Tips for Buying Fruit Trees

Part of the Video Series How to Grow Fruit Trees

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If you want to plant a fruit tree in your garden or yard, should you buy a free root tree or a potted tree from your local nursery? Find out and get tips on how to choose and purchase a healthy fruit tree in this free online gardening and tree care instructional video.

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Tips for Buying Fruit Trees
When you’re ready to purchase your trees, considering your stock selection, it’s a good idea to contact your county extension agent or do some research to find out what the best varieties are for your area. Makes a big difference to have a big variety. And when you have your trees, you want to be able to find a nursery that will sell them to you bare root as opposed to being potted. Bare root trees do much better. The other thing you’re looking for is you want your root ball- you don’t want it to be root bound because it’s already damaged and it’s having to over come that damage, and it may or may not be able to fully over come it if it’s extremely root bound. So you want the root ball to have had plenty of room to grow, and you want there to be a balance between the root ball and the branches of the tree. In other words, you don’t want a giant root ball and a little stub of a tree. And you don’t wan this huge tree with no developed root ball. So you want to balance between the two. The reason that you don’t want to buy a fruit tree in a pot is because it can become root bound, and what that is is the fruit tree, the seed is planted in the pot, and as it grows the roots are not able to expand so they don’t have enough room to grow, and they’re contained in that little pot and they become deformed and it causes damage. So when you put your tree in the ground, it has to heal that damage and over come that as well as adapt to the new environment.

About the Expert

Expert: Gale Gassiot is a professional landscape designer and artist who owns her own apple orchard in Mexico. Read More