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Seedlings

Bare Root & Plug Seedlings

_If you just need to know what I still have, see table at right. (Mobile: At bottom)

Seedlings are for people who have more patience, thinner wallets, and greener than average thumbs. Starting off with seedlings can save you a bundle. Most of these are available as larger trees too, starting at 2 years and some up to trees that are hard to lift.

Seedlings are the only plants that can be shipped.

Seedlings need to be planted promptly. (Yes, I’m repeating myself.) Most are either dormant bare root, or small plug root systems like your Arbor Day tree. Bare root trees have to be kept moist. Even 30 seconds exposure on a hot windy day can do them in.

Bare Root

Trees are grown in the field, then in late fall they are dug with a machine similar to a potato digger that undercuts the row, shakes the dirt off them and dumps them in a bin. Then they go to the sorting shed, where they are graded, counted, bundled, boxed, and frozen lightly until spring.

Advantages of Bare root

• Mostly 2 year old sometimes 3-4 year old trees.

• Bigger tree gives more resources to adapt to new spot fast.

• No dirt lowers weight, which lowers shipping costs.

Downsides of bare root.

• Usually the tree will have no root hairs. Needs to grow new root hairs before it can get water out of soil.

• Mortality is higher. Some never wake up.

• Very tight time frame: Trees should be in dirt within a couple days of arrival, or should be stored in a cold room just above freezing.

Plugs:

Instead of being in a field, they are grown in styroblocks -- 1 foot x 2 foot x 6 inch blocks with a whole bunch of tiny pot cavities moulded in. When ready the trees are popped out of the block, graded, counted, etc.

Advantages of plugs

• They have dirt on them, so the root hairs are mostly intact.

• This also means they can start to wakeup before planting.

• With care you have an extra two weeks to get them in the ground.

• Also since most of the root is next to dirt, they don’t dry out in a few seconds like a bare root tree.

• They have smaller roots so take a shallower hole.

Downsides of plugs

• They are smaller. Most of the time they are only 1 year old.

• Because they are little, they are easy to step on, mow.

• The root system is physically in a smaller volume. If that volume dries out, it’s now a stick. Pay attention to soil moisture levels during the first 6 weeks.

Crowns, bulbs, tubers These are the chunky root of a plant that otherwise dies back to the ground each fall. Rhubarb and asparagus come as crowns. Jerusalem artichokes, iris are tubers, lilies are bulbs.

Plug trees have smaller root systems, which makes them faster to plant. They have a small supply of soil (peat moss, sand, and perlite mostly) so they don’t dry out as easily. They tend to suffer less from transplant shock. Because they have all the tiny hair roots intact, they can start growing before they get planted, giving you more time to get them in the ground.

Working with bare root stock.

Bare root trees are typically twice as large, with much larger root systems. They have zero protection from drying out. When you pick them up from us, they are either bagged with some wet sawdust, or the bundles are in pots with the roots buried in wet compost. Park in the shade, under a spruce, or on the north side of a building, or in an unheated shed until you are ready to plant. Keep the material around the roots damp, but not soggy. Pails should have drain holes.

You have about 4-5 days to deal with bagged bare root, minus the time they have waited for pick up. If you can’t plant right away, heel in full bundles into any available earth that isn’t in full sun. I use large pots, or pails with drainholes. You can store them this way for another week or two. Longer storage leads to higher mortality rates. Planting in full bundles like this, not all the roots are in contact with soil, so keeping them shaded reduces stress on the ones in the middle of the bundle. If you have to keep them for longer periods, break up bundles. You can put several bundles in a container with dirt between them.

When you plant, mix up a half bucket slurry of peatmoss, compost, vermiculite, or perlite so that it is thick enough for the bundle of trees to stand more or less upright, but thin enough that you can separate one from the bundle. Keep tree roots under the surface as much as possible until just before you plant them. Work with only one or two bundles at a time. The others should be snoozing in the shade.

Ideally the bare roots should be exposed to the air for under 30 seconds between removal from the pail and being once again buried. Water the tree as soon as possible after planting. If you have dry soil conditions at planting time, you MUST water each plant immediately.

Planting during early morning or evening when the sun is less intense, and there is little wind will minimize the stress on the trees. The best possible day is heavy overcast with fog or light mist.

Working with plugs

Plugs also need to be kept moist, but this is a lot easier due to the peat moss around them. The same trick with the peat moss slurry works here too, but it only needs to be a few inches deep.

You have about 10-14 days to deal with plugs, minus the time they have waited for pick up. You can stretch this if you can keep them in a cool place. Unheated shed, north side of a building, dense shade. I set my plugs out on scraps of carpet. A sprinkler on a timer that waters them all 4 times a day for about 5 minutes.

Caveats: Seedling mortality is much higher than with established trees. They cannot be allowed to dry out. You have to keep the weeds a foot away. And you will still lose 10-30 percent of them.

Because they are small, they can get overwhelmed by weeds very easily. Then they are very hard to find. I recommend planting a survey stake with the tree. You can buy these in bundles at any of the big box home DIY stores, make them from scraps or I'll sell them to you for a buck a stick.

Consider growing them for a year or two in pots by the house. It's easier by far to care for them, and generally it's faster to plant into pots than into the ground. The cost of this is transplanting a larger tree down the road.

Seedlings do not carry my usual 1 year guarantee. They are alive and healthy when you pick them up. If you decide that you don't like them at the time of pickup, you can decline, and I will give you credit for your deposit for anything else at the farm.

Below is what I’m currently ordering for seedlings. This gets automatically updated from a spreadsheet. Sales are NOT taken off this regularly, so don’t just assume that because I’m bringing 700 scots pine you can show up here in the middle of May to pick up a couple of bundles. Place your order NOW, or even better, yesterday.

The list at the very bottom is what I actually have on order, conifers at the top, followed by leaf trees and shrubs. Other things I may be able to get if you ask early enough:

This list is what I can get as if January 2018. Where there is a minimum listed, I won’t order from my suppliers until I get requests for that many. If you can’t do the miniumum, tell me anyway. If I get 2 people who both want 50, I’ll see what I can do. In some cases it will take me an extra year. No deposit required until I can confirm that I can get them.

Discounts

Prices on inventory are for single bundles. Buy a bunch and save. Write to for a quote on your order.

15 March 2019

From here down to the blue table below is updated at the start of the season, then not updated very often. The table at the bottom is usually up to date, but won’t show anything that is out of stock.

If you're hunting and don't see it, ask. Can't hurt and at worst I'll get it for you next year.

Conifer plugs

Mostly in bundles of 15. $2.50 -$4.00 each.

I can usually get certain species fairly late: White spruce, black spruce, black hills spruce, colorado spruce, jack pine lodgepole pine are used extensively in the forestry industry, so I can usually find them well into April, and sometimes later. Some of these are also available in August as hot lifts, but talk to me first before you order as they require special handling.

For the rest, what I have below is likely to be all there is. There is no sudden cutoff date. The selection just gets smaller and smaller.

• Larch, Tamarack - No seedlings left for 2019

• Larch, Siberian - 540 on order

• Larch, Western - Need orders for 200. Borderline in our climate.

• Pine, Austrian - Not available for 2019 Inquire by AUGUST 2019 for next spring.

• Pine, Bristlecone - No seedlings left for 2019 Inquire by AUGUST 2019 for next spring.

• Pine, Jack - Need orders for 200. Often can get these at last minute.

• Pine, Lodgepole - 270 on order

• Pine, Eastern White - No seedlings left for 2019

• Pine, Mountain - No seedlings left for 2019. Inquire by AUGUST 2019 for next spring.

• Pine, Ponderosa - Need orders for 200. Order soon. 3 yr old and 1 yr old available.

• Pine, Red - No seedlings left for 2019

• Pine, Scots - 540 on order

• Pine, Swiss Stone - No seedlings left for 2019

• Pine, Western White - Inquire by AUGUST 2019 for next spring. -- borderline in our climate.

• Spruce, White - Need orders for 200. Order soon.

• Spruce, Black Hills - 540 on order

• Spruce, Black - Need orders for 200. Order soon.

• Spruce, Colorado - 540 on order

Deciduous plugs & bare root seedlings.

Bare root seedlings come in bundles of 25 unless noted. Prices range from $3.25 to $5.00 Plugs for deciduous trees are 3.00 each.

My supplier for most of these caters to the reclamation trade. Often what I have in the pipe by mid February is all there is.

• Alder, Green - 180 plugs on order

• Ash, Green - 150 bare root on order larger ones .75 cm caliper

• Birch, Paper - No seedlings left for 2019

• Birch, Dwarf - No seedlings left for 2019

• Buckthorn, Sea - No seedlings left for 2019

• Buffaloberry, Canada - No seedlings left for 2019

• Buffaloberry, Silver - 300 bare root on order

• Caragana, Common - 300 bare root on order

• Cotoneaster, Peking - 1500 bare root on order

• Cherry, Native Pincherry - 180 plugs on order

• Cherry, Native Chokecherry - 180 plugs on order

• Dogwood, redosier - No plugs left for 2019. 1 yr bare root seedlings need orders for 100

• Lilac, common - No seedlings left for 2019

• Lilac, late (villosa) - No seedlings left for 2019

• Maple, Amur - 200 bare root on order

• Maple, silver - 200 bare root on order

• Maple, Manitoba - Need orders for 100.

• Poplar, okanese - No plugs left for 2019 -- May have plugs by Labour Day.

• Poplar, Northwest - No plugs left for 2019 -- May have plugs by Labour Day.

• Poplar, Sundancer - No plugs left for 2019 -- May have plugs by Labour Day.

• Poplar, Skyfest - No plugs left for 2019 -- May have plugs by Labour Day.

• Rose, Wild (prickly) - No plugs left for 2019.

• Saskatoon, wild 100 bare root on order

• Wolf Willow, - No plugs left for 2019

• Walnut, Black - No seedlings left for 2019.

• Willow, Blue fox - No plugs left for 2019.

• Willow, Powder Face - No plugs left for 2019.

Edible perennials

These are also bare root, but get their own heading.

• Asparagus, Millenium - 900 on order

• Strawberry, Seascape - 100 on order

• Strawberry, Tribute - 100 on order

• Raspberry, Souris 300 on order

• Raspberry, Double Delight 300 on order

If you don’t see it, ask. Can’t hurt, and may help.

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