Bare Root for Fruit!

This is the time of year to kick up your feet, throw on a blanket, pick up a good gardening book and make plans for the spring. Well, that’s what they do in cold climates where everything is buried under six feet of snow and the ground is frozen half that amount. This is California; it just gets a little wet here. All this rain has just made the soil/rock in our area easier to dig! Yes, you can plant in the winter!
Winter brings a completely different look to the Nursery. This is the season for a wide selection of bare root fruit trees, shade trees, and roses. Bare root is exactly what it sounds like, bare roots. There is no container, no soil around the roots and can generally be found stored in large bins of sand. Once removed from their temporary storage, they need to be planted immediately so the roots don’t dry out. Because the trees are dormant, or asleep, they can be transplanted with little or no shock. Although the ground seems cold to us, it is relatively warm for establishment of new roots. This can be a huge advantage to support the spring growth. The lack of materials, (container, soil, fertilizer etc.) and labor to maintain the plant in a container translates to big savings for you. Many wholesale growers buy the same bare root trees and sell them for considerably more in container, early summer. The varieties to choose from cannot be beat this time of year!
We, at El Dorado Nursery, choose many of the old time favorites to offer and many of the new and exciting varieties. You can find many different apple, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and pomegranate. You can also find blueberry, grape, kiwi and raspberry. We also stock a wide variety of multi-grafted fruit trees. These are trees with more then one variety of fruit all grown on one root. This is a great advantage to individuals who have small back yards and would like more then one type of fruit. It also solves the problem of cross-pollination, which many varieties of fruit require. And lastly, the multi-grafted fruit trees will extend your harvest, as the individual varieties of fruit will mature at different times. Example: A multi-grafted 4in1 cherry will have Rainier, Bing, Van and Lapins all on one root. 3 of the 4 varieties require a cross pollinator and get that all on one tree. The harvest time will start in late May with Rainier and end Late June with Lapins. Similar combination can be found with apple, peach or pear, Asian and domestic. A couple of our favorite combinations include the Pluot and Aprium. Pluots and Apriums are hybrids between plum and apricot. Some varieties will resemble apricots in appearance, but will have more the texture and flavor of a plum. Others will be the complete opposite and taste more like apricots, but look just like a plum. Great addition to the home orchard and by far the best dried fruit around! We also carry a multi-grafted fruit tree called Fruit Salad. This is a combination of several different fruits, which can include 3 of the following 5: Gold Dust Peach, Independence Nectarine, July Elberta Peach, Late Santa Rosa Plum and Blenheim Apricot. Now that’s fun!
Bare root season is January through February. Shop early for the best selection as there is little chance of restocking once a variety has run out. Come out and experience a new season in the nursery!
See you soon, Juliet and Chris