it off before it spreads, but that Asian pears are less susceptible. I think I'll just leave them be, and try to keep them well-watered and healthy. I'm new to gardening anyway, so I'm not going to stress out if something fails--I'm doing this for fun!
Thanks, everyone, for all the info!

Asian pears are just as susceptible to fire blight as European and in fact, few cultivars show much resistance. Susceptibility has much to do with the timing of the blossoming and current weather conditions, so keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best!

And if any pruning out of infected portions is called for, make sure you sterilize your pruners between cuts!