A good nursery will ship at what they consider the proper planting time for your zone. It will also tell you what they consider this time to be.

A very good nursery will also let you specify the shipping time.

It's best to order in advance, after the nursery opens its new season. This way you don't risk them running out of the variety you want.

The real question isn't when to order, though, it's when to plant. And that is when your ground is ready to dig. May is late for planting fruit trees, although if the nursery is good, the trees will be shipped dormant, bare root, and they'd probably survive.

Yeah you don't need to wait till the last frost with trees, you need to wait until you can work the ground. Here in zone 6a our last frost was about April 25th. I do not put plants out till May 1st. Twice now when i put out early they got hit. So no more! But I planted trees March 20th this year, and they are doing great! I was worried because they were coming out of dormancy when they arrived from CA. March is super late for a CA nursery to send trees, but they waited for me. I emailed MSU about planting them iin March and they said yes by all means plant them if the ground is workable. Anyway the trees went back into dormancy and came out at the proper time and had a great season. So if I were you i would shoot for April 15th as a good planting time for bare root trees. Frost means nothing. 30 days before the last frost your ground should be workable. And so anytime between April 15th and May 15th is a good time for your zone. Earlier or later is not ideal, but trees will survive.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 13:38

Thanks guys! So I need to get my hands on some catalogs and start researching.. I just don't know if i'm too early to order fruit trees, or too late.. I just want my choice picks, instead of getting the leftovers..

So plant around april-may. But can someone, perhaps someone in my climate, give me a rough time on when to order the trees? Of course, soon as possible, but when is that?

"Of course, soon as possible, but when is that?"

The sooner the better. Now is good!
I probably will wait till January because I need money for Christmas, some bill you now, some bill when they ship, most bill you now. I can't afford it this month. If I could I would order now. The nurseries we mentioned, most of them have online catalogs, Google the names. I actually have never ordered any trees from hard copy.

Another online store fruit tree farm has 70 varieties of peach trees.

Drew, you are very helpful, thanks! I think we all can relate with the money... Ok so now i know when to order them.. I just need to know what to order(rootstock,scion).. I have clay soil...

The catalogs or websites should say when they are open for orders for the upcoming season. Something like "for 2014 planting".

Think the beginning of January.

A good nursery will tell you what rootstocks their trees are on and what kind of soils they're suited for. In fact, this is one way to tell a good nursery. Places that just list the trees as "dwarf" or whatever are not the best nurseries.

"A good nursery will tell you what rootstocks their trees are on and what kind of soils they're suited for. In fact, this is one way to tell a good nursery. Places that just list the trees as "dwarf" or whatever are not the best nurseries."

Very good advice I am already aware of. Instead of just getting one opinion from the nursery im ordering from, I would like more opinions. I know some of you are experts, just wanted to see what you guys would say..

What rootstock would you use in Zone five, NE Ohio,clay soil? Keep in mind im planting(apple,pear,cherry, peach, nectarine).. Also, i understand that there are different rootstocks per fruit... Maybe i should make an entire new post...

you need to research the appropriate rootstock(s) for each type of fruit. lots of nice tables if you do a little googling. Also decide if you want dwarf, semi-dwarf, or standard.

I am in central MN and have planted bare root stock trees from a few different nurseries with good success. My trees go in as soon after the ground has thawed as I can manage. there is so much to do in springtime it's one of the things you can do before just about anything else.

also, get a soil test and deal with the results appropriately.

you have a big (but fun) learning curve ahead of you.

Just a little different perspective, but I order my trees in July or Aug. the year before.

The reason is I've run into to several occasions where the nurseries were sold out of some cultivars I wanted.

For example, last year Adams sold out of TangOs in early Aug.

This summer I ordered them in June or July (for spring 2014).

What rootstock would you use in Zone five, NE Ohio,clay soil?

Well that depends on how you plan to grow trees. I don't know anything about apples. I don't have any and have avoided learning myself. I do want to add apples in about 5 years, so at that time I will see what the current advice is.
Peach rootstocks:
Lovell is good for your area. not to be used in sand. Clay is great. Citation can wok but shuts down with lack of water so is not drought tolerant. Likes clay or sand. I have both.
Halford is good too..
Lovell or citation can be used on plums too.
I want my cherry trees small so I use Gisela 5 rootstock.
I also have clay loam soil. Many other rootstocks are fine. Seems nurseries use regional varieties of rootstocks for peaches and other trees. The South uses Halford, the Midwest uses Lovell, and the west uses Citation. All work in clay and can be used in OH. Citation is semi dwarf rootstock but pruning more determines size than rootstock. I plan to keep my peaches to 8-10 feet no matter what rootstock.

olpea - good planning, but some websites make this difficult as they take the out-of-stock varieties off the site so you can't even look them up - an annoyance. Of course if you know your nursery and your variety, as I suspect you do, you can call and speak to them in person. A newcomer may want more guidance.

"Lovell is good for your area. not to be used in sand. Clay is great. Citation can wok but shuts down with lack of water so is not drought tolerant. Likes clay or sand. I have both.
Halford is good too..
Lovell or citation can be used on plums too.
I want my cherry trees small so I use Gisela 5 rootstock. "

Drew, this is the exact advice I was hoping one of you would so kindly "give" to me.. Thanks so much! I do not have any loam, basically all clay, and it doesn't drain too good.. I never did a drain test, so i couldnt tell you guys specifics. But, after a good rain, the water puddles on the suface.. I plan on growing them in somewhat high density, say around eight feet apart.. But i am still unsure to what is best for maximum yield and health of the trees..

Olpea- great advice.. I think i remember you from a couple years back on this forum.. Do you have acres, or a nice size orchard? If so, i second iltilton, a newcomer definitely wants a lot more guidance! Any tips at all would be helpful. Im trying to be as succesful as I could..

It's going to be hard to grow anything in pure clay, mostly from the drainage. You might want to consider mounding the trees, to make sure they drain. Raised beds are another option, but really not needed if on mounds.
Mulch them well, and plant when dry not when wet so you don't have a mucky mess. My soil has a layer of top soil, followed by clay so it drains OK, not great.
If mounding you could add some top soil, but you want the tree to grow in native soil, you can cause a "bath tub" effect. This is where the roots will not leave the good soil, and either will the water. Try to use native soil to make the mound.

I have clay soil, but i don't think it's as bad as you think.. There are several orchards and corn/soy fields just a few miles from my house, the leads me to the conclusion that my soil isnt that bad after all?? I was thinking about mounding/raised beds, but for two-threw dozen trees, i dont think its very cost effective..

Olpea does it and he has 300 trees, but if it passes the drain test, you don't have to.

"Olpea- great advice.. I think i remember you from a couple years back on this forum.. Do you have acres, or a nice size orchard? If so, i second iltilton, a newcomer definitely wants a lot more guidance! Any tips at all would be helpful. Im trying to be as succesful as I could.."

Yeah I've been on the forum for a few years. It's a recreational thing for me - more or less. I don't do Facebook, so this is sort of like a Facebook account for me. What I mean is that I post/read the forum like most folks post/read Facebook.

I've got a yard orchard and a very small (emphasize "very small") commercial orchard we started a couple years ago on a separate piece of property. I've been selling fruit from by backyard for about 5 years, as a part-time thing.

Drew's given you some solid advice. I would just really emphasize if your ground is clay and poorly drained, you need some sort of raised planting for your peaches.

I lost lots of peach trees early on to drowning/phytophthora/crown rot, or whatever you want to call it.

Any of the seedling peach rootstocks (Lovell, Halford, Bailey, Tenn. Nat., Guardian, Red Leaf) are going to perform the same on poor drained clay - crappy. Citation is a clonal plum rootstock and may perform a tad better on water-logged clay, but I prefer the seedling peach rootstocks if you can get your clay to drain (which is what you need to do).

I've tried a couple different methods to improve drainage. I installed field tile first (in my backyard). This drained a lot of sub-surface water away and peach trees quit dying, but still didn't really thrive.

I next started converting my backyard planting to mounds. This can be done by cutting and filling in your own yard (no need to haul in dirt, unless you really want a pristine looking yard). Some of the first mounds I built with just a wheel barrel and shovel. I decided I wanted bigger mounds (plus digging by hand is too hard on my back) so I rented equipment like a Dingo mini track loader (walk behind). I also built some with a skid steer.

When I started my new planting at the farm, I didn't even try to plant the peaches without making a raised planting first. I bought a blade (i.e. motor grader) to build terraces to plant on top of. This should give you an idea how strongly I feel about planting peaches in a raised planting in this area. Here's a pic (in the background) of the terraces and me standing on the road blade (I've since sold it.) The pic is a little deceiving because the terraces are bigger than they look. They are 11' wide by about 3.5' tall. Your raised planting doesn't need to be near that big. Any size raised planting is bound to help some.

This post was edited by olpea on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 16:35

I like to listen to gardening pod casts, and on last Sunday's show Farmer Fred had a tree specialist and he said mounds are the way to go for all trees. I myself have not mounded any, but from now on I'm going to. Also amending in any way seems to be bad. But I can think of one exception. This guy in California had the worst clay soil I have even seen. His almond trees didn't mind it, but his walnut trees did not take at all. He amended the soil, and they did take off. Although long term they might girdle themselves. The post was on the DWN nut forum.