It is not an absolutely critical step. Generally, the recommendation is to soak bare root starts/trees to rehydrate the roots. If the roots have been well protected and are moist and flexible, soaking is not really a requirement. Container plants don't need to be soaked but you should be sure that rootball is adequately moistened before planting.

Doing the "extra" things sometimes produces measurable benefits, but not always. If I were going to start boot camp in the military in mid July and weighed 50 extra lbs. from eating way more than needed for lazy living, it is not absolutely critical to exercise away that 50 lbs. during diligent pre-boot camp workouts. But it would be a good use of time and energy. For me it is a good use of time and energy to let potted plants and bare root plants soak for a good while stewing in nutrient-enriched water prior to either planting or repotting. Most folks either don't bother or don't care. I care and it is only a tiny amount of 'bother'. I want the plant to be fully hydrated and fed in hopes of having a good send-off to it's new destination. Whether it is "necessary" or not.

One thing for sure if you do not pre-soak, then you should post soak.

This should be done with containers & plants in the ground.

The 100 bare root blueberry plants I got were out of the ground for up to 7 days.

They remained in wet sawdust, never wilted or lost the blooms.

They all are doing fine now, I picked the blooms off, so the root would grow faster.

So keeping roots wet is a must, but plants can rot in too much water, too long a time.

But soaking 12 to 48 hours is a good thing.

Cody,.

I'm with Gardengal on this. We are talking about your fruit tree that was well packed when it arrived to you. You did not soaked it before planting but water it in well. It will be fine. No big deal. Do not overcompensate it by overwatering it. You can kill the tree with overwatering, too.

I am talking from my own experience. I did several planting, some with soaking, some not. All have survived and thrived.

Wow 12 to 48 hrs? I thought the recommendation was an hour? I pulled one of my plants that was a bare root and have it soaking in rain water now. I was thinking of replanting it tonight...

Sorry I had left potted plant out in hot August heat over the weekend, when I went out of town.

So I filled 5 gallon buckets 1/2 full of water, then put the containers in the bucket & the were fine when I return so you can soak them up to 12 hour with out harm in hot weather 100F.

12-48 hours is overkill. And I mean that literally. Too long a soaking and you deprive the roots of oxygen. And that will kill your tree off faster than planting with dry roots.

As I stated previously, soaking is NOT a requirement. It depends entirely how well the roots were protected during transport and while in your custody. If they - or their packing material - seems dry, by all means go ahead and soak. But not more than 8 hours - any longer is unnecessary and could prove hazardous.

Well, using overstatements is one way to try to persuade others to follow your particular view, but it does leave you open to being dismissed outright. Gardengal48, congratulations on your success growing fruiting plants. May that continue to get better and better for you. But....12 hours soaking in water has yet to kill any of the many, many plants that I have been soaking in nutrient-rich water prior to planting or repotting. My goal was not just to get the roots soaking wet, because that would get done pretty quickly. Instead, I want the whole plant to get fueled up with the nutrients from head to toe. Some get soaked only a few hours, and some didn't get pulled out to plant until 3 or (gasp!) 4 days later when I got to it. They have been coming out of the container with thickened happy roots. No rotting. No stench. No withering away. A guy donated a bucket full of 4 ft tall pomegranate suckers clipped in Winter, and I babysat them for more than a month for another guy who would in early Spring cut them to length, dip one end in Dip-N-Grow, and plant the cuttings to get them to root both in pots and in his field. With no room to refrigerate those, I just put some beneficial nutrients in a few inches of water in that 5 gallon paint pail packed with pom suckers and parked it in indirect light. Well, they not only survived the long term dunking, they eventually started to leaf out on top with healthy new leaves and shoots. When the Winter cold became less of a threat, the other guy picked up the pail of healthy suckers, clipped off the bottom few inches that got waterlogged ,clipped off the leafed out top,, and used the remainder of the suckers for rooting. If a "desert" plant like a pomegranate could make it so well while standing in this 'ankle-deep' water, then I would say that I will do the same exact thing next time this pom situation comes up. I won't buy a tall fridge to put them in. Remember the grade school experiment putting a stalk of celery in a glass filled with water that had been dyed with red food coloring, and the stalk gradually wicked up the red water towards the stalk top. Well, I want many of my plants to wick up lots of fertilized fluid all the way up prior to planting/repotting. I sure would not soak succulents like cacti in water like that, or magnolia trees, but it is a non-issue for many fruiting plants. Otherwise, the first time that rainy weather keeps fruit tree roots soggy wet in 100% soggy mud, they would die from what you described as the roots being deprived of oxygen for 12-48 hours. Sometimes soggy, muddy, rainy weather lasts for much longer than that, and somehow the fruit trees don't croak. Maybe you could rephrase the time period to fit the field evidence. No offense intended, Thank you for sharing from your experience. Don't stop.

Most advice advises not to fertilize, easy to damage exposed roots. So I myself would not want to load tree up. I don't soak them either. To me getting them in the ground ASAP is more important. They need to get used to the local soil, and if it lacks nutrients, the roots will grow far and long to find them. Being pre-fed, no motivation to do so, The wood has plenty of nutrients to keep it fine for a long time. I have kept scion for over half a year with no roots and it grew fine. But whatever works for you. If it's not broke, don't fix it. I have never had a tree fail to leaf out. So far I have planted 27 of them.

I have ordered many bare roots.... The answer is there is no answer! it really depends on how the plants were stored and how long before shipped to you, the amount of water you give them immediately after you put them in. The weather outside when you put them in..... Generally the soaking is to help bring the plants out of dormancy... I usually soak mine, then transfer to 5 gallon pot... Then when they are nice and leafy move them to final ground location... That way I can control sun and water more precisely

Yeah I planted one yesterday, it's supposed to rain later, so perfect. I see Tim how you would want to control conditions. Luckily I'm in a place where conditions can be constant. I do more what you do with other more sensitive plants, like cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peppers, some herbs, tropical, etc.

To OP, this is not hugely important thing. Just make sure the roots never dry out. So the best time to plant trees are fall through spring when there is plenty of moisture in the soil. But you can get some winter damage if your zone is cold.

Roots that dry...die. Exposure to light too can kill them. I don't think anybody is confused about how dormancy works. Last tree I did the other day, the roots were too big for any bucket I had to soak them, if I did soak roots. It rained well today, that should penetrate and settle the soil. I like to plant high. The biggest problem with planting trees I have seen is people plant them way too deep. I just barely cover the roots. They will settle down anyway, no need to plant them deeper.