Storing and transporting bare-root trees

I bought 10 trees and they arrived today but they arrived late in the afternoon and I was fairly busy anyway so when I finally got round to planting them I ran out of natural light. I have 4 left and so I just left them out and placed them in the shed. Will they be fine left like that overnight or should I have covered their roots up or something similar? If necessary I'll go out and resolve the issue just in case.

Also, 2 of those bare root trees are for a friend. How should I 'wrap' them to transport? On TV they always wrap a bin bag around the roots and tie it, which seems like a fair old idea. Should I put compost in the bag though?

 

I'm from Yorkshire and even though the lowest temperature forecast for tonight is 3C I'll probably bring them in the house in a short while and wrap them up in something. It's fairly warm in here but not warm enough that they'll dry out. Thanks for your answer JWK.

 

Bit late now, but in case useful:

Keep the frost off the roots (don't leave them outside, but a frost free shed will do)

Don't give them any warmth (including sun ) as that will dry them out. Cool and frost free is best.

Dunk the roots in a bucket of water (do NOT leave them sitting in water), and put them in a plastic bag - bin liner. Doesn't have to be waterproof, as such, just needs to keep the humidity in.

I have had trees delivered with a large ball of soaked shredded paper in the bottom of the bag - not so much touching the roots as keeping the moisture levels up.

Bare rooted should be fine for 7 days (after they reach you). I'm planting hedge at the moment and its going to take at least a week to get them all in. I have been taking all the bundles out of the plastic bags once a day, giving the roots a quick dunk, and then putting them back in the bags.

One other thing, it is absolutely critical that you do not plant them any deeper than the original "soil mark" on the trunks. If in doubt plant then a bit higher/shallower, rather than too deep. Planting too deep is probably the single biggest killer of bare rooted transplants.

 

Thanks a lot Kristen. I've just found out that she won't be picking up the trees until "some time next week" so your advice on how to keep them alive until then may prove invaluable. If you didn't say that I was going to plant them in a bucket filled with compost for a week. I will do as you say though.

As for the planting depth, I didn't know that but I always plant higher than originally planted or than recommended on most plants anyway. Thanks nonetheless. Also, any soil higher than it should be on the trees would have been pushed down where it should be when I firmed the soil with my boot.

 

Standard advice for keeping them "somewhat longer" would be to "heel them in". That would involve just digging a trench, sticking armfuls of plants in (i.e. if small hedging plants, obviously trees take more space!) and pushing the soil back with your heel.

Sticking it in a pot with some damp compost around its roots would be the equivalent, although it will be being planted as a "bare root" plant, so important the compost is shaken off and it is planted as a bareroot - as it may be entirely possible that when you put some compost around it, or if it was planted out "as is" from the pot, there might be some air pockets around the roots - which would dry out and then die / rot.

In particular if your friend won't be able to plant it immediately when she gets it home them going the Pot + Compost route would probably be best (just make sure she knows to shake the compost off and plant as-if bare root, rather than thinking its a container-grown plant )