Temporary nursery beds

I'm getting 300 bare root fruit trees in about a week that are from 6 to 12 inches. These include apricots, peaches, plums, paw paws, and some apples. I'm planning a mixed orchard on about a 5 acre area of my farm in Southeast Michigan.

My dilemma is that I still haven't fully prepared the site where they will be permanently planted. I've planted some windbreaks and nitrogen fixers that haven't really gotten established yet. So I was thinking of putting the bare root trees in a kind of temporary nursery bed, where I can keep them healthy for another year until I can plant them in the orchard next spring.

I just don't know the best way to do this, or if this is even a viable solution. Will the roots suffer immensely from being transplanted twice? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
David
Waterfall Farms

it’s probably your best option at this point. it might be possible to bury some roofing tin or something to limit the depth of the roots for reduced damage when you dig them back up, but i’d probably just go for it without. soil should be pretty rich to push growth while somewhat crowded. just dug ~300 pawpaw seedlings from a nursery bed, just gotta be gentle and dig a trench along one side before digging the bed. then everything can be sliced off (fork preferred, not spade) the exposed side and gently teased loose. obviously dig them back up when dormant.

Thanks for the very helpful reply Greg.

How closely would you space them in the bed?

how much digging do you want to do? i’d be somewhere between 3 and 6 inches. they can be pretty close. the closer they are, the more competition between them. different trees respond it competition differently, but in general the tendency is to be longer/thinner/whippy-er. so they could be more likely to need some support when planted out. the bed i just dug was from seed, so very close spacing, sometimes 10+ plants in a 4x4 inch square. i left them there for two years which seems to have been less problematic than i expected.

trees with potentially beat-up roots like you’re liable to be dealing with may not put on a whole lot of new growth in the first year, nursery bed or not. i’d expect you could be pretty tight. maybe 3-inch spacing in little trenches 6 to 8” apart? you’ll find something that feels right based off how the roots look.