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How to overwinter a baby apple tree

sparky_10
9 years ago

Last winter was the 3rd coldest on record for the Cedar Rapids IA area. I was given 10 tiny baby blue spruce sprigs, and they all died. This Spring I managed to grow, from a seed, a Fuji apple tree to 2' high! It is healthy and happy I hope to keep it that way.

It is currently in the 10" pot I grew it in. Should I plant it and hope for the best? Put it in my sunny but cool basement? If it's best to plant it, anything special I could do to protect it?

I can bring it into the house, but what it best?

Comments (10)

  • Huggorm
    9 years ago

    The basement might be good, especially if it is just above freezing there. Otherwise plant it in the ground, that is much better than keeping it in the pot outside all winter.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    apples need dormancy.. plant it... BARE ROOT .. outside ...

    do not plant it with the potting media ....

    anything described as a blue spruce SPRIG .. was probably dead on planting ...

    we had a z4 winter in my z5 MI ... which is very similar to IA ... on my 20 or so picea pungens... NO DAMAGE ...

    i doubt your winter had anything to do with the losses ...

    see link for proper planting ... do it as soon as the leaves fall off... or right now.. and expect the leaves to fall off... as they should in fall ...

    ken

    Here is a link that might be useful: link

  • sparky_10
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thank you for the replies, and the helpful link, Ken!

    My basement is heated, stays in the low 60's. Is that temp too high?

    Please tell me why not to plant it in the potting media.

  • ilovemytrees
    9 years ago

    Because you don't plant trees and shrubs in the ground with potting soil. Potting soil is specifically, only for container plants. If you plant anything in the ground using potting soil they will die.

    When you plant outside, you use your native soil, what's already in the ground. You don't mix it with anything else.

    And no, 60 degrees is WAY too warm for dormancy. Plants go dormant in the winter for a reason, because it's cold! Well, there are other reasons too, but we're talking about temps needed for dormancy.

    Just plant it outside like Ken said.

    I did though, once, leave a baby sugar male tree, that my daughter grew from seed, on our covered front porch. It did fine. It was still in the container it was planted in, and I put the container in a box and shoved blankets around in between the container and the box it was in. See, when plants are in the ground their roots are better protected from the harsh temperatures. When the roots are in a container they are exposed to those temps, because the roots are above ground, albeit in a container.

  • laceyvail 6A, WV
    9 years ago

    Apples are always grafted because they do not come true from seed. Are you growing this just as an experiment? Because you're not going to get a Fuji apple tree.

  • akamainegrower
    9 years ago

    First, be aware that grown from seed you're not going to get a Fuji apple or at least the chances are very, very slim. Named apple varieties are grafted or budded onto an understock. They will not come true from seed. If that doesn't matter and you want to grow it anyway, fine. Who knows what you might get!

    I'd also suggest that allowing the tree to go dormant in its pot, then moving it to a protected place indoors where it will stay dormant until spring is a safer course than planting it out now in your climate. If you have no suitable place indoors, sink the pot into the ground in a sheltered place outdoors.

    The iron dogmatism of not planting anything with potting soil around the roots because it will kill the plant is simply untrue. Millions of pot grown trees, shrubs, perennials are planted every year without the potting mixture being washed off. They do not all suddenly croak. In fact, putting an apple tree or anything else into a properly prepared planting area with minimal disturbance of the roots will result in quicker establishment than the techniques advocated above.

  • ilovemytrees
    9 years ago

    I never said to wash off the tiny bit of potting soil that would be around a baby apple tree's roots. That little bit wouldn't harm anything.

    I was talking about planting this tree, as well as all trees, using native soil, as in not purposely amending the soil with potting soil. Especially if one has clay soil, that would be a disaster!

    Native soil is best, that isn't dogmatic, that's a fact! If someone's native soil isn't best, then the person is planting the wrong tree for their area.

    Either use native soil, or amend your entire planting area with potting soil. Those are your two choices...

  • sparky_10
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Well crapola and boogers! Yes, I really want a Fuji apple tree. And here I've been trying to decide what other apple variety to plant to cross pollinate.

    *stomping my feet*

    I don't want to wait 10 to 15 years to learn I've got a Red Delicious tree. Boring!

    Thank you, everyone, for the lessons. Now I will simply plant it outside and let nature take it's course. Rats!

  • akamainegrower
    9 years ago

    There are still trees and shrubs sold bare root as well as balled and burlapped. I'd estimate, however, that at least 80% of the nursery stock sold in North America today is pot grown in soil-less, peat based media. The stuff in the bags at the garden center labeled "potting soil" can be just about anything - finally ground earth from feedlots, stripped topsoil with sand added, for example. It's basically useless junk. No commercial growers use it. Instead they use consistently blended and tested media such as ProMix, Sunshine Mix and a number of others. Some big growers blend their own, but test constantly to insure consistent results.

    Native soils, unless they are very unusual - much higher in humus content than is normal, very sandy/gravelly for example - are not automatically suitable for plants which have spent life in a porous, well aereated soil-less medium. The difference is too great. The roots will be very reluctant to leave the easy living of the peat mix and venture out into the usually low humus, high clay, poor in oxygen native soil. They won't all die but they will sulk for a long time before becoming established.

    I am aware of the studies that purport to show that soil amendment is unnecessary and counter productive. These need to be interpreted with care. What was the tree/shrub growing in before planting? What was the nature of the native soil? What species of tree or shrub was involved? What, if any, "hormones" or other chemicals were used?

    Sweeping generalities are usually inaccurate. Some species of trees and shrubs will establish easily in even the worst native soil without much trouble. Others - magnolias, Japanese maples, rhododendron and other ericacea come to mind - most definitely won't.

    Too small holes in water retentive clay soil can "drown" - actually, lack of oxygen is the real problem - plants for sure. Wide, shallow planting areas amended with coarse material such as bark, compost, etc. supports the microbial life many plants depend on. It remains. imho, a much better, if more labor intensive, method. If we are gardeners rather than land reclaimers, municipalities working with ever decreasing budgets, plantation foresters putting 1000's of trees a day into the ground, we ought to be able to do what's best rather than what's quickest and cheapest.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    The iron dogmatism of not planting anything with potting soil around the roots because it will kill the plant is simply untrue.

    ==>>>

    i suggest planting... bare root ... because... if you dont.. you add a variable ... and for every variable you add ... [like treating the tree like a baby and wanting to keep it indoors, etc] .... you simply complicate the trees life in mother earth ...

    it may be a problem ... and it might not ... but why complicate things ... all it leads to.. is worry .... if of course.. you are aware of the risk .... and now you are ....

    Well crapola and boogers! ==>>> sparky.. sparky.. sparky.. such language... you made me laugh out loud ...

    anyway ... there is a very active fruit forum ... and they can probably recommend a mail order joint wherein you could buy your dream tree... for around 30 bucks.. or so ... delivered to your house.. in prime planting season ... in april or so .. fully dormant.. bare root .. and ready to take off ...

    and within 2 or 3 years.. you ought to get your first apple ...

    ask for it for xmas .. or some such ...

    we can help you plant it.. in spring... or if i gave you the link above... you are all set.. if you can find the link when you need it.. lol ...

    you have just proven ... looking from the bright side ... that you can grow a tree from seed ... some peeps cant even do that ... and now... your opportunities are unlimited ... as long as you dont want predictable fruit ... lol ...

    ken