Storing bare root seedlings?
- Thread starter Yarg
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
If you trust the nursery, I would prefer to have them shipped when you need them. Most nurseries have climate controlled storage. You can keep them yourself, but depending on your location it can be tricky. In general you don't want roots to freeze and you don't want the tops to break dormancy and you don't want either to dehydrate or get moldy.
Typical shipping without unexpected delays will usually not be enough for them to break dormancy if you plan to use them right away. I purchased rootstock from a Washington state nursery in December and had to use 3 day shipping because they were afraid of the cold during shipping damaging the roots.
If you can keep them under 50 degrees, they generally won't break dormancy. One method (depending on location) is to use an unheated attached garage. You can put them in a 5 gal bucket with sawdust or other damp medium. I like to cut a hole in a trash bag and stick the tops through it and put it over the bucket to help retain moisture. I lightly tuck the middle of the bag making a trough inside the bucket so any condensation drips back into the bucket rather than running down the inside of the bag to the floor. As long as you don't get freezing temps inside the garage they will be fine.
You can use a fridge but will dehydrate them. That means making sure they have the right amount of hydration in the bag.
In some locations, guys heal them in to a garden or something similar.
Either way works. The only issue in having them shipped when you want them is if you don't trust the nursery to ship on time when they are busy.
Thanks,
Jack
Grafted
I have an attached garage but it stays warner than 50 but I thought you had to maintain 35ish?
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
If the tops stay under 50 (and can get as cold as you like) they won't break dormancy. 50 degrees is the upper limit and I would not want them to spend long periods at that temperature, but if they get to 50 for a few hours and then the temp drops back down they generally won't break dormancy. 35-40 degrees works well. Try to keep the roots above freezing.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Either way could work or not. I've had Native Nursery stock unexpected arrive in january with no way to store. It broke dormancy in the warm basement and i lost all to a late frost after planting. I had Superior Trees in Florida store until March, planted dormant when received, and they did great.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Depends on what you mean by "much" warmer when shipped? I guess I would rather have the nursery keep them in a climate controlled storage unit versus me trying to make something work till the ground is safe to plant in. As long as they do a good job packing them and keeping the roots moist - and the plants are not shipped to late in the spring and it would have to be late - a little warmth, if Im not wrong (which I could be) would just allow the fruit trees to be "Sweated" a bit before you get them which isnt all that bad. That is the route I would go. I wouldnt bury them in the snow wrapped in plastic in a waxed cardboard box - thats going to invite trouble I think from rodents to moisture issues - to much to little and maybe some freeze thaw issues. I have heard of people storing trees in a shaded area on a north side of a building heeled in to some form of a medium but I would try and pack in damp sawdust and keep in a cold corner of my garage before I would do that.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Because they have what you want to plant.
I'm learning..For fruit trees you have to plan way ahead of time, I did not and most of what I am learning as I go..is not available locally
cavey
5 year old buck +
Same learning curve we have all gone through;
You can buy northern hardy fruit trees grown down south... grafted trees of the same name are genetically the same no matter where they are grown. So if they have a variety he wants and it is for his USDA zone and on appropriate root stock its typically not that big of a deal where it comes from just that it is what it is (appropriate for his zone) you can often push a plant 1 zone for instance I have zone 5 plants that have grown well in my zone 4 for years - we just had some record once in a generation cold temps, so they say, so it will be interesting to see what happens this spring with green up.
All that being said I would prefer a tree grown in my zone but if I cant get them locally for the price I want then even a nursery from down south is an option. I personally do believe a tree that has survived a winter or two up here over one grown down south is a better purchase but all in all if the scion is for my zone and the root stock is cold hardy it should not make a difference. I Hope that helps explain why he might go with a plant shipped from down south. Timing of shipments and regional weather differences all play apart in shipping stress, plus added time in transit due to further shipping distances can equal more chances of issues with excessive heat, freeze thawing, and what mostly I have found is that poorly packaged trees can arrive with dry roots. As mentioned above, most if not all nurseries have different shipping dates available so you can pick a time to ship that correlates for your planting time even though down south in that general area of that chosen supplier they may be able to dig a month or two earlier.
I have been told that fruit trees are aided by a period of warming up called sweating that helps them break dormancy - and shipping post cold storage that exposes them to warmer (not hot) temps can help with that. So there can be an added benefit to shipping at slightly warmer temps. But I am not an expert so take that info for what its worth. Problem is that if your trees come sweated with buds starting to grow you cant really shut them back down if its to cold once you get them.
You do not want your trees to be pulled from cold storage too late, down south for instance, and shipped in a sun baked truck to a northern location. So timing is a concern and so also is the opposite of getting a plant too early when the ground is frozen solid up north and you have no where to cold store or pot out and grow them. Most reputable nurseries will have a shipping cut off date that they inform you of "ship at your own risk" for shipping later in the spring/early summer but not too many care about early shipments because there is less issues with shipping dormant plants in the colder early spring time.
If he is getting seedlings for root stock, he can cold store them for a while - even during periods of warmer weather - I have personally cold stored my shipped root stock for a couple weeks in damp saw dust - in a cooler with block ice. Once grafted, I have also kept them in that cold same storage setup for a period of time to "rest" or callus/heal at the graft union prior to planting or potting them out. Those added cold storage periods together have bought me a extra few weeks of time before actually planting.
There is a lot to learn and many options that may or may not work - its all kind of a gamble. But yes planning ahead can save you many headaches. There are a lot of people here to help you... I started with zero knowledge about grafting 3 years ago and am still learning. The good thing is it gets easier fast.
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yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I got 50 rootstock in the middle of December. I put it in a 5 gal bucket with damp sawdust and medium covering the roots. I covered it with a garbage bag to hold in moisture as previously described. I put it in my "cold room" where I overwinter my trees. It is simply a room in my basement that has the heat turned off and the door closed. I have a window open in that room. It gets ambient heat from the house, but is still cool enough for long enough to keep trees dormant. The temperature has fluctuated between 33 and 59 degrees. That high may be a bit artificial as I leave the door open every couple weeks when I'm watering the dormant trees. At any rate, none of my trees broke dormancy and the rootstock came with a few green buds anyway. They did not progress.
I started grafting in early January and did so through out the months from time to time as scions arrived. As soon as I grafted a tree, I would pot it up in a 1 gal Rootbuilder II, water it thoroughly, and put it in the cold room. I left them there about a week to callus. I then brought them in and put them under lights. So far, things are going well with the first few leafing out: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/winter-rootstock-availability.10183/
One thing of note. While the earliest grafted trees have leafed out now, most have not started to push buds yet. However, the very last trees I grafted were not clonal rootstock but seedlings that I grafted last year and the grafts failed. These seedlings pushed growth below the graft so I just let them grow out last summer. I pulled them from the cold room and grafted them. I then transplanted them from the existing 1 gal RB2s to 3 gal RB2s and put them in the cold room. I just took them out a few days ago and they are already pushing buds.
Someone on another thread asked whether he should did up rootstock growing in his garden and bench graft it and plant it or graft it in the garden without digging it up. This experience shows me that rootstock with a well developed root system (been growing in 1 gal RB2 for a season) will callus and push growth much faster than bench grafted rootstock that is trying to both push buds and establish a root system simultaneously.
Thanks,
Jack
I started grafting in early January and did so through out the months from time to time as scions arrived. As soon as I grafted a tree, I would pot it up in a 1 gal Rootbuilder II, water it thoroughly, and put it in the cold room. I left them there about a week to callus. I then brought them in and put them under lights. So far, things are going well with the first few leafing out: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/winter-rootstock-availability.10183/
One thing of note. While the earliest grafted trees have leafed out now, most have not started to push buds yet. However, the very last trees I grafted were not clonal rootstock but seedlings that I grafted last year and the grafts failed. These seedlings pushed growth below the graft so I just let them grow out last summer. I pulled them from the cold room and grafted them. I then transplanted them from the existing 1 gal RB2s to 3 gal RB2s and put them in the cold room. I just took them out a few days ago and they are already pushing buds.
Someone on another thread asked whether he should did up rootstock growing in his garden and bench graft it and plant it or graft it in the garden without digging it up. This experience shows me that rootstock with a well developed root system (been growing in 1 gal RB2 for a season) will callus and push growth much faster than bench grafted rootstock that is trying to both push buds and establish a root system simultaneously.
Thanks,
Jack
Telemark
5 year old buck +
I would always recommend field grafting over bench grafting whenever reasonably possible. I had 100% success with my field grafts, and I think minimizing stress on the rootstock makes for better odds of success.
Yarg: I was in the same boat as you. I received my first box a month too early (on March 14) and another box the next day. The rest of my trees arrived a month later. I kept some of the early arrivals refrigerated until the frost went out and then planted those immediately before my soil could dry out. The others I potted and stored in a garage until late April, when I set them outside. They started leafing out shortly thereafter and seem to still be growing okay.
