Roots: How much do they matter?

                When we finally had figured out what trees we wanted and what trees would work for us

and then what trees we had room for we were finally able to start looking for those trees. We quickly realized though that we still had more to consider. One where would we find these trees? And two why is there so many root options and what does this information even mean…

                If you can find the tree you are looking for at your local tree nursery you are probably going to be bringing your new tree home in a pot. That’s how all plants come right? Well apparently not. We learned that there are 2 ways to buy trees bare root and potted. What is this bare-root thing im talking about? Well in short it means just that when you bring your tree home it just the tree with bare roots no pot and minimal to no dirt.

                The long answer reason trees come bare rooted is because they are much easier and cheaper to ship. But there are more long-lasting benefits then just that. The trees that are planted in your yard as bare root will take to your soil better they will have a stronger root system and live longer. They also tend to be cheaper. So why wouldn’t you always buy bare root trees?

                Well the catch is a bare root tree is hard to get from a basic gardening center (like Stuarts or Steins) you have to order them from a nursery and there are none of those near us so we had to order our trees from nurseries in other states. Then we had to wait weeks/months for our trees to come in. the other draw back to a bare root tree is that they take 1-3 years longer to start producing fruit.

                The next thing you will see is lots of rootstock types when you are looking for a tree bare root tree. This really stressed me out till I realized that information doesn’t mean anything to me. That information means little to nothing to most people unless you plan on graphing trees or starting your own nursery. In short for us (the people looking to just have some fresh fruit in the summer/fall) it doesn’t mean much more than the size your tree will grow and that’s the same as knowing if you are buying a dwarf, semi-dwarf or standard tree, and those three options are normally what you will find sellers advertising their trees as.