Bare root fruit tree advice

Help! Just received a bare root Victoria plum. Great timing during this cold snap when the ground is frozen!

If I tried to plant it now, while frosty, would it do it any harm?

The frost in only surface deep on my south-facing soil, so it would be possible to plant it.

Problem is, if I don't do it in the next few days I won't get another chance for a week or two.


Thoughts?

 

I planted mine about a week ago. But not sure what the deal is if it's frosty, I'm guessing don't plant it..

 

Put it in now. Dig the whole twice as deep and twice as wide as the roots, and fill the whole with compost and a handful or two of chicken poo pellets or another slow release feed. Plant into that. That way the young tree wont have to put too much effort into getting settled in. Once in, firm it in nice and snug.

Best stake it for support too. It'll just help it root in better if the wind isn't rocking it every time it tries to anchor itself down. If you do stake it, might be a good idea to drive the stake into the side of the planting hole before you put the tree in. Otherwise there's a risk that you might drive the stake straight through the few roots it already has.

 

In particular if you have already made (or were planning to make) a planting hole left open (soil piled alongside ready to back-fill) then DON'T !! The bottom of the hole will have got very cold. (If you prepare a planting hole fill it back in and then dig it out when you are ready to plant)

Sorry, slight digression there ...

I think the advice not to plant when there is heavy frost is normally because the ground is physically too hard to plant .. but those same instructions say to heel-them-in until the weather improves - well, heeling them in is going to be no warmer for the plants, and presumably refers to some light friable soil that you just happen to have access to which can be more easily worked when the rest of your garden is frozen.

You could stuff it in a pot with some lightly moist (definitely not soggy or wet) compost, put it in a garage or some other frost-free place, and then get it out in a couple off weeks, shake the compost off, and plant it then. Beware that in a pot the soil in the pot will get much colder than if the plant was in the ground, hence putting it in a garage or similar frost-free (but not heated) place. It doesn't need any light, this time of year, of course.

 

P.S. If you are worried about the cold then mulch-after-plating. Some straw, or something else similarly light and fluffy - dry leaves perhaps, will insulate the roots from the air (and the soil has plenty of heat below, which will find its way upwards)

 

Thanks everyone. I too was confused by the "don't plant if it's frosty" advice. It doesn't say what TO do if it's frosty!

The hole isn't dug yet, but the midday sun is thawing it nicely, so I think I'm going to take the plunge.

I'll give it a good mulch, and cover the soil at the base with clear plastic until the Siberian snap is over, stop the baby roots getting frozen.

Not a big fan of staking either, unless the thing would actually fall over otherwise. I've never seen a sapling in the wild tied to a stake!

 

It's a matter of judgement and common sense really. If there's little danger of the tree being blown over before it gets itself anchored in, then no point bothering with a stake. I've planted loads of trees without staking them (in fact all of them). I've later staked a few apple trees after it become apparent that they were being wiggled by the wind.

Your point about saplings in the wild not having a stake is irrelevant. The saplings in the wild will have grown from seed. They wont have been grown for a year or two, being root pruned, then lifted, bound, sat in crate somewhere for a couple of days drying out, before finally being shoved in some completely different ground that may not have all the same conditions as it got used to. The saplings you see in the wild are also the one in probably several hundred or thousand that managed to germinate at all without having been eaten, washed away, or having fallen on unsuitable ground. Comparing the saplings you see in the wild to bare rooted trees you plant is like comparing apples and oranges. Totally not the same thing.

 

I know, I was being a bit silly about wild saplings!

It is a matter of taste, you're right. Personally though I think unless it's a really exposed position, and the newly planted tree is getting blown all over the place, there's no need for staking. A bit of movement can actually help encourage good rooting - plants know what they are doing, and are tougher than we think.

Gardening's all a matter of taste innit!

 

Wind Rock

 

Hehe I think I've got a couple of their albums.

Anyway, the tree is in. Unstaked, freezing cold. I'll let you know when it dies!

 

I'm sure it'll be fine. The point I was trying to get across is not that a young tree must be staked (I already said I never stake them when they first go in), but that you should keep an eye on it and be prepared to stake it if it looks like it might be getting knocked about.

Its just a case of keeping an eye on things is all.

 

It's quite a short and stubby thing, in a sheltered spot, so should be OK unstaked.

I'm regretting not staking my new apple tree though. It's more lanky, and got a terrible buffetting by those high winds we had a couple of months back.

Time will tell, fingers crossed.

 

If you want to retro-stake it, and are worried about spear-ing its roots, use two stakes, decently outside the root-zone, and a figure-of-eight tying arrangement to keep it anchored between the two stakes.