Just be patient. As long as it is green there is a good chance it will come to life. You only need one bud from the scion and you can make a tree out of it.

The Fruitnut

Thank you. It is so hard to look at those bare branches when all the other trees are so full of green leafs.

Some specimens don't make it through the bare-rooting process in very good shape, none appreciate it much but this may be more of a problem with stone fruits than those like apple and pear trees. Bare-rooted stock is basically big cuttings that have to re-grow their feeder roots before the top can grow normally again, the first summer after planting the top is dwarfed. New roots come out of the cut root ends in spring, after the overwintering buds on the branch ends open. But these don't grow long enough to restore the vigor of the top growth. That happens after the new set of dormant terminal buds at the ends of the branches is set in fall - at which time 60% of root elongation for the whole year also occurs.

If your apricot does not bud out and produce leaves then there is definitely a more serious problem than normal. Especially if it came out of bins at a local outlet somebody may have let it dry out, around here shoppers often pull out the one the want and leave any others that may have come with it sitting out on the path or floor.

The roots were wrapped up with sawdust of some sort and put in a plastic bag, just like all the other trees I bought. I bought 5 different trees at the same store and at the same time. All the other trees are doing well.

My guess is it somehow lost too much energy (dried out, got fungus, who knows). I had that happen on several peaches and even though the bark stayed green the whole summer they never budded. They died the next spring. So I am not too optimistic, but don't dig it up yet.

Scott

Since I posted a while ago about my White Heath peach doing exactly the same thing, this makes me very sad. It is still a "stick in the mud" today, with the bark still green.

Does anyone with experience grafting peaches think grafting a branch of my White Heath stick onto a happy peach tree will work?

Carla in Sac

You buried it too deep. If you can't see the top roots sticking out of the ground, you've buried too deeply.