Taiji
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Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

When to plant my potted apple trees?

I bought some apple trees yesterday on sale in 5 and 7 gallon containers. I forgot to ask the people at the nursery if I should plant them now in the ground, or wait until winter dormancy. They all still have their leaves. What do you all think? I was thinking if I plant now, the roots will have some time to get established before winter?

JONA
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Providing they come straight out of the pot with all the soil it would be ok to plant now.
What you don't want is for the soil to fall off and leave a lot of bare root.
If the roots are tightly bound round then just tease a few out to get them to grow away quickly.

tomc
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Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

I planted mine last week in SE-OH.

Taiji
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Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

Good to know thx, I think they'll come out of the pots intact if I don't water them for a day or two. I'll be cautious when taking them out though and see what's going to happen.

I bought a Fuji, a Macintosh, and a Prairie Fire crabapple.

CharlieBear
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Jona's advice assumes that you have the holes predug so that the roots will dry out a little as possible. Be sure that those new trees get at least 5 gallons of water each/week at least until the leaves are all gone. If your area is wind prone then I would also stake them and tie them to the stake with something stretchy like ripped T-shirt or fruit tape (usually green tape that has a lot of stretch to it). You will have to change it from time to time even so, to prevent any possibility of the tape growing into the bark and hurting the tree. Many people use 3 stakes with looser ties to keep the tree in place for several years.

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Francesco Delvillani
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If they are in pot is not a problem to plant them also in this period.....moreover we're in fall, soon they'll lose their leaves and will become dormant :)

Taiji
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Location: Gardening in western U.P. of MI. 46+ N. lat. elev 1540. zone 3; state bird: mosquito

Yes, thanks. The holes will definitely be ready before the root balls ever come out of the pot! 5 or 10 seconds max in the air hopefully. Good advice about the stakes though, we do have bouts of strong wind around here, especially in spring.
The 5 gallons of water advice is good; I noticed at this new property the soil drains rather quickly, I may even up that amount a bit.

CharlieBear
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you might have to. 5 gallons is a generalization for all soil types, in reality if you are dealing with fairly sandy soil the amount will be more. Also, that amount is an at least, if it is very hot you might also need more.



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