How to wake up a dormant tree shipped earlier in the year?

12 years ago

Earlier this year I bought a few trees online and had them shipped to me. I had them sent in mid February or so as we were having a very mild winter. I did not buy locally as this is a relatively small town and what I was buying was not offered anywhere I could find. One of the trees was a small Ginko Biloba. I say small as the trunk was not very tall but it had a very good root system. I potted it up with the other ordered trees and put it in the garden. I made sure it didn't take any hard freezes but try not to baby new trees too much so that they wake up in the environment they will be living in. The tree has still not broken bud but still shows signs of green in the stalk. I don't like doing the scratch test too much as it induces damage but one scratch showed green cambium. So I left it longer until I was certain it was dead. At which point I rubbed off a bud. Still green. I am looking for any known methods of waking a dormant tree that doesn't want to wake up. Every year I have one or two, whether ordered and shipped or dug on my own that seem to stay dormant. Last year it was a good sized Black Cherry that I had given up on. Once I put it in the garage to be thrown out and let it go dry, it finally sprouted from the base and is now a multi-trunk sapling growing well. For the grower I ordered from and the time of year sent I don't believe it was held in refrigeration. Maybe just didn't get cold enough over the winter. I don't even know of any planted in this town to know if they didn't like the winter. Just looking for tips so I don't have to lose a tree or two every year to not waking up.

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Comments (4)

mainegrower
12 years ago
There is a process known as sweating which is sometimes necessary for some tree species which have entered deep dormancy and are reluctant to break bud. Redbuds are one species for which this is often needed as are a number of fruit trees.

Briefly, sweating involves raiing the temperature and humidity around the tree by employing a poly tent. I can't recall the details well enough to give any more information, but an online search for "tree sweating" should turn up the process.
arktrees
12 years ago
Agree with the sweating. I got bare root Scarlet Oaks in first week of March 2011, and one of them did not wake up until mid-July. All the others, and the White Oaks I got at the same time saw April. Sometimes it's a matter of waiting. One thing you need to be aware of though, is that Ginkgo supposedly doesn't like to be bare-rooted. If the roots get even a little dry, they might not wake up. Hopefully that did happen, but that can certainly occur rather easily.

Arktrees
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ilovemytrees
12 years ago
I've never heard of tree sweating, but I accidentally experienced it first had this last week!

I bought 4 Golden Raintrees from a highly reputable seller on Ebay who has tons of all positive feedback. I received the 4 tree "whips", and they all had terrific root systems, but it was odd for me to be planting these sticks. So this was in early March, and up to last week, there was NO activity from these trees at all. I ever so gently checked them for green underneath and they all had bright lime green going on. I kept saying to my husband do you see anything happening to these trees or is it just me, but he didn't see anything either.

Well, flash forward to this last week. We had 4 days in a row of temps in the high 40's to low 50's and overnight lows as low as 19 and as high as 30. Every day we were going to be having frosts and/or freezes. (One day there was a very HEAVY frost). I said there is no way we are going out every day to uncover them for a few hours and then go out and cover them back up; that's just ridiculous! See, we had spent the last month going out and covering our trees with 2 heavy blankets each, and then going out and uncovering them. Anyway, so we left them covered up for 4, maybe 5 days, as I sit here I can't remember, but I know it was at least 4. Anyway, we uncovered the trees the day before yesterday and guess what? All the Golden Raintrees had buds that were beginning to swell!

I said to my husband what in the world caused them to wake up? They were each covered up in 2 heavy fleece blankets for several days, they never saw the sun. I guess now I know what happened.
sfhellwig
Original Author
12 years ago
So sweating it is. I had heard of it before but seen it sited for waking trees that were naturally stubborn or had been refigerated. I had honestly forgot about it. Other than the possibility of ginkgo not liking bare root behavior, it really stumps me. But I will try to find a clear tub or something to enclose it. I would really like this tree to wake up so I don't have to try again next year. I should have known better than to toss it out as I have had slow trees before, was just getting frustrated and trying to keep the garden consolidated.

How to wake up a dormant tree shipped earlier in the year?

Comments (4)

mainegrower

arktrees

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sfhellwig
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How to wake up a dormant tree shipped earlier in the year?

Comments (4)

mainegrower

arktrees

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ilovemytrees

sfhellwigOriginal Author

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sfhellwig
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