Ordering trees from more southern zones?

[frlu0501]

I'd like to gather thoughts, opinions, or personal experiences on ordering trees from more southern zones. Our property is in the middle of zone 4 in southern MN. I'm considering, and worried about, ordering trees from more southern zones (5 and 6).

Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) with ordering trees that are rated zone 3 and 4, but grown and sold out of more southern zones (5 and 6)?
Are these trees as hardy as if I were to buy them from a nursery growing these trees in zone 4?
Should I be worried about the longevity of these trees surviving harsh winters?

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts and/or experiences. Thanks you.

 

[sandbur]

I'd like to gather thoughts, opinions, or personal experiences on ordering trees from more southern zones. Our property is in the middle of zone 4 in southern MN. I'm considering, and worried about, ordering trees from more southern zones (5 and 6).

Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) with ordering trees that are rated zone 3 and 4, but grown and sold out of more southern zones (5 and 6)?
Are these trees as hardy as if I were to buy them from a nursery growing these trees in zone 4?
Should I be worried about the longevity of these trees surviving harsh winters?

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts and/or experiences. Thanks you.

If the rootstock and the tree itself are rated for zone 4, you should be ok. I will also add that the supplier needs to be a trusted source. Some of these suppliers have stretched the truth in the past. Ask questions on this forum if you are not sure of hardiness ratings.

I am on the edge of zone 3 and most of the trees I order are from more southern sources.

Perhaps??? Fall planting of a potted tree from a southern source could be a problem if it didn’t harden off properly.

I plant 99 % of my trees in the spring.


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[sandbur]

If the rootstock and the tree itself are rated for zone 4, you should be ok. I will also add that the supplier needs to be a trusted source. Some of these suppliers have stretched the truth in the past. Ask questions on this forum if you are not sure of hardiness ratings.

I am on the edge of zone 3 and most of the trees I order are from more southern sources.

Perhaps??? Fall planting of a potted tree from a southern source could be a problem if it didn’t harden off properly.

I plant 99 % of my trees in the spring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The above answer applies mainly to apple trees. Sorry if that wasn’t the intent of your question.


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[Lucky_P]

Agree with sandbur. For apples and pears, winter hardiness of different clonal rootstocks - and some seedling strains, like Antonovka, Ranetka, etc. - is pretty much a 'known'. If they're rated for zone 4, you oughta be good to go.

There was a pecan grower here in western KY who planted about 1000 grafted pecans some years back - they came from a TX nursery... all winter-hardy northern/midwestern pecan varieties, but grafted onto Southern pecan rootstocks...a severe 'test' winter killed all those rootstocks back to the ground, if not outright. The grafted tops would have skated right through that event unscathed, but the root systems under them were killed out.

 

[b116757]

As long as the rootstock is known and the tree verity is good for your zone I wouldn’t worry about where the nursery is physically located. I bury the graft so the root stock self roots particularly important for extreme northern growers to avoid winter kill back to the graft that may occur several years after planting. You will end up with large full size trees that take a decade to produce apples so there are some drawbacks depending on your point of view large long lived trees maybe just what you want.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I have ordered from Willis (which is in Georgia) and had it delivered to PA and had a few issues (may have been caused by me and my aggressive pruning).
The biggest issue I ran into is that when we are good to plant in the spring in PA, the trees from Georgia may have already leafed out and a couple cold mornings will be not so great for the newly planted trees.
I am not knocking that particular nursery, as I have gotten some tremendous trees from them, but I was very shocked when trees showed up out of the box having leaves in late March.

 

[Tree Spud]

I am in zone 4/5 leaning towards 4 as we have low lying areas. The biggest apple tree failure rate i have had was with buying trees outside of my zone. Tree stock from zone 6 have not done well. Initial planting went well but did not survive the winter.

If you are a solid zone 4, why risk buying stock from a zone that does not experience the winter temps you will see?

Stock grown in similar winter temps have survived 2-3 years already. That can save you a couple of years of frustration.

 

[White Oak]

I have ordered from Willis (which is in Georgia) and had it delivered to PA and had a few issues (may have been caused by me and my aggressive pruning).
The biggest issue I ran into is that when we are good to plant in the spring in PA, the trees from Georgia may have already leafed out and a couple cold mornings will be not so great for the newly planted trees.
I am not knocking that particular nursery, as I have gotten some tremendous trees from them, but I was very shocked when trees showed up out of the box having leaves in late March.

I know this post is OLD....I'm originally from New Jersey and the leaves came out late...April or May, don't really remember ?. Here in Virginia the leaves start coming out 1 st or 2 nd week of March !....So Georgia or anywhere warmer they come out even earlier !

 

[cavey]

Short answer, if its a know variety with a know history and you can find it listed with a consistent usda zone assigned to it (from a reputable source(s) even beyond the nursery selling the plant (never trust just one nursery))...... the zone equal to or lower will be ok.... say your zone 4 - any plant zone 4,3,2.... (there are sub zones) will be fine. You can usually push a plant one zone up say for you a zone 5 and it will likely survive, maybe with some winter die off in bad years and some skipped fruiting due to frost kills. You have to take in account micro environments and elevations and the likely hood of extreme years. Your just always better buying equal or hardier.

I personally believe its better to buy locally just incase of some funky genetic diversity derived from wintering in a similar climate but realistically that should not matter in the case of grafted fruit trees. They are what they are no matter where they are from.

And yes, timing of planting... especially with bare root trees can come into play if the source is way out of wack with where your at seasonally - but there are always late and early springs so nothing is ever perfect.

Shrubs and plants taken from the wild grown sources in different regions I would guess over a millennium may have developed down different paths enough to make a difference. As for simply buying something like a red osier grown from local stock I would prefer that to come from local sources but you would need to know where they get their plants from and trust them. In general though a red osier should be able to grow where ever it established range was and the corresponding zones that match that range . There are multiple sources for usda zone assignments online to double check before buying.

Its common around here to find nurseries selling zone 5 fruit trees when they should not be, we are a zone 4.


Just dont buy a zone 8 plant and expect it to make it in a zone 4...