Fall tree order

Does anyone know of any nurseries/farms shipping fruit and nut trees right now?

I’m looking for a couple butternuts, a couple shagbark hickories, several hazelnuts and maybe some fruit trees. Id prefer to plant now over waiting for spring, but most of the places I have inquired with either dont have what I want, dont ship, or only sell in spring.

We’re in upper Michigan and I’d be willing to drive 100 miles or so to pick stuff up in person, otherwise I would just order online.

Any advice is appreciated!

From some threads here on our forum I found this and from what I read they ship out of state:

https://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings/order-seedlings

Stark Brothers just sent out an email about fall offerings last week- I don't know if they'd have what you're looking for, and they're rather pricey, but it may be an option.

I think the reason it’s hard to find most types of temperate trees in the fall, despite late fall/winter being an ideal time to plant them in many cases, is that nursery stock is not dormant yet. It would be be very stressful for the plant to be uprooted or transported in the late summer/fall before dormancy. I think in many places the ground gets too cold or wet to dig. Therefore you will
mostly find trees in pots, and these are very often overgrown and root bound. It takes a lot more work to de-circle the roots than a bare root tree, and they seem to not have the same vigor thereafter. If you can find bare root trees in the late fall or winter that would seem ideal, but I think it’s logistically difficult for the nursery.

For this reason I built an air-pruning bed for chestnut (130) and walnut (12) seedlings this year, and will use it for more trees and shrubs grown from seed in the future. I acquired the majority of my bare root and seed stock this year from Burnt Ridge Nursery, which has by far the best deals and selection for the Pacific NW I’ve found. Many of their offerings can be had at various sizes, and the smaller, younger root stock is very inexpensive but often seems to catch up and pass larger trees planted at the same time because it is more easily acclimatized to its new spot.
Peaceful Valley and Rain Tree have also had generally healthy and vigorous trees that are pricier. It pays to learn to graft.

Tom Worley wrote:Stark Brothers just sent out an email about fall offerings last week- I don't know if they'd have what you're looking for, and they're rather pricey, but it may be an option.

They dont have hazelnuts or hickories, but they do have butternuts. About $50 each but 1.5-3’ tall and 125% survival guarantee somehow.

Anne Miller wrote:From some threads here on our forum I found this and from what I read they ship out of state:

https://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings/order-seedlings

Looks like they’re probably more focused on wildlife habitat than feeding people. The hickories were a mixed bag, the hazelnuts were all wild and I didn’t see butternuts. Thanks though!

$50 for a 3’ tree? are they just seedlings or that some fancy butternut cultivar?

greg mosser wrote:$50 for a 3’ tree? are they just seedlings or that some fancy butternut cultivar?

This is from their website:

Ships 1' 6" - 3' tall with advanced root system in a 4x4x10" EZ Start® Pot. Professionally pruned for FREE!

Also called white walnut

A prolific grower and bearer! This impressive variety yields bountiful crops of mild-flavored nuts that are easy to shell and perfect for eating fresh or baking. Bears in 2-3 years. Matures to be 40-50' tall. Cold-hardy. Ripens in late August to late September. Grafted. Self-pollinating. (Juglans cinerea)
125% Survival Guarantee!

Since 1816, Stark Bro’s has promised to provide customers with the very best fruit trees and plants. It’s just that simple. If your trees or plants do not survive, please let us know within one year of delivery. We will issue a one-time merchandise credit to your account equaling 125% of the original product purchase price

the price is high  from stark bros but  guarantee seems real good.  I got peaches, cherries, apples and chestnut from ty ty and survival rate was about 40% all bare root bought and planted in winter dormancy.

[quote=Ben Zumeta] I think the reason it’s hard to find most types of temperate trees in the fall, despite late fall/winter being an ideal time to plant them in many cases, is that nursery stock is not dormant yet. It would be be very stressful for the plant to be uprooted or transported in the late summer/fall before dormancy. I think in many places the ground gets too cold or wet to dig. Therefore you will
mostly find trees in pots, and these are very often overgrown and root bound. It takes a lot more work to de-circle the roots than a bare root tree, and they seem to not have the same vigor thereafter. If you can find bare root trees in the late fall or winter that would seem ideal, but I think it’s logistically difficult for the nursery.

For this reason I built an air-pruning bed for chestnut (130) and walnut (12) seedlings this year, and will use it for more trees and shrubs grown from seed in the future. I acquired the majority of my bare root and seed stock this year from Burnt Ridge Nursery, which has by far the best deals and selection for the Pacific NW I’ve found. Many of their offerings can be had at various sizes, and the smaller, younger root stock is very inexpensive but often seems to catch up and pass larger trees planted at the same time because it is more easily acclimatized to its new spot.
[/quote]

Thanks for explaining that, I couldn’t figure out what the reasoning was but that does make sense. Its just tough planting trees here in spring because the weather gets intense fast. April is generally cool and rainy but most nurseries dont ship until May. We had two weeks of 90 degrees last May, so trying to get freshly planted seedlings to survive would be a struggle if that happens again.

I actually just left Burnt Ridge a voicemail hoping they call back. Seems crazy for me to have to order trees from Washington to plant in Michigan, but they have what I want. I just need to see if they ship right now. Also found a “Go Native Trees” that sell hickories in deep taproot pots. Ill order hickories from them if Burnt Ridge doesn’t get back to me soon. I also found hazelnuts through Zs Nutty Ridge. Butternuts seem to be the difficult one to find now.

Brody said, "The hickories were a mixed bag, the hazelnuts were all wild and I didn’t see butternuts.

I didn't look at the nut trees as you said "fruit and nut". I only looked at the fruit trees though.

Butternuts are included with the Mixed Hickory:

A mix of hickory dominated by shagbark, but also includes bitternut, pignut, black and shellbark hickories. Seed mixed at planting. Good selection for wildlife and reforestation projects where a variety of nut sizes and tree form is desired. Height at maturity is 70 ft.

Ten trees are $1.00 each so you get 10 trees for $10.00.

https://mdc12.mdc.mo.gov/Applications/TreeSeedling/Home/ProductDetails/44?

Shellback Hickories and Hazelnuts are sold out though an order for reallocation is possible.

I have never ordered from them so I am not trying to push people to buy from them.

As fast as their trees are selling out it sounds like a lot of people buy from them.

Best wishes for finding what you are looking for.

Burnt Ridge has a page that explains their shipping policies. Bare root trees go out in the late winter/early spring. I got my order of 250 trees and shrubs +seed nuts in early March. This was in addition to 200+ more trees I ordered elsewhere of started from seed the previous year. It was a challenge to get them watered in when we got no rain from late March to late April, when normally we’d be getting quite a bit of regular rain through May. I ended up with 50 trees still in nursery beds for the summer because planting and watering took so much longer with no rain. That and the cages for protection I had to provide when I realized a neighbors would/could not keep his damn bulls contained. However, maybe put them in a nursery bed for their first summer, where many trees can be watered easily at once, then plant them at the ideal time for your climate.

They’ve been great to me, but I have noticed most of the complaints on the Burnt Ridge site are from folks in vastly different climates than SW WA. Local/regional reviewers are almost all positive. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true for most nurseries, and it’s always good to support local tree propagators. BR’s shipping policies also favor large orders and the floor price is not cheap, but they do seem to get them to their destination as expediently and safely as possible.

Ben Zumeta wrote:Burnt Ridge has a page that explains their shipping policies. Bare root trees go out in the late winter/early spring. I got my order of 250 trees and shrubs +seed nuts in early March. This was in addition to 200+ more trees I ordered elsewhere of started from seed the previous year. It was a challenge to get them watered in when we got no rain from late March to late April, when normally we’d be getting quite a bit of regular rain through May. I ended up with 50 trees still in nursery beds for the summer because planting and watering took so much longer with no rain. That and the cages for protection I had to provide when I realized a neighbors would/could not keep his damn bulls contained. However, maybe put them in a nursery bed for their first summer, where many trees can be watered easily at once, then plant them at the ideal time for your climate.

They’ve been great to me, but I have noticed most of the complaints on the Burnt Ridge site are from folks in vastly different climates than SW WA. Local/regional reviewers are almost all positive. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true for most nurseries, and it’s always good to support local tree propagators. BR’s shipping policies also favor large orders and the floor price is not cheap, but they do seem to get them to their destination as expediently and safely as possible.

Yea I agree that buying as local as possible is probably best, not only for the business but for the trees. Burt Ridge cant ship butternuts, or anything in the walnut family to Michigan due to possible disease issues.

I totally know what you mean about planting, watering, fencing and mulching taking a lot of time, especially when it doesn’t rain. Thats my issue with waiting for spring to get trees. Our snow usually doesn’t melt until March, most nurseries dont ship until April and we get hot weather by May. We had 2 weeks of 90 degrees mid May this year. If I had freshly planted seedlings in the ground they all would have died, probably even if I watered daily. But even if I ordered trees in spring and tried to keep them in a nursery area or in their pots until fall, that wouldn’t be much better! Pots dry out daily. And I dont have drip irrigation anywhere yet, so I’d be watering daily whether in the ground or in a pot.

I think I, along with a lot of other people, just need to get a few trees established and then we can hopefully all help the nurseries out by providing seeds, cuttings and suckers to locals so that everyone isnt reliant on far away nurseries to get trees.

I’ve had decent luck so far keeping things I have yet to plant permanently [mostly] happy spaced tightly (4-6” apart for most trees and shrubs) and only watering with drip once every 1-2wks in a small (12-18” tall, 4ft wide) hugelish style raised beds. Basically bottom layer is wood and brush, topped with compost mixed with river sand, and bit of pumice). These are on a north facing slope to increase cold sinkage and theoretically retain dormancy longer, as it never gets too cold here in the winter for most temperate trees.

I’d estimate 75-80% survival in the field for the 200 already planted out (of those getting irrigated), whereas the nursery beds are closer to 90%. These have all been getting watered the equivalent of 2” on a rotation every 2-3wks, as I am off grid and have limited water supply. Of the 125 unirrigated apple seedlings I planted over last winter, I have one confirmed trooper that looks very healthy despite getting no help. A few others are straggling along, and more still are in thickets for their protection that I haven’t  visited in awhile. If I get one apple tree that can go unirrigated 4+months of windy, warm and rainless summer I will be happy. The irrigated trees will get watered for their first 2yrs in the ground, then left to fend for themselves. This is part of why I have accepted some drought mortality due to infrequency of watering, but by doing so deeply and infrequently, they will theoretically develop a deeper root system. I am also ok selecting out the drought intolerant trees, as I cannot water them to full growth and wouldn’t want to anyhow, as I have tasted the quality difference in dry farmed fruit. Anyhow, best of luck on this intrepid project!

Ben Zumeta wrote:I’ve had decent luck so far keeping things I have yet to plant permanently [mostly] happy spaced tightly (4-6” apart for most trees and shrubs) and only watering with drip once every 1-2wks in a small (12-18” tall, 4ft wide) hugelish style raised beds. Basically bottom layer is wood and brush, topped with compost mixed with river sand, and bit of pumice). These are on a north facing slope to increase cold sinkage and theoretically retain dormancy longer, as it never gets too cold here in the winter for most temperate trees.

I could do that, but I would be worried about damaging the taproots when it comes time to move the trees to their permanent location. From what I’ve read, hickories can grow a 3’ taproot before growing upwards much at all. Not sure about hazels or butternuts though.

I found the trees I want, but the soonest I can get trees here is mid November. The earliest I can get them in the spring is mid April. Neither is ideal, but April might be better. I’ll just have to water more, somehow.

The tap root/root circling issue is the reason for the airpruned nursery bed for nuts, which is caged in for rodent protection. The other nursery beds with fruit trees and natives was built intentionally on very thin soil above bedrock. I sheet mulched the grasses there with cardboard, then sticks, then compost/river sand. This ought to theoretically make a deep tap root hard to form. We will see this fall when I plant them out on my late Mom’s birthday (December 5th), as this food forest is in her honor.

Ben Zumeta wrote:The tap root/root circling issue is the reason for the airpruned nursery bed for nuts, which is caged in for rodent protection. The other nursery beds with fruit trees and natives was built intentionally on very thin soil above bedrock. I sheet mulched the grasses there with cardboard, then sticks, then compost/river sand. This ought to theoretically make a deep tap root hard to form. We will see this fall when I plant them out on my late Mom’s birthday (December 5th), as this food forest is in her honor.

What is your goal with preventing the taproot from forming? Wouldn’t that harm or stunt the seedlings?

Either way, planting a food forest in honor of your mother is a beautiful idea!

Brody, of course in an ideal situation they would have sprouted in their permanent location to form a tap root that would never be disturbed. The trees I referred to were shipped to me bare root and I just couldn’t get them into the ground before it got hot and dry because of the 450 other trees I planted between January and May taking time, with the 200 trees I’m irrigating needing water much earlier than expected with a bone dry April. That and my neighbor’s bulls’ free ranging requiring me to cage the most vulnerable/valuable 120 of them really highlighted my common mistake of imagining unrealistically ideal conditions as I plan out how long things will take.

So what I’m doing is not ideal, it’s just keeping them as happy as possible until I plant them this December. The idea though is that a rectangular wood framed bed with a very difficult bottom to punch through (cardboard on top of essentially bedrock) would stimulate more root branching rather than a circling tap root (which a circular pot will cause), or a tap root that will get damaged in transplant. The elevated  air pruning bed does this well, but dries out faster than a bed connected to the ground. The also take a lot more time and materials, and can’t accommodate the larger trees I’ve yet to plant out. The trees in either type of  bed look quite healthy, but I’ll see this fall how the ground contact sheet mulched hugelish beds serve as nursery beds. I’ll let you know how the roots look this fall and how they respond in the spring.

Have you tried Mark Shephard's nursery?  He's in your general region.  

Forest ag Nursery - Mark Shepard food forest trees and shrubs

Kim Goodwin wrote:Have you tried Mark Shephard's nursery?  He's in your general region.  

Forest ag Nursery - Mark Shepard food forest trees and shrubs

I did. I dont remember exactly what the issue was (talked to way too many nurseries during this process!) but I think they were either sold out for the year or only did big orders. Or both

Either way, I found what I was looking for. Had to order from 3 separate nurseries but should get the hickories next week, the hazelnuts in October and the butternuts in November. I’ll probably have to pre dig holes for the butternuts and try to keep the holes and fill from freezing, but I’ve got some time to figure that out.

https://www.coldstreamfarm.net/
https://oikostreecrops.com/products/fruit-plants-organically-grown/american-persimmon-pawpaw-plants/pawpaw-trees/
http://www.maplegroveorchard.com/wordpress/

In your state, havent checked on 'em this year, dont know if they fall sell

Alex Jewell wrote:https://www.coldstreamfarm.net/
https://oikostreecrops.com/products/fruit-plants-organically-grown/american-persimmon-pawpaw-plants/pawpaw-trees/
http://www.maplegroveorchard.com/wordpress/

In your state, havent checked on 'em this year, dont know if they fall sell

I checked coldstream but don’t remember what the issue there was. Either no fall shipping, not having what I want or not legally able to ship butternuts to Michigan.

I was unaware of the other 2 sites, but I found what I was looking for now. Had to order from 3 separate nurseries but the hickories came yesterday, the hazels should be here in a couple weeks and the butternuts should be here mid November. I’m excited to plant the hickories this evening!