Why don't dealers ship bare root fruit trees pruned?

[Teddy12b]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm new to having a orchard and I've got a lot to learn. What makes me curious is that when I bought my first batch of fruit trees locally I bought the biggest thickest ones I could find (rookie mistake). Then later I bought some more over the internet as big as I could get them shipped (another rookie mistake). So I'm wondering since most of these fruit trees are going to be pruned heavily to get where they need to be size wise why don't more tree retailers sell just the bare root tree already chopped off at 3' or less. That's basically what's going to be happening to the trees once they get in the ground anyway, I'm just curious what more dealers don't do that so they could ship more of the trees in a box, or sell more in general.

Is every other rookie out there just like me and wants to see a big tree before chopping it in half?

[DoubleDogFarm]

This is one reason. Not all customers train their trees the same.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_tree_forms

The old standard is to balance the top to root loss.

Eric

[imafan26]

What I found to be true is that people think bigger is better. They are shipping what the people think are a good buy. It is just like buying plants. It is really a better buy to get the younger seedlings then the older blooming and probably pot bound ones, but customers think the seedling is not worth as much in value. The truth is that the younger seedling will transplant better and probably live a lot longer.

[ReptileAddiction]

^^^That is exactly why. Consumers want large trees that will make an instant landscape. If they sold trees cut at 3 foot, which most people do not do, then they would have a lot less business. Most people plant one peach in their backyard and prune it like they would a normal tree and never think that it might need something different. Also, everyone is different on how they prune trees. I would not prune a tree down to 3 foot unless it had no low branches. What I do it start the vase style a little higher up but the branches still start low. Furthermore in the coldest parts of the U.S. they can not prune till spring and if they were pre pruned it could lead to the tree's death.

[SOB]

I ordered a number of trees this past spring from Stark Bro's (https://www.starkbros.com/) and they had an option when ordering to specify whether or not you want them to prune them first. They showed up pruned to about 3-4' with little to no branches on them. Being the novice that I was they looked pretty sad but quickly grew and bushed out this past year.

[Teddy12b]

That's a nice service that they offer there. It makes sense and also being the novice that I am it's something I think would make sense for me as well. It's one thing for me to prune something, but I'd like to see how a professional does it so that I know it's done right too.

[imafan26]

While we are talking about pruning. It really is an art. The top should be balanced with the roots. You also need to consider when to prune and what to prune. Some plants take hard pruning down to a few strong canes, like roses. You want to prune above an outward facing bud to direct growth that way. You don't want a branch growing inward that will rub against other branches.

Pruning at the wrong time will sacrifice fruit and/or flowers.

It is always better to prune a little at a time. Step back to look at it and wait awhile before pruning again. You can always make another cut but once it is cut off you can't put it back again.

Bad pruning takes years to fix and a lot of work cutting out water sprouts. Always leave a leader and limb up. Topping ruins the shape of the tree and the branches that grow will often be weaker.

Also take good care of your tools. The saws, pruners, and loppers should be clean and sharp to make good clean cuts.

[Teddy12b]

Yeah, I missed the boat earlier this year when I planted my first round of fruit trees. I should have pruned them then. I don't want to prune any of my fruit trees right now because the temp is around 30 degrees. With the old batch of trees and these new trees about to be planted, I'm going to wait until spring '14 and I'll get hacking on them. I'm going to do my best to make sure they stay manageable, but productive. I've been watching a lot of Dave Willsons Videos on you tube and I think I've got a pretty good game plan in my head fr how I'm going to get this orchard up running. I told my wife last night that next spring I'm probably going to be bringing in several truck loads of mulch and covering the whole area with it.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I told my wife last night that next spring I'm probably going to be bringing in several truck loads of mulch and covering the whole area with it.

Sounds like a plan.

Go to your local freight house for cardboard


Local stables for manure / hay


Eric

[Teddy12b]

I get the manure, what do you do with the cardboard?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Here is one of my post from mid summer. Cardboard on page 2

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... =cardboard

Eric

[ReptileAddiction]

Always leave a leader and limb up. Topping ruins the shape of the tree and the branches that grow will often be weaker.

I HIGHLY disagree. IMHO if it is an ornamental tree then leave a central leader but if you pruned a peach like that and did not maintain an open vase style (which you can not do if you have a central leader) then you will have more problems with disease, less fruit, etc. If you plant to always keep a tree lets say below 10 feet then you have to top it to maintain that.

[DoubleDogFarm]

None of my fruit trees are central leader. Some might be considered modified central, but most are open or vase.

I don't top trees but I use what I believe is call dropcrotching in fruit trees. You head back to a side branch. I try to make sure the tree stays balanced while choosing the side branch.

Eric

[JONA878]

Always leave a leader and limb up. Topping ruins the shape of the tree and the branches that grow will often be weaker.

I HIGHLY disagree. IMHO if it is an ornamental tree then leave a central leader but if you pruned a peach like that and did not maintain an open vase style (which you can not do if you have a central leader) then you will have more problems with disease, less fruit, etc. If you plant to always keep a tree lets say below 10 feet then you have to top it to maintain that.

I think that there is quite a difference in the way a peach and an apple are best trained.
As RA says a peach is better on a bowl shape pruning because of the way the tree itself grows. The cropping wood is kept much closer to the main branch structure ....rather like a grape vine in some respects. So the more 'main branches' you can get on a tree , the better the cropping rate and the bowl shape gives you the room to grow such branches.. That's also why they prove such super trees to grow as fans on walls and under glass.
Apples on the other hand are more accommodating to either style of growing although the bowl/vase/ style takes longer to come into full crop because of the need to remove so much wood at the start of the training.

Virtually all modern commercial growers of apples now use a high worked centre leader method.
This is purely for several reasons. The crop comes more quickly. Easier and quicker to prune and control.
Better light and much easier to get good spray coverage. Easier picking and a lot less ladder work...( although larger farms use picking train methods nowadays where a lot of the harvesting is done from mobile platforms.)

I think in a garden setting the bowl shape tree is a much more attractive tree, but the centre leader tree takes up so much less room so allowing more trees to the area.