Where to source seedlings in southern California?

Hello, this is my first post here. In all the research I've been doing over the past month I think I come across this forum at least twice a day with answers to my many questions - so thanks already for that!

I just bought some desert land in Antelope Valley (between Los Angeles and Death Valley), and the first thing I want to do is plant some trees. I'm using the Groasis Waterboxx system in order to train the roots to grow straight down to minimize irrigation requirements, and this requires small seedlings. I've called around, and the nurseries all sell minimum size 1G-5G. Not only are they too expensive, but the roots are likely beyond training.

I want to start with 3 trios (9 boxes, 2 of the same seedlings per box) with a fruit, a nut, and a nitrogen fixer in each trio. I don't mind planting a fruit/nut variety without a required pollinator - right now I'm just focused on getting the trees solidly growing, and assuming all goes well, I will be adding another round next year.

So if anyone could point me in the right direction to find any the trees on the following list in small seedling size (no bigger than 4-6"), I would greatly appreciate it. I'll be coming into that area the weekend of April 5-6th, and I'm willing to drive as far as Bakersfield, Los Angeles, or even Phoenix/Tucson if I have to...

My list:

Nitrogen fixing:
acacia, catclaw (Senegalia greggii)
acacia, whitethorn (Vachellia constricta)
mesqute, honey (Prosopis glandulosa)
mesquite, screwbean (Prosopis pubescens)
mesquite, velvet (Prosopis velutina)
palo verde, blue (Parkinsonia florida)
palo verde, yellow/foothill  (Parkinsonia microphylla)
desert willow (Chilopsis)
ironwood (Olneya tesota)
smoketree (Psorothamnus spinosus)

Fruit:
Apple (Anna, Arkansas Black, Dorsett Golden, Fuji, Gala, Yellow Delicious)
Apricot, Royal
Date Palm (regular or Canary Island)
Fig (Black Jack, Black Mission, Brown Turkey)
Nectarine (Goldmine, Dwarf Necta Zee, Panamint, LeGrand)
Olive (Arbequina, Ascolano, Frantoio, Leccino, Manzanillo, Maurino, Mission, Pendolino)
Peach (Desert Gold, Dwarf Bonanza, Dwarf Bonfire, Early Elberta)
Pear (Bartlett, Keiffer, Shinseiki, 20th Century)
Persimmon (Fuyu, Hachiya)
Plum (Green Gage, Howard Miracle, Santa Rosa)
Pomegranate (eg Ambrosia, Granada, Wonderful)

Nut:
Almond (Allin-One, Garden Prince, NePlus Ultra, Nonpareil, Texas Mission)
Pistachio (Kerman/female, Peters/male)
Pecan (Choctaw, Mohawn, Western Schley, Wichita)
Walnut (Carpanthian, Placentia)

I don't know about any specific suppliers, but if you have the time, here are a few freebies:

Willow and fig root pretty easily from cuttings, find a wild willow and snip a few, and find a fig tree in the neighborhood and ask if you can have a cutting - soak both in a bucket of water(bottom ends only) for a few days before planting.

I just went to the SD Zoo yesterday, and collected some acacia seeds from their trees while enjoying the place; maybe they can be a source for your more exotic species(or some other zoo, botanical garden, etc.)?

If you plan to plant seedlings anyway, would you consider growing your own seedlings?

Sources for unusual tree seeds I have used are:

https://sheffields.com/

https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/

https://plantsofthesouthwest.com/

Planting seeds versus seedlings has the advantage of not disturbing the taproot which is so important for desert trees.

Hi

Check craigslist "farm" and you'll see a bunch of ads for nurseries in the moreno valley. Have fun driving up there.

The anaheim kaiser has a bunch of palo verde trees if you wanted seeds.

Unfortunately all of my other seed sources are limited, and secret.

PM me for other information if you like.

Also check out other greening the desert topics. Theres a lot about protecting thos trees from critters.

K

Krystal wrote:desert willow (Chilopsis)

learned something new - Chilopsis linearis= desert willow.  Not willow(Salix) that grows in the desert - please forgive my ignorance :)

Wow, that link to the seed page proved incredibly helpful! Thank you Kevin! It looks like I can source a pomegranate, fig, and olive. And I also learned that my timing for many trees isn't the best and I should try another run in the fall. Unfortunately I will only be in California for a few days, otherwise I would definitely seed them myself. I think I'm going to just plant whatever I can get my hands on for this round, and focus more on setting up a rainwater system.

Dustin Rhodes wrote:learned something new - Chilopsis linearis= desert willow.  Not willow(Salix) that grows in the desert - please forgive my ignorance :)

I would not have noticed that. I realized in my searching that many of the fruit/nut trees I want require grafting, and therefore will not be possible to acquire as seedlings. I prefer to call that "learning" instead of ignorance. ;)

Hilariously I'm looking at a bag of dessert willow seeds as i look at this thread.

A dear friend commented the other day about her happiness not being quite there.
I have been thinking about that these past weeks.

I was just looking at my bedraggled dormant seedlings in NE Arizona yesterday. I see small leaf buds on my siberian elm.

To me, that's happiness
(well, that and noticing the wind has not blown down my hoop greenhouse yet)