Received first tree order with great disappointment

Last spring I planted two trees from SLN and was very disappointed in them when they arrived. It took forever to break bud and I thought they had died.

I pruned them back before planting and I now have some very nice six foot whips.

I thought they were a bit expensive for what I got, but am now pretty much satisfied. I have two varieties that I could not get elsewhere and they appear to be healthy trees that should take off in a year or so.

I will give Connor a few more bucks for a young guy starting a business as long as trees are not seriously damaged when they arrive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
After reading through this thread I'm glad I learned how to graft. :emoji_relaxed:

Yep, the only reason I have not grafted on rootstock is I preferred the benefit of getting two year old extra large grade bare root trees for anywhere from $20 to $27. I also enjoyed planting anywhere from 8-18 per year as opposed to 75 or 100 at a time. That way I always have trees at different ages and best of all I don’t have to load one of the excavators to plant 100 trees (even I can dig less than 20 holes with a shovel). HOWEVER, there is no doubt in my mind that I could have gotten rootstock last year, asked my friends on here to send me some new variety scions, grafted them last year and had better trees than what I got from FEDCO for $30 a tree —————- OH WAIT MINE WOULD HAVE NOT BEEN ORGANIC BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE USED FERTILIZER ........ OH WELL :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
One more comment if one of my baby organic trees dies this year, with God as my witness I will drive that thing to Maine (or wherever they are from) to return it and pick my replacement tree up so I can remind them in person how deceitful their webpage is. But if they live lots of years from now my apples will be way better because these trees started of as “organic” :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Are you starting to figure out that I hunt things, eat the meat I hunt and process and really don’t give a rats ___________ about “organic” :).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Well I emailed SLN about my order which was placed on 12/19/17 and I was advised that they didn't have the trees. 4 Kerr, 2 All Winter Hangover and 2 Viola crabs. I have been given the option of waiting until next year or getting a refund. I am not very happy and will be getting a refund, they have sat on my $300 long enough. These were the first trees I ordered, every other nursery has shipped what I ordered well after this order and they are in the ground. Every tree on the website was listed in stock when I ordered and it was several weeks after until any of the trees were listed as out of stock so I have my own opinion of what has happened here. This was my first order with SLN and will be my last. I have never had an issue with Cummins, ACN, Vintage Virginia Apples or Fedco and will do my business there in the future. My Fedco trees were small compared to what I am used to but at least I got them. Not sure why it took until almost May and me sending an email today to get this news. Not the first time someone who is great at what they do not being able to handle the business end of things, this looks like the case here. It is what it is and anyone reading this can take the information for what it's worth. I hope SLN gets it figured out, I honestly do.
Wow diesel that is a lot to pay for 8 trees. Cummins is right up the road from you why don’t you go see what they have left and maybe you can pick your own and I know you can get some good trees from them. Not sure bout the crabs but if you can find a few nice disease resistant trees you won’t lose a year. I am hoping the order was for more than 8 trees and the problem was only with the 8
 
The 8 trees were my total order from SLN. Looks like I was at $267 with shipping. I ordered a bunch from Cummins this year as well as other nurseries, they are in the ground already. I was looking forward to trying the Kerr and other crabapples that SLN offers. I have lots of trees so this really won't be a huge deal, I was just pretty disappointed because I was looking forward to trying them. I am over it already and will probably try again next year. They have some varieties that no one else does and I would hate to see any nursery go under. He obviously is having some growing pains and hopefully is getting it figured out.
My luck continued today. My first year grafting and I did 20 trees. Deer eat EVERYTHING around my house so I had all my grafts in Rootmaker bags in our fenced yard. Came home tonight to find our Border Terrier had chewed 6 of them to splinters. Some Liberty and Goldrush. All I could do was laugh, when it rains it pours.
 
Nothing yet.
 
The 8 trees were my total order from SLN. Looks like I was at $267 with shipping. I ordered a bunch from Cummins this year as well as other nurseries, they are in the ground already. I was looking forward to trying the Kerr and other crabapples that SLN offers. I have lots of trees so this really won't be a huge deal, I was just pretty disappointed because I was looking forward to trying them. I am over it already and will probably try again next year. They have some varieties that no one else does and I would hate to see any nursery go under. He obviously is having some growing pains and hopefully is getting it figured out.
My luck continued today. My first year grafting and I did 20 trees. Deer eat EVERYTHING around my house so I had all my grafts in Rootmaker bags in our fenced yard. Came home tonight to find our Border Terrier had chewed 6 of them to splinters. Some Liberty and Goldrush. All I could do was laugh, when it rains it pours.

Well all of this sucks. At least you laugh about it. I don’t know how many trees you eventually want to plant. I will offer this if you only want or need a few more for this year. If you have a Rural King they usually have some pretty nice trees PROVIDED you immediately prune to a central leader and trim them back. There is always a risk that the roots are too constricted from the container but my buddy has planted 100 or more from there (he refuses to order ha) and has not had a singe tree die or fail to grow.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Rural King had very nice looking trees when I was there about a month ago. And lots of them.
 
Wallace Woodstock nursery made me a happy customer. I ordered 4 trees for a friend a 2 to for me. I paid just under 300 including shipping on these trees. 5 of them were well over 6 feet. The box they came in was huge. The pics don’t do it justice. Also 25 highbush cranberry and 25 wild plum.
 
Wallace Woodstock nursery made me a happy customer. I ordered 4 trees for a friend a 2 to for me. I paid just under 300 including shipping on these trees. 5 of them were well over 6 feet. The box they came in was huge. The pics don’t do it justice. Also 25 highbush cranberry and 25 wild plum.
1ED490CB-76FC-4340-BCDB-E9170394B3D6.jpeg6C4875A8-1E4F-442F-B542-46A0952D0E01.jpeg158A7D83-A7D6-4CC2-B714-0F97EFC238EA.jpegBE09DBBF-5A59-47E7-8F9B-619788234B04.jpeg
 
I still haven't heard anything back from St. Lawrence about my trees. I don't think I will ever order from them again.
 
I ordered from sln 2 yrs ago and the trees are still pretty small. The dolgo produced fruit the second year and the Kerr looks ok. Enterprise I think is dead and the all winter hangover didn't do great either. I can get twice the amount of trees for the same price from acn which is right up the road bc we order 25+ to get the price break, and the trees are 3x larger.
 
Have ordered a few times from ACN, place a group order, get 25 tree discount, can request certain root stocks on some trees. great selection. Good trees. Have found little reason to shop else where.
 
What is ACN?
 
Adams county nursery, out of PA
 
Their trees are great. Some local guys always get together and order in bulk for the discount. My stuff on 111 is going nuts growing, the b118 goldrush trees from there this year look awesome too.
 
I am a big ACN fan and have several of their trees, they just don't have much in the way of crabs.
 
^^^^^ Every tree I got from ACN was great and they are all growing really well. ACN is on Penn State's list of best fruit tree nurseries in the U.S. and there aren't lots of nurseries on that list. You're right Diesel - they don't carry much for "deer" crabs. The ones they handle are mainly for pollination.

For those with trees from SLN - don't give up on those trees yet. If you planted them and they're slow to take off - year 3 & 4 is when ours really started to jump. They are now our biggest trees. Our All-Winter-Hangovers, Winter Wildlife and Chestnut crabs from SLN are kicking butt at camp. We love those trees. ( I have no affiliation with any nursery ).

I have no complaints about Cummins either. Cummins, ACN and SLN have all served us really well.

I should say we lime & fertilize our trees, and they get loads of sun. I know some guys can't provide all 3 and maybe their soil isn't the best. That might slow things down for some.
 
St. Lawrence cancelled my order and issued a refund. This is a huge kick in the nuts. I had ordered ten Antonovka seedlings that were to be the backbone of my cider orchard. I have no idea when I will be able to plant apple trees again after this Spring.

Luckily I ordered extra M111 from Grandpa's, and hopefully Cummins will come through on my grab bag.
 
Top