Bare root maintenance and scheduling

I've got a bunch of bare root trees and shrubs to plant, they arrived with wet newspaper shreds around the root bundles, and they were tied in bunches. As I plant them out, what should I be doing to keep them from drying out? And how long do I have, in 40 to 50° damp weather, to get them in the ground?

I've been watering them in with inoculant after spreading alder chip mulch around them. Because it's handy and has a sprayer in it, I've been misting the root bundles of the other trees and shrubs with the inoculants as I go.

Unrelated note: the sun is setting right now, and as I just finished writing this a choir of frogs struck up at the wet end of the property. Noticed a lot of flying bugs as I was working in the forest today.

Thank you for asking this question! I'm going to be getting some bare root fruit trees in the mail pretty soon, and I was wondering the same thing!

Hey Nicole, you're in my region. Are you planting trees and shrubs yet? I'm out here planting elderberry and Seaberry bare root seedlings by the light of a headlamp,and see frost on the ground, even though the weather says 41°. ?!?

They already survive a week while being shipped to me.  And they are already dormant so as long as they are kept moist you have quite a few days to plant them out

I like to soak them in a pucket of water for 1hrs with inoculant in it.
then place then in the usual 3FT WIDE hole, compact the earth
then water and compact the earth some more.
I recommend not adding any amendments to the hole, but you can top dress with whatever you want (rockdust, biochar, fertilize, etc)
You can however work in amendment into the soil as deep as possible over the entire plot of land/orchard, before planting, this will increase the fertility of land evenly.

Fredy Perlman wrote:Hey Nicole, you're in my region. Are you planting trees and shrubs yet? I'm out here planting elderberry and Seaberry bare root seedlings by the light of a headlamp,and see frost on the ground, even though the weather says 41°. ?!?

As long as the ground is dig-able, it's good to plant, I think. Every year in February, I get bareroot plants from the Conservation District Plant sale and plant them out right away. It never seemed to bother them. I also planted my son's birthday tree in December, and it's still doing great three years later. I also dig up and transplant raspberries around my property this time of the year, and it seems to work great.

I'm not quite sure what you're supposed to do if you get a bareroot tree and the ground's too frozen to plant, but thankfully the weather is above freezing, so I don't think there's any reason not to plant them!

S Bengi wrote:
I like to soak them in a pucket of water for 1hrs with inoculant in it.

What do you inoculate them with?

Bare root plants can last a surprisingly long time out of the ground. One man I know stores tens of them outside in sawdust all winter long. Now that it's spring they'll start waking up, so I would get them into the ground as soon as you can. They say if the ground is workable they can go in the ground. I plan trees all year except in summer, and they do just fine. I wouldn't stress too much about getting them in though; nurseries around here often sell bareroot through the spring, and that whole time they are either kept in cold storage or, earlier on, in sawdust outside as described. It stands to reason that if those later-sold trees do ok, yours should to.

One good reason to get them in now is so that they have enough time to grow more (especially finer) roots before summer. This will help them to take up more water and nutrients. They'll have a second round of root growth in the fall, but theoretically won't grow many in late spring and summer.

I just finished up planting bareroot for the year.  If you can get them in the ground quickly, that is best by far.  The biggest danger is the roots drying out, second is the roots rotting from too much moisture, and third is the roots dying in a hard freeze -- all of these only happen if you don't get them in the ground..

I've had good success with elderberry and got another 100 bareroot this year -- I direct planted 35 bigger plants, and planted the smaller 65 in a trench to grow out for a year - just in slits 6" apart where they will get a wood chip mulch.  For me, getting the trees above the deer browse line (over 6 ft) gives them a much better chance of survival...

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

S Bengi wrote:
I like to soak them in a pucket of water for 1hrs with inoculant in it.

What do you inoculate them with?

I bet the farm on this

http://mycorrhizae.com/mycoapply-products/granular/

soaking them in it periodically, sometimes watering it in when i plant, and misting their roots in the bundles with it at least once a day.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about it later. Our local seed and feed and nursery store, full of soil scientists and Evergreen environmental majors, recommends it.

Eric Thompson wrote:

I've had good success with elderberry and got another 100 bareroot this year -- I direct planted 35 bigger plants, and planted the smaller 65 in a trench to grow out for a year - just in slits 6" apart where they will get a wood chip mulch.  For me, getting the trees above the deer browse line (over 6 ft) gives them a much better chance of survival...

I got 25 blue elderberry, have planted ten. They need extra protection from deer browse, 2' tall cylinders of hardware cloth. But it sounds like my screens should be wider, and taller!

How old are the 65 young? Mine are first year. Could I rip a trench with a ditch witch and casually drop them in there, then transplant in a year? Is that better than potting them in commercial topsoil (something i'm considering for the overstock)? That could be a promising technique for a lot of these bareroots.

Fredy Perlman wrote:

How old are the 65 young? Mine are first year. Could I rip a trench with a ditch witch and casually drop them in there, then transplant in a year? Is that better than potting them in commercial topsoil (something i'm considering for the overstock)? That could be a promising technique for a lot of these bareroots.

Mine are also from the conservations district - black elderberry about 2 ft tall.  
If you rip a trench of soft soil and fill them in (even close together) they should get up to 6ft with a main trunk this year.  After that, they are pretty free to grow above deer browse height.  Elderberry are easy to transplant and also grow with rooted suckers profusely, so you can dig and separate or dig and re-fill the trench with shorties..

I just got my shipment from Burnt Ridge for grapes and dwarf fruit trees bareroot. I've always tried to get them in the ground within 5 days, and in the interim, I heal them in a big trough filled with good organic soil. Keep them slightly damp and make sure they are protected from wind and they should be good to go for weeks properly healed in.

Because, when I stop to think about it - those trees in nurseries sometimes sit in plastic bags full of sawdust for weeks if not months, and I have bought some that way, and they thrive once they get to the farm.

2 years ago when I was putting in my orchard after we bought our farm, I got a huge shipment and could not get everything in as fast as I wanted, the trees hung out in buckets filled with moist topsoil for about 2 weeks in our outbuilding and they are super strong and hardy now.

Hope your new plants are doing well!