I purchased all my bare root trees from Stark Bros. All from clearance.
2nd season: 4 pears trees and 2 apple trees.
All trees was planted in the ground, when arrived.
All the pears lives. 1 outperform and 3 leafed out, but do nothing for the past 2 years. some of the trees is curvy. One of the tree is under size and super flexible like a 1 year old tree.
Of the 2 apple trees, one needed attention. In the 2nd season one of the apple tree didn't leaf out completely on top. It finally leaf out on the top in late summer, then the top branch died. Upon further inspection the graft union is looking dark and dry. After the 2nd top branch died, it was time to salvage the tree. I graft the good branches to another tree. Cut the bad graft union out and re-graft the remaining wood to the root stock. Further inspection of the graft union show some saw dust inside. I suspect borer went inside. The other apple tree is a Supreme size and it's growing in year 1 and year 2.
1st season: 2 apple trees. Supreme size.
Apple trees was purchased in late spring this year.
1 apple planted in the ground and 1 apple was potted.
One of the apple is Cox Orange Pippen and the other one is Golden Russet. The COP size was a joke. Only 10% of the tree was a Supreme size. The top was below average (Worst than a normal size). Came with 1 tiny branch in the middle. Even a good normal size tree would be better. Throw it into the ground. It leafed out, but the new branches remain short, thin, and weak.
The GR tree is a Supreme size from bottom to top. Came with 6 branches. Potted in a 5 gallon container with about 1 year compost, native soil and worm casting on top. Tree was position where the pot was mostly shaded, but the top of the tree received the sun. It grew good strong branches. Potted in the ground in October.
Conclusion: clearance tree is not the best, hence left over from a good selection. Tree form and size is compromise.
