i presume .. being planted only 2 months.. you have a full warranty??

what does the seller say ...

put him on notice that you expect a replacement FOR FALL PLANTING ... or delivery of a new one come next spring ...

transplant do weird things... it MIGHT.. just maybe.. leaf out .. but i wouldnt bet the farm on it.. being the farmboy and all... lol..

ken

I bought it at a Menard's, so it has a full 1 year warranty. Asking their clerks what to do is pretty much useless. That's why I have the smaller one as a back up.

I was interesting in what the more knowledgeable than I folk on this board would say about how long one should wait before it either leafs out or starts dying.

vince

The top should have been balanced with the small root system it came with.

Yes, it would have been nice to have a large root mass, but I couldn't find that out until I unpotted it and untied the burlap. I like taking chances....

IMHO,
Take advantage of that warranty. I got some bare root Scarlet and White Oak a couple years ago, from which 1 or 2 had trouble breaking dormancy, and then only pushed 1-2 buds in JULY of a hot year. But these had better root systems than you describe, and I did not need them immediately, so I could wait. Had they been planted in my yard, I certainly would have removed them, especially if they basically had no roots.

One possibility as to what could be happening is that the signal to start bud growth comes from the roots, so you simply may not have enough root left to trigger growth of the buds. But even if you do, there may not be enough stored nutrients, sugars, etc to support bud growth, which means eventual complete death of all tissues. Side note FYI, it is the terminal buds of the shoots that trigger root growth. It's how tree balance canopy mass vs root mass.

Arktrees

Ark,

Thanks for your very informative post. I have most of the warranty left, so that's not a problem.

Your mention of how the signal to start bud growth comes from the roots makes sense, and it may not have enough roots to trigger the further growth of the buds, or the signal to start the buds came from the initial stock, and the roots from the air layer, etc. aren't able to further the signal. That would make sense why it seems to be alive but not finishing budding out.

I'll give it a couple more weeks, and if no change, replace it.

Thanks again for your very detailed and informative post!

vince

Vince, I transplanted a hickory fall/winter of 2011/2012. The trunk and branches stayed green like yours through most of summer of 2012 while the buds never popped open. Eventually, the stems and trunk turned brown so I made a basal cut at ground level and forgot about.

Guess what sprouted a clump of hickory stems this spring? I forgot to mark it before the lawn guy (my nephew who works for CHEAP!) mowed last time so the stems are gone. I really wanted to see watch that one, too...

So I guess moral of the story is, if my hickory were a grafted variety like yours, the sprouts would have been rootstock and the expensive part up top would have been dead and gone and the warranty would have been taken advantage of.

John

Duplicate post

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Thu, Jun 13, 13 at 14:00