How to Shop for Container Fruit Trees

Ed: Hi, I’m Ed Laivo with Dave Wilson Nursery and today we’re at the Greenery Nursery in Turloc, California. A bare root season is when you’ll always find the greatest selection of fruit trees. Also you’ll find them at the best prize. So let’s go out and select the fruit tree. Hey Jake, are there any other options than just doing bare root? Do we have other choices here at the greenery? Jake: Sure, you bet we do. If they don’t find something in the bare roots section that they want, we also have container ice trees and those are trees that have been grown for year longer in a container and there are varieties out there that we may not have chosen to offer in a bare root form this year. So we’ll have a mini five gallon container. Ed: Good deal, let me go and take a look at them? Jake: Sure. Ed: Let’s do it. This first container ice tray is actually a new bare root. This is actually just been part in this can. Many nurseries are offering this type of product now with a pulp pot; this is a biodegradable pot. The tree is not rooted in so, in the only part of the season when you first go into the nursery, if you find this product, you can probably pull the tree out and just plant it as you would any bare root. But if it’s later in the season and we’ve already got a warming and you’ve already seen buds that are actually pushing on the tree, it’s not probably a good idea to reap this plant out of the pot and disturb the root. The better option would be to take and plant this entire container, which it is made to do. I would recommend that you take a claw hammer and beat holes in the side of the can so that this pot actually will decompose when it gets in the ground, water gets inside, it will cause the decomposition. Now remember that the soil aligned in this pot is a soil aligned that should be at the outside of the pot. When you’re planting, don’t plant it up to the top of the rim because all these pots starts to decompose, that soil can come in and cover up this ground and they can cause problems to the ground so the soil under the can should be the soil aligned that’s planted when this pot is put in the ground. Okay Jake, we have been working with the fruit tree out here, what do we got here? What kind of product is this? Jake: Well, we got a peach that has been grown for year in this container; this fiber pot that when you did it now, this has not to be planted with the container on it, it is a fully rooted out tree that the full pot can be taken off of it and the tree can be planted without it. Ed: Excellent. Hey Jake is there any advantages to planting in an established tree like this? Jake: You bet there is, number one you’re going to get fruit quicker. It’s a year older tree; number two, it’s already rooted out of the container, so all you got to do is peel the pulp pot off, put the tree on the ground and you’re done. Ed: Well these two established trees once in the black plastic pot, the other is in paper pot, what’s the difference? Jake: Well, the paper pot was a tree that we planted last year in that container so that you can plant it during the season and not damage the roots before it’s rooted out. Ed: Very good, and what about the black plastic? Jake: Black plastic, the tree is not fully rooted, it is also a year older and it can also be planted immediately.