Anyone buy late season clearance Bareroot Perennials, Trees, and Shrubs?

Cristobal Cristo wrote:I'm in a completely different climate than yours, but for the sake of sharing experience I want to say that EVERYTHING that I planted later than first half of May did not survive due to heat, no matter how much I watered or cared.
So for me the quality of the late sale barefoot would be a secondary factor.

Yup, here in central Texas, it's recommended to plant trees and perennials in the fall, so they can get established over the winter and spring, before the heat really hits. Much as I would love to take advantage of sales, I am trying not to plant anything like that past February. Though I did plant a few fruit trees sometime in March or April this year, because they were such a good deal at our local health food store. They're close to the house where I can baby them, and it thankfully hasn't gotten truly hot yet here, so hopefully all will be well.

Well they arrive today.

Not only did the forecast change, so this week isn't supposed to be wet (we got a storm last night that was all dry lighting, scary with how dry everything is), we're in the midst of terrible air quality from Quebec forest fires.
Yesterday wasn't as bad, and I was already needing an N95 to step outside, lest my poor asthmatic lungs and heart seize up. Even just letting the dog out and opening the door, my lungs were spasming. We have a Corsi Rosenthal box running which makes a huge difference.

Watering isn't a big deal unless we go into a water ban, but I'd hoped for rain and definitely wasn't planning for smoke.

It's not the worst smoke I've seen, but definitely the worst I have ever seen in Ontario.

I thought i should update this with my results. I ended up planting them on a cloudy day, and having rain the next day and a cool week. Really lucky planting weather, although planting in an N95 and heavy smoke was an experience...

We ended up with a really dry period in August/September - i think 7 weeks without rain?

The late season bare root apple and pear trees did fine. Perhaps they could have put on more growth if planted earlier, but they all lived. Same for my currant bush (potted), and bush cherry. The apples and pears were all reduced price second quality trees, about $23/tree (so half a regular bareroot, and 1/4 a store tree) and I definitely think it was worth buying them on clearance.

My black berry survived.

2/10 of the raspberries died, plus one came up and failed. That success rate was not worth the "deal", i think, because they often have to grow brand new canes, they are a bit more sensitive. None of my berries, even the ones with huge roots when planting seemed to really thrive.

My grape vine grew leaves, but they went brown in late summer and it is possibly dead. I am undecided about the reason for mortality. It was planted right at the edge of where my sprinkler hits, and also, it is really near a walnut tree and all the annuals planted in that area also struggled this year.

So, in summary: i would definitely do clearance bareroot trees and bushes again. I am unconvinced about later season bareroot brambles, unless i got a REALLY good deal on them (say, 75% off).

I did note that my fresh planted bareroot apple and pear trees didnt have their leaves turn colour and fall off like the crab apples in my neighbourhood. After several hard frosts, they still have some frozen, sad looking leaves. I will try to report in the spring if they survived the winter.

Oh, and my haskaps bought on clearance in the summer at a big box store also struggled. They lost all leaves far earlier than the established ornamental haskap relative that is planted next to them.

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.  

I stalk the clearance of local plant stocks. Berries mostly. Got 4 nanking cherries and 2 made it. But obviously our climate is too hot for them. They grow well until June then runt out.

I primarily do apples. I prefer to use Treco's regrades{20% off} and perfectly useable. Their grading standards are very, very high. So their regrades are good stuff. You have to buy over 100. But from $1.56 to 2.54 per 1/4 " caliper rootstock depending on variety; they are a bargain.

So far I have used P.2, M111 and G.214 from them.

I want to try their Hazelnuts. They have some of the best and newest. But they are a much higher cash outlay. Maybe later.

I'm a sucker for marked down plants and have had great success in the past. I find that I have similar survival rates as I do with plants when they are first put out. As long as the plant is good for my growing zone, it goes into the ground.

This works great for trees and woody shrubs. Bareroot has been my preference over potted specimens.

Timothy Norton wrote:I'm a sucker for marked down plants and have had great success in the past. I find that I have similar survival rates as I do with plants when they are first put out. As long as the plant is good for my growing zone, it goes into the ground.

This works great for trees and woody shrubs. Bareroot has been my preference over potted specimens.

I just got some bareroot trees a week ago. What would be the best way for them since we are below freezing at night and almost until 10am each morning? I work from home but don’t have the time to break out the 100ft hoses, water, roll them back up at lunch just for it to freeze 7-8 hours later. Should I temp pot them until nighttime temps are better?

Hi Dee,
I asked an old forester how late in the season I could plant bare root trees. He told me if you can dig in the ground, you can plant them. While I'm sure there is nuance, I don't think you will need to worry about temporary potting this time of year if you can still dig in the ground.

I don’t remember all the data; but about 15 years ago I was helping a friend at her nursery zip up trees/shrubs for the winter. We made a small corral from straw bales and put everything inside. Then stuffed straw between the pots and a short layer on top of the dirt. Most all the plants were good the following spring. So perhaps these clearance trees could be potted and overwintered in a straw crib.
 Many folks don’t believe it, but you can haggle some with Walmart! When they out the grapes and berries on clearance, I go in with an offer like 50 cents per plant. Telling them that Goes for something dead looking or not. Often the plant is still alive in the root area. These I plant in a holding area with shade cloth and are babied to see which will pull out and grow and others will die. But at 50 cents each, getting half to live is still a bargain. Sometimes the survivors grow great and other times their growth is stunted.
 My opinion is you’ll get what you pay for. You could luck out and get a good plant but you’re also buying something that has been picked over for months.

I did and had some success!
In mid June 2022 I was at our local organic nursery and saw some awfully sad berry plants.
The prices were still full retail and I wasn't about to pay all that. So I found the owner and tried to make a deal.
I'm a bit of a crazy person when it comes to plants... We ended up agreeing on 100 plants for $100.
I spent an hour or two sorting through the many bins to find things which still looked somewhat alive or had a bit going on in the root zone.

Cassie and I got home, broadforked my entire front yard, started digging holes, and planted roughly 60 different blackberries and raspberries of five different varieties.

We're fortunate enough to have gravity fed irrigation to our back yard, I set up driplines to run off my pump whenever there's water in the ditch (that year 2times/week for 12hour periods).
Something like 40 of them survived, some even produced a few berries that year.
In 2023 we had more berries, and this past year even more.
I'm hoping 2025 is the year they really take off.

I agree that the method of storage and care prior to purchase is important - our nursery did a great job and I think that made the difference.

If you can get a deal, particularly at a reputable store, I say it's worth trying!

One year when I lived in Indiana I stopped into a local nursery in early June and picked up, among other things, a watermelon start.  It looked OK, but not great.  I think it was priced at 99 cents.  I planted it right away in a small area of soil inside a loop in my gravel driveway.  It got full sun and was slightly sloped.  I ended up with three watermelons from that vine, even tho I neglected it aside from initial watering and covering the soil with finished compost and straw.  I took the first melon to a local permaculture group pitch-in and people loved it, very sweet and juicy.  One guy said it was the best melon he ever tasted and wanted to know my secret.  I said  "I can tell you, but you're not going to like it!"  I got a disgusted scowl after describing the late purchase of a scraggly plant and the benign neglect through the summer XD.  The other two melons just barely ripened enough to eat and were not as big or tasty, but hey for a buck I couldn't have purchased that one gorgeous melon I shared.  

Aside from that my purchases are hit or miss, even when I buy good early plants or trees.  My soil here is probably not that good down deep.  But we struggle along!