I'd think sawdust would be good. It can be worked down around the roots by hand or watering, stays moist, and has the right consistency. The trees can be pulled out yet have some support.

Hadn't even considered sawdust! I'm really only looking at how to separate out quantities, and be able to span my planting period over a week period. These poor barefoot trees often look dead when I get them that it seems like they need something done right away. At least you can get better variety and pricing with bare roots. ;)

They will be fine in the box for up to 3 weeks- at least if they are dormant when they arrive- apples and pears are generally fine that way.

I leave the box in the shade and re- rap the plastic after taking 20 or 30 trees at a time that I stick in water filled garbage "cans" while I plant.

It is only when the trees are pushing fine white root that you even need to be this careful- if they are dormant you can just throw them under a silver tarp as you plant them. A dormant tree does not have any roots that dry out very easily- the hair roots are already dead.

Agreed but a tub full of sawdust could be pretty handy.

This winter I planted many bareroot trees on Lovell. The soil was bone dry as I'd dug the holes many weeks earlier. Apparently I failed to water three trees because after all the others had 4 inches new growth these three were setting there just like I planted them. Pulled one out and it looked just as planted. After watering all three survived. Six weeks, no rain, bone dry soil, tougher than I thought they'd be.

I've read for years about dangers of roots drying out while planting. Maybe so but maybe over blown. And you guys out East don't know dry, 0.2 inches rain in 2014 to date.

Harvestman-Thanks for the advise. The reason I want to temporarily pot these up is actually more to sort them. The previous order, I ordered quantities of 10 of many different trees. I wanted the trees mixed up where I was planting. We grabbed about 5 of each tree at the beginning of the day, and at the end of that half of trees, I felt like I had not planted more than one of a couple varieties....then I didn't want the other 4 all planted in the same spot ;). So I am trying to fine-tune my process and think potting them up would help a lot ;)

I had a bunch of trees come in during mid winter. Whole box was frozen when it came out of the truck. I had to buy frozen potting soil at the local box store, thaw it in the greenhouse then temporarily pot them until the ground thawed enough to plant. After I potted them they refroze and stayed that way for at least a month. I now have them planted and they have all leafed out. Some were potted with 50% potting mix 50% potting soil. Some were just potted in peat moss itself.

If I get bare roots and can plant them within a week or so I will just keep them wet and wrapped up with plastic.

Jagchaser- I'm in NE too.I just got these trees last week and planted all 250 on Saturday. We were going to plant Thursday, but too much rain!so many of these nurseries ship way before we can plant here, so it would be nice to get the trees earlier and plant whenever the weather allows! I think a combination of aged sawdust, peat moss, and potting soil may be the way to go!

I ordered from ACN and Starks and both of those orders got here the first week in april. I might have been able to get them in the ground a week or so earlier but it wasn't a big deal. My order that showed up in Feb was from Peaceful valley in CA. That was way too early. The big orders all came in with shredded paper around the roots, so I don't see why sawdust or shredded paper wouldn't be fine for 3 weeks or so like harvestman said. As long as they don't warm up and don't dry out they will be fine dormant. I only used peat and potting soil because I knew they were going to refreeze, and I didn't have a place to store them where they wouldn't come out of dormancy.

Where are you in NE and what kinds of trees did you put in? Im South of Lexington about an hour. People here think Im crazy planting 200 trees, Im glad Im not alone! :)