So I take it they had sat in those boxes for a long time? Not good.

My two orders from ACN and Raintree came a few days ago. Everything was very dormant.

I received an order from Schlabachs once and was satisfied, but that's been several years ago.

Here I rarely get mail order trees that are completely dormant. Almost always buds have broken in the box. It happens with such regularity, I've come to expect it. They always do fine for me, but I plant them right away.

This season I got trees from ACN that had about an 1/8" of growth in the box. Vanwell's trees had about the same amount of growth. The trees from Raintree were completely dormant.

I got one apple tree from Vintage Virgina apples and was very disappointed. That tree was pushing about 1" of growth out of the box, but that's not the part that bothered me. I ordered and paid extra for a two year apple. They sent me a 3/8" whip. I paid a whopping $32 for the tree, plus another $20 in shipping and they didn't keep their end of the deal. I sent them an email and got no response. Sadly, I going to give them a negative review on the Website that reviews nurseries.

I called Schlabachs and asked them to send my spring order
asap due to the warm weather. I got it last Tuesday. Two
honeycrisp apple trees on the rootstock I requested. The trees were very nice and still dormant.

This is my 3rd or 4th time ordering from them personally and also two commmercial orders. I have been extremely pleased on the apples, cherries and grapevines I have received in the past. I did get a plum once that was cut back to 3' (not sure why). It looked like a broomstick. I planted it and it grew well too.

I will continue to buy from them. Great selection at a very reasonable price. I suspect the warm weather they had
this spring is limiting how long their cold storage can
keep the trees dormant. I am not sure if they have refrigerated storage or just an insulated barn for cold storage. I can speak from experience working at a nursery
that this is a difficult spring for anyone harvesting plants
and getting them shipped out dormant.

Used to be Adam's trees came out of refrigeration and I'd intentionally order them before planting time just so they'd almost be ready to grow once they went in the ground. Now,not so much, but their trees weren't as far along as the few I received from Van Well. Actually most of the Adam's trees were just barely out of dormancy, showing a bit of green.

For some reason, trees I order from the west tend to be further along-whether from Van Well, C+O or Fowlers. However, it hasn't stopped them from growing well. They would have to be pretty far along to greatly reduce root growth the first year, and that's what you worry about.

Not to suggest that the other complaints aren't reason for concern. I prefer my Asians on Bet. Seems to give them more vigor than OHXF.

I received my order last week and was very satisfied,everything as expected. I have been buying trees and grapes from Schlabaughs from the time that they were here in Ohio and have never had a problem. I've visited their nursery in NY and they do not have a cooler. They cut ice from their lake and stack it in a well insulated building. I was their in June and they still had ice. I'm sure that they will make your order right, if possible. They are a very honorable family.

I ordered a few Asian pears, peach and sour cherry from the Schlabach last year for the first time. All trees arrived dormant and in good shape. They all grew well. I ordered from them again this year and asked that the trees be shipped to me mid April so I'll get them soon. We'll see. This year the weather in March was very warm/weird.

They refunded me money I overpaind. I did not even know that I did. Very honest,indeed.

Probably they were short on ice this year. No winter- at least not until April.

I'm not familiar with Schlabach but I am concerned about the Ashmead Kernal that I ordered from Cummins, the total amount of root was about 2 feet whereas the top was at least twenty feet total for the trunk and 5-6 branches.
I may express my concern with them. Do I need to remove about half of the limbs to increase its balance and odds for growth?
Dan

Dan, yes, I'd remove a good bit of the top growth when planting anyway. I just received 48 trees from Cummins and was very pleased with about 40 of them. One or two were lacking in root growth and a handful were very small diameter whips. I don't really blame them for that because I'd rather get smallish trees in the varieties and rootstocks that I ordered rather than having them substitute a larger/nicer tree on a different rootstock.

A one year apple tree usually pushes out most of its new root from the crown and not by extension of existing roots. Many Canadian commercial growers have long removed all existing root besides the "carrot" when installing new trees, presumably without measurable set back. This simplifies mechanical installation considerably.

Reducing branches should not generally be thought of as a balancing act, because research doesn't show a correlation between their removal and quicker establishment of transplanted trees. I make an exception of pears in hot climates on this one- but this is based on hearsay and anecdotal observation.

On apples I would remove oversized branches only- certainly anything exceeding half the diameter of the trunk at point of attachment. I do this no matter what the condition of the roots to assure dominance of the leader and to give room to the branches that I may end up keeping.

Branches have stored energy that can be used for root development.

I just called and they are closed today for a funeral. Ill try again tomorrow. I received the trees on Tuesday afternoon. I took them out of the box Friday, planted Sat/ Sunday. Does not seem to be a very long time in the box. The Benton cherry I ordered looks great at least. Others look average or a bit below.

Has anyone else on the list ordered pears from Schlabachs and had the tag read "betulifolia"?

I got hold of them this morning. Apparently, they had a bit of an issue with "olympic" asian pear and had trees from somewhere else. The somewhere else did not use the Bet. rootstock, rather the old home farm garden.

The Kosui I ordered was tagged as "seedling" and I was told in fact the seedling is Bet. So at least that has the rootstock I wanted.

They are going to make things right though. I just hope my trees make it through this cold snap.

Dan