curious why you ordered trees from CA.
Aren't you based in NY. Were they hard to find varities?

I went and picked up 70 trees from ACN this year. Its is amazing how nice they were. They had more roots than those I have had shipped from them in the past and some with the rootball were 8 feet tall. Over half of the apples were bigger and more branched than the whips I planted last year.

Maybe someone should contact Dave Wilson about the mud this place is throwing on their good name.

I got only one CA tree this year and it was a bit on the small side, but the roots were excellent. It was from Fowler. The reason for ordering from CA nurseries for us easterners is selection, in particular for stone fruits - I bet 80% of my stone fruit trees have come from CA.

Scott

For me, west coast trees and other stock have consistently been hit or miss. I have never been anything but impressed w/ACN.

Brook

Always been happy with the trees I bought from Raintree on the W Coast. But the tree I just got from Cummins was the best ever. Roots and more roots.

I absolutely hate getting trees in the mail. Good nursery or bad it's always a risk. I got one this year from Cummins that had two branches right next to each other on one side of the trunk, and all other buds below rubbed off. And nothing appropriate above for a leader. I'm embarrassed to admit that I tossed it away, never did that before. The other two trees from Cummins were whips and were OK. The next day I drove over to One Green World for a replacement, although I couldn't get the rootstock I wanted, M26 would suffice. Normally, you take what they give you, but this time I demanded a whip with buds intact and I wanted to see it before paying for it. They complied and I got what I wanted.

I know what you mean about height and root, but I don't think it hurts anything. Stark used to seem like they pruned off all the feeder roots. My trees from back then have done just fine and the 2 dwarfs had fruit very early.
Lately their roots have been much better, but now I've heard they are prepruning all trees (I've never thought their prepruning was any good). If I ever have to order trees again I hope I remember that to request otherwise because I prefer unpruned whips so I can train them how I want.

The trees were a Tomcot ap., Goldust peach, and that very late peach Scott recommended. I get most of my trees wholesale, mostly from ACN but I just had to try these varieties.

As far as not missing roots, I find that with apples it's not so important because mostly they generate new roots when very young but with peaches and probably apricots this little root means I'll have to wait longer to try these new varieties.

For all of you who ordered trees from ACN, don't expect to always get such big trees, last season was exceptionally good for growth of irrigated trees on the east coast.

I believe west coast nurseries bud their rootstocks during summer and then sell them after the new growth they get with the remainder of the season so even with their longer season they produce smaller trees. A lot of the Tenessee nurseries that sell small cheap trees do the same.

Harvestman, you may have seen this in an earlier thread, but Peaceful Valley sell 5/8-3/4", 4' DW stock with very large root systems, although their selection is somewhat limited. I've ordered a total of over 35 trees in 5 separate orders over 5 years and the quality has been consistent.

I only purchased three DWN trees this season. All three were cherry trees. All three were on the small side 5/8" diameter 4' tall trees not including the rootstock with nice root systems. Not horrible but not the 3/4"+ 4-5' trees I have received in the past. DWN sells trees wholesale in bundles of 5-10 in 5/8"-, 3/4"+. Peaceful Valley buys the larger trees. I like PV a lot but unless you are buying 10 trees and getting the free shipping the cost is prohibitive. I mean its $ 29.95 to ship 1-9 trees and free to ship 10 during their yearly sale. There is no way I am going to pay $ 29.99 to ship 1-3 trees.

Harvestman I would bet DWN did not send the trees to that nursery the way that nursery sent them to you. If I was sent trees like that I would ask for a refund.

I won't ask them for a refund because I'm sure they'll grow and they probably thought they were doing the right thing but I'll not order from them again. I wouldn't have in the first place if I didn't want these particular varieties.

Thanks for the tip on Peaceful Valley, but do they carry the full line of DW trees?

Peaceful Valley used to only carry a couple but every year they have been adding more as their business has picked up. Another place to get DWN from is Sanhedrin, and the stone fruits from Trees of Antiquity are mostly DWN (or at least they used to be).

Scott

harvestman I don't think any nursery orders the full line of DWN trees. If given enough time you can order wholesale and chose which rootstock you want the scions grafted to. Peaceful Valley has decided to only carries DWN trees on Semi-dwarf rootstock's which is why I did not buy from them this year along with their shipping costs. In the desert I prefer a Full Standard rootstock.

A few years ago DWN did not have the link to their wholesale price list blocked. I found the prices to be amazingly cheap. However if memory serves the minimum order required was prohibitively large and you had to order a minimum of 5 of each variety/rootstock combination you chose.

If you are not ordering wholesale you cannot have trees custom grafted but they do have a 'Special Order Fruit Tree' order list with their most popular selections. They have a list of named participating nurseries. However I have found that most nurseries that sell DWN grown trees will order the trees for you if you get the order to them in time even if they are not on the list of participating nurseries at the DWN site.

Here is a link that might be useful: DWN Special Order Fruit Tree form with suggested retail prices.

this is the reason i graft all my own trees....By doing so I get the variety i want on the rootstock i want..ive done over 100 trees this year so far and all have taken thinking of doing a little custom grafting around here if there turns out to be a market for it.

All my DWN trees bought at my local nurseries have been pretty big, except my peaches, which were smaller. I chatted with one of the local nursery owners where I purchased about 6 of the trees and I thought it was interesting that they always make sure the get their peaches on Nemaguard instead of Citation because they feel that for our area, the peaches really need the added vigor of Nemaguard. My Stark Saturn Donut especially, and my August Pride were both noticeably smaller than my other stone fruit I bought. There are still nice little trees, though. And I bought everything potted up, as I didn't have my area ready, yet, for bare root. Next year, I'm going to use DWN's special order program to get the more unusual varieties I might still want to add. But, if things continue the way they're going for my local nurseries that carries DWN (Ganter Nursery, Vista, CA and Bonita Creek Nursery, Bonita, CA), I may not need to - both have significantly increased their annual orders because they are constantly selling out. The nanage at Ganter's told me this was the 3rd year they've significantly increased their order due to running out the year before. I think that's kind of cool. I wonder if folks are looking more to grow their own fruit and investing in fruit tree with the economy being the motivating factor? I know for me, it's why I put in 7 different avocado varieties - was somewhat horrified to pay $1.89 an avocado when I live in the "land of avocados"!

Patty S.

"Another place to get DWN from is Sanhedrin"

Imagine that was the nursery Hman was referring to since they were the only ones selling Gold Dust this year.

I liked the DWN trees I got from them. They were small compared to two year old trees from other nurseries, but I like small peach trees. I even requested small peach trees from Adams County this year (as is my normal practice) and they knocked the price back to $19.95 (incl. shipping) for 3/8" trees.

I like smaller peach trees because I can start the scaffolds lower. Too many times larger peach trees will only have live buds too high on the trunk for my liking.

Obviously, the disadvantage to smaller trees is they may be slower to come into full production. However, this hasn't been an issue for me, as our season here is pretty long. That coupled with our extremely fertile soil, and plenty of rain means even the smallest peach tree takes off like a rocket.

If I just didn't have to battle the diseases, insects, frosts, and hail, I'd have it made.

Hoosier, almost all the trees I ever get are 1-year trees- the smaller trees tend to be the runts of the litter and don't have as much stored energy to push off with. Buds should still be alive low in the tree if you simply cut the tree to the height you want to start the trees at. Maybe the nursery trees you're talking about have been held and grown larger by the nurseries you buy them from.

The nursery replied promptly and thoroughly to my complaint and offered me a 50% refund and the additional 50% if they didn't establish well. I didn't take them up on the offer but thanked them for their response. I know how hard it is to run a small nursery business.

They said they ship in small boxes because it becomes too expensive to ship in larger. They suspect larger companies may get a discount for volume putting them at a disadvantage.

I suggested they offer a "premium" tree at a slightly higher price in a larger box.

thisisme, I agree about the single shipping charge at PV being frustrating if you just want a few trees. It has caused me to buy way too many trees on occasion (or maybe they just provide yet another excuse to do so). Although, in my opinion, if you can justify getting about 6 then $24 shipped from the west coast for such large trees is still a pretty good deal (just not a steal at the 10 shipped for $199 price). Your post also had me rethinking the height I originally posted, which should have been 4-5'. I'm also fortunate that, although they don't offer rootstock choices, their default SD selections (m111, citation, colt, oHxF333, etc.) have done really well in my loamy red clay so far.

Nope, not held. They're been topped (by DWN) when they were whips, and I am sure they are the leftover bare roots that the nursery potted up. Not sure how things work in other areas of the country, but just about all of our nurseries will cut off bare root fruit tree sales by March, and then they pot everything up, just like bare root roses. And if you buy a newly potted up BR tree, the nursery will recommend you leave the tree in the pot until about May, so the tree can better establish the root system, before you disturb it to plant it. I have all my trees sort of lined up in an open area of my yard right now, getting ready to go into the lower part of my yard, so I can kind of compare them in size. Did the same thing in the nursery, and I did notice that the peach trees seemed smaller and a little less vigorous in their growth habit than other stone fruit trees. Especially my Stark. They only had 3 Stark left (kind of a novelty tree and popular here), and all 3 were noticeably smaller. Maybe they were the last 3 and the smallest of their stock. But, it's doing very well, just a wee bit smaller than all the other stone fruits. They are defintely leafing out nicely, just smaller. Interesting that my cherry trees are kind of monsterous compared to all the other stone fruits! Wow. And, it sounds like the nursery is really trying to make amends. And your suggestion to them is a good one - offer a larger premium tree with an explanation of why it is more expensive due to the increased shipping charges.

Patty S.