how does home depot 'hold' bare root stock????

as always.. with bigboxstore.. great bargain.. hope for the best ... keep receipt handy ...

ken

From the Dave Wilson site - make sure the smallest of the varieties is planted facing South to give it the best chance of staging a comeback.

Andrew

I planted the cherry one yesterday. the roots were enclosed in plastic bag filled with moist wood shavings. Yes, I will keep that receipt.

Home Depot does bring in bare root stock in Jan-Mar and they say that during dormant plant season bare root plants survive as long as roots are kept a bit moist.

Few retail nurseries around here stock anything bare root anymore, with the except of those gosh-awful dead to nearly dead twigs and roots in display boxes that they bring into the hot, dry stores in February. Poor doomed things never stand a chance, really, most will be dead long before it would be safe to plant them outside here in mid-May.

I'm guessing what you have is from Pacific Groves. They seem to have the early stock for bare root here in CA and I've seen it at Lowes, HD, Summer Winds. I am holding out until Dave Wilson bare roots show up in a week or two. I noticed Pacific Groves had a lot of "Ultra-Dwarf" varities which is one reason I passed. But for that price and HD's 1 year guarantee I can see why you purchased it. Post pics when it leafs out....

I have bought Dave Wilson apple trees at Home depot in the past and they are doing great. My only concern for you is that your cherry tree isn't made for Corona's climate. I'm afraid that you won't get enough chill hours, most of your varieties require 700-800 chill hours; but then again it's worth a try for $20.00. I live in Orange County where I grow low chill cherries like Royal Lee & Minnie Royal which only need at least 200 chill hours.

Actually the bare-root trees I have gotten from Home Depot have been great, surprisingly. I think it may just be a California thing. Every year there are different varieties (last year Snow Queen nectarine was big, the year before I got both a nice Loring and Gold Dust peach, which have grown big and strong) and many of their bareroots are nicely branched and up to an inch diameter, and can look better than those at the nursery. I haven't had a bad tree yet!
Lowe's on the other hand, always has the same ol' boring varieties, year after year, and they always look a little anemic. I would have to get a serious discount to buy a Lowe's tree!
(It goes without saying that you want to buy when they first come out, and not the ones that have been sitting in their little plastic bags in the blazing sun!)

Carla in Sac

What temperature do you consider Chill hours? is it Low 40's, high 30's or down right low 30's which gets into freezing? I always wondered about it. We got decent chilling for 3-weeks in CA in Dec where lows hit low 30's and highs were high 50's, not sure if that is range or chilling.

Weather in Southern California has turned more like spring now, highs in upper 60's to low 70's and lows into low to mid 40's.

I am now in two minds. there is no way I am going to try 4 in One cherry where most these require 700 or more chilling hours. I dont want to wait for few years to see what happens. Life is too short. I might consider returning the plant back to HD over the weekend.

Check this link out from UC Davis.

It's chill hours for the current season (cumulative, and a bit over half way through). See which one of these stations you are closest too. Some areas will have plenty of chill hours (at least this year, I'm not sure how to look up previous years)

Here is a link that might be useful: CA Chill hours

You start earning chill hours at 45 degrees and below. The UC Davis link above is what I also go by. I live just a mile from Irvine and so far I have gotten 232 chill hours. UC Riverside is probably the closet to you on the list and they are only at 205 so far. I would return it and try to find a good nursery near you and pick up a Minnie royal and a royal lee. I got mine for $29.00 ea. from the Green Thumb nursery in Lake Forest which isn't too far from you if you take the 91 fwy to the 241.

Where I live it gets quite cold, actually coldest area of South Corona up on the hills. I can assure you that 3-weeks in Dec alone got us well more than Irvine, Temperature here is about 8 degrees cooler than OC in winters and about 8 degrees warmer in summer.

Regardless, I will return it, no way we are going to hit 400-600 when I need about 900

Yanked out the Cherry 4In1 and replaced it with 4in1 apple. Will return the Cherry tomorrow and get something else.