The instructions it came with said to soak its roots for a couple hours before planting (that'll probably be tomorrow morning) and then dig a hole, etc. It recommended against using any fertilizers or potting soil, but I'm wondering

==>>> do what they told you to do ... and dont love it to death dreaming up alternatives ...

you dont mention how big it is.. it might not hurt to grow it in a pot for this year.. and free it after dormancy in fall ... after its grown a bit more of a root mass ...

ken

It's about a foot long.

So still no potting soil even if it's in a pot? I never fertilize anything, so no concern there, but I do usually use potting soil in pots. So you would use the top soil and compost?

Here it is:

Use a fast draining potting media like 5-1-1 (recipe over at the container forum) in a 1 gal. pot.

Sun exposure should be limited until it gets acclimated and then partial sun/shade for the summer.

Plant in the Fall to it's permanent location.

Protect from rabbits, mice, deer and other animals that are cute but are not your friends for at least a few years.

if you have some media.. you can add a bit of cactus mix.. to increase drainage ....

pull he plastic back to the root flare at a min ...and open the bag so air can get in there ...

pot it immediately with some moistened media... if it will take you a few days to get the perfect media ... i would call that holding it over ...

and in the meantime.. i would have it outside in the cold.. its not a houseplant.. a forcing it out of dormancy in the warm house will not help ...

its a tree.. its wants a sip of water .... and full drainage.. and near drying before watering again ... it will not appreciate being wet all the time.. like a lot of houseplants might like.. thats is why you cut the houseplant media with something very chunky ... more air.. more drainage ... to the roots ...

ken

And don't use MG Cactus mix from the store. ime: The contents vary and frequently has way too much peat and fine sand in it to drain well and once watered, will stay wet for weeks, especially at the PWT. So don't add more peat based potting mixes, that would make it only worse.

There may be other brands of Cactus mix that are better, idk.

A container mix would be better but again ime: MG 'container mix' has a high percentage of peat and stays too wet for too long and would need some extra bark and perlite added before you could call it a good container mix.

And yes, place it in a protected spot so it doesn't get wind whipped or peed on by the dogs and cats.

Okay, I lied slightly ... tree is more like 6" and a lot of root ...

Bag is just how I got it ... mostly for transport, I think. Apparently that was the root flare ... and I just didn't know how tiny the tree was.

I've got Coast of Maine potting soil, top soil, aged compost (from out compost pile - tree company has previously mentioned that it's very good compost), and sphagnum moss and bark chunks that I use for my orchid. I have blueberry bushes in the CoM potting mix that do okay (other than not being fond of the current weather ... my bad on getting the wrong variety)

Its pot can sit under the red maple ... our staging area for plants that don't have homes or whose homes aren't ready (a peony lived there for a year waiting for porch construction to finish).

We're realizing that permanent location may be harder to pick than we thought. Recommendations say to put it 20' from other trees, which is going to be hard to find in our yard (back has three giant pines, a 30' sugar maple, a couple 35' oaks, some 20' silver maples, and a handful of tall cherries; side has 25' eastern red cedar, a 15' Japanese maple, a Bradford pear (seems to be sterile), and a 35' hickory; front has a 40' cherry and the town's 50' oak). How close can it really be to others? There's a lollipop cherry that could be coming out, but there would be a bunch of understory trees (dogwoods mostly) that we wouldn't want to wipe out.

Tree potted in coast of Maine potting soil:

We wet it down and put it in the screened-in porch (its super windy and we don't have its cage cut, yet).

There's no reason why it won't do well once it's planted.

You could plant it as an understory tree 'out back' if there's a tree that will be removed in a year or two. Or just plant it with the plan of moving it in a year or two to a new location.

So many trees, so little time (and space). :-))

I dug a two footer from the woods in March a couple of years ago, potted it up bc I had no plan for it, kept it in partial sun all summer. Then ended up giving it away to someone that wanted one. :-)

Maybe that's how you got yours! lol

July 2018: