Dormant Fruit Trees: The Journey From Grower to Your Yard

By Richard Flowers, ACCNP, Green Thumb Nursery, Ventura

Richard is an Advanced California Certified Nursery Professional (ACCNP), a credential of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers.

Quick answer: A dormant fruit tree (usually sold as a bare root fruit tree) is a fruit tree that has dropped its leaves for winter and is resting, which makes winter the ideal time to dig, ship, and plant it. Each tree spends 1 to 2 years at the grower before it is dug, graded, bundled, and shipped, and bare root season at Green Thumb Nursery usually runs from January to early March, weather dependent.

January is the perfect time of year to plant dormant fruit trees! Peaches, Apples, Plums, Apricots, and Cherries are shipped from our grower without soil and once they arrive they go through the process of being heeled in to a soil mix (a nursery practice of temporarily covering the roots to keep them moist). Today I want to give you some insight into the journey a dormant fruit tree takes before it reaches the nursery and, finally, its new home. I hope you will have a new found appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes.

What Is a Bare Root Fruit Tree?

Let me first explain what a bare root fruit tree is. A bare root fruit tree is a dormant (no leaves) fruit tree that has its soil removed from it so it can more rapidly acclimate to new soil conditions (The California Backyard Orchard, University of California).

The Journey Begins at the Grower

The journey begins at our grower, Dave Wilson Nursery. Some fruit trees are started from seed in early spring. The seeds are harvested, separated, cleaned, and sorted from already mature (mother) trees planted on site. They are planted in greenhouses, then after they have germinated and are big enough, the seedlings after one season are then transferred to shade houses to grow for another season, and then they are planted outside. During the careful cultivation they need to be weeded and protected against insects and diseases.

Yet other fruit trees may be grown from cuttings from parent plants planted in the field. The cuttings are harvested in winter, planted in shade houses, and as soon as they have nice full new open leaves they are placed outside to continue growing. Still other trees are grafted onto rootstocks that were grown from cuttings, or grafted in the field from already established mother plants. In the propagation stage many fruit trees are budded in June (June budded), which encourages low branching.

A Year of Growing, Staking, and Shaping

Thousands of trees are budded all at the same point on the trees. The caliper of the stems is very small right now. These small newly budded trees are grafted 4 inches above the soil. The grower lets the trees grow to a certain size then carefully prunes them back. All the while they are carefully cared for. When they reach about 18 inches high, a temporary stake is installed next to them so the young trees can grow uniform and straight. Usually in another month they remove that stake and replace it with a regular stake. During the summer heat in the Central Valley of California the trees can grow another 2 to 3 feet. The stakes and ties are bound loosely to the trees so they can flex and free flow in the wind, giving the graft or bud union time to strengthen.

In September, the trees grow another 3 to 5 feet, the caliper of the stem has grown to 3/8 inch, and these 1 or 2 year old trees are almost ready to be harvested in a couple of months. Some 2 year trees may need to be budded in the field in mid October. Once the bud takes and is established, the grower can take cuttings and plant those up for future crops or leave them on the trees for digging. In mid November the trees grow another 2 to 3 feet and the caliper has increased to 1/2 or 3/4 inch, almost ideal for retail quality. In approximately 30 to 45 days from this point (mid December or January), weather dependent, the trees will be cut back a few to several feet. Then the digging and shipping process starts.

The grower’s bare root calendar at a glance:

Time of year	What happens at the grower
Winter	Cuttings are harvested from parent plants and started in shade houses
Early spring	Seeds from mother trees are cleaned, sorted, and planted in greenhouses
June	Trees are budded (June budding) to encourage low branching, grafted about 4 inches above the soil
Summer	Trees grow another 2 to 3 feet in the Central Valley heat, loosely staked so the graft union strengthens
September	Another 3 to 5 feet of growth, stems reach about 3/8 inch caliper
Mid October	Some 2 year old trees are budded in the field
Mid November	Another 2 to 3 feet of growth, caliper reaches 1/2 to 3/4 inch, near retail quality
December and January	Trees are cut back, dug with specialized machines, graded, bundled, and heeled in for shipping
January to early March	Bare root season at Green Thumb Nursery

Harvest Time: Digging, Grading, and Bundling

In the month of December, these 1 or 2 year old trees are dug out of the ground with specialized digging machines that lift the trees and shake off the soil, and a crew of workers following behind the tractor places them in piles. These machines can dig hundreds of fruit trees per hour. The work is noisy, dusty, muddy, and labor intensive. After the trees are set in piles, they are put onto forklifts and brought to a processing yard where each and every tree, one by one, is graded for quality and standards, labeled, and counted, while at the same time another crew is watering the fruit trees so they do not dry out.

Once the fruit trees have gone through the quality control process, they are taken to another area and mechanically bundled together in 5s or 10s. Then the whole process repeats again and again throughout the bare root season (2 to 3 months). Once that is complete, they are brought back and replanted (heeled in) in pre-dug trenches where the roots are covered with sand, then watered, waiting for the time when they are to be shipped to your favorite Green Thumb Nursery. Some growers may store the dormant fruit trees in cooling buildings until they are sold.

Bred Naturally: Our Premier Grower, Dave Wilson Nursery

Some specialized and new fruit tree types take no less than 14 years of natural breeding, growing, testing, developing, and adapting before they are released to the general public. Our premier grower of fruit trees is conscientious about their quality. They provide care and attention to their clean trees that are not GMO and have no disease, bacteria, or virus. They are very eco-conscious, sanitary, quality grown trees. Dave Wilson Nursery sells to organic growers both certified and backyard, wholesale nurseries, growers, commercial orchards, and retail nurseries like your favorite Green Thumb.

They have many selections of fruit trees that are crosses of one another through pollination from one flower to another. They track the crosses, grow out the selections for several years, then choose the best of the best from those selections after they have been trialed and tested for vigor, hardiness, and flavor. The entire process can take several years. It is all done naturally and the old fashioned way. They are not by any means artificially genetically modified. Dave Wilson trees are uniformly grafted and aesthetically pleasing.

Shipping Day: From the Grower to Green Thumb

When the day comes to finally ship the fruit tree order, crews load the soilless fruit trees onto a large semi truck with the trees laying down and stacked up onto one another. Once the delivery truck arrives at its destination, a crew unloads the wet and muddy trees in a receiving area covered with shade cloth, separating each variety and type in an organized fashion while at the same time inspecting the trees for quality. Hundreds of varieties and types of dormant fruit trees are accounted for according to the shipping manifest. The delivery and shipping process is now complete by our grower. Once the bare root process is done for the season, they need to start to prepare for the next season and future seasons after that by planting, grafting, pruning, trialing, and breeding, and so the process repeats again.

Back at Green Thumb Nursery: Heeling In

In the receiving area, a designated individual is assigned to water the trees then cover the roots with burlap, while other crew members are affixing price labels made in house, attaching picture tags to each individual tree while taking special care to not damage the tree, and continuing to sort the trees by variety. Other people are sorting out what needs to be potted up, go in back stock, or is already pre sold. The items that are set aside for potting up are planted so they can be sold as container stock later on in spring. Other people are heeling in the back stock fruit trees in already prepared soil.

As the process continues, other crew members have flat bed carts ready and load up the trees laying down and bring them over to the sales area. Here in this area, multiple crew members are busy with shovels digging trenches in already prepared soil. It is here where the bundles are cut open, any broken roots and branches are pruned off, and each single variety is placed in the dug trenches one by one, then the roots are covered with soil (heeled in). Once one variety of fruit tree is complete the next selection is started: dig the trench in the prepared soil and repeat the same process over 100s of times until it is all complete. The work is hard, laborious, dirty, muddy, and repetitive.

The amount of beforehand work of preparing the soil bed, digging and shoveling in the soil, then heeling in the fruit trees is exhausting and labor intensive for only slightly over a couple of months. After all the dirty work is complete, watering the trees is critical, keeping them consistently moist but not soaking wet during the dormant season. The digging in of the fruit trees and processing them at our nursery can take 2 to 3 days. After all that work is done, and continuing on for another 4 to 5 more weeks, picture tags continue to be attached to the plants, necessary pruning may need to be done, informational signs need to be installed, and back stock of fruit trees is restocked as product sells. With all the work that goes into bare root season, it is fun and rewarding, but you also stop to think that the price you pay on a bare root fruit tree is a real bargain considering the labor and work that goes into it.

Choosing Your Dormant Fruit Tree

Green Thumb carries a wide assortment of dormant fruit trees that include multi-budded fruit salad trees of Peaches, Plums, Apricots, Pluots, and Apples. We carry both semi-dwarf and standard sized individual fruit trees like Apples, Pears, Cherries, Persimmons, Peaches, and Plums to name a few. We even have some genetic dwarf fruit trees. The majority of our fruit trees do well in our area and many are quite adaptable to other areas. Please ask ahead if you have any specific questions on any of our fruit trees. I encourage you to get them now, while supplies last, for the best selection, because the bare root opportunity is usually a window of time from January to early March, weather dependent, with some varieties selling out faster than others.

Towards the end of the bare root season, when the weather starts getting warmer and trees start breaking dormancy, any product that is left over we pot up in #5 or #15 pots using the soil mixture they were heeled in, so they can be sold as container stock when they are rooted in a few months. In spring, trees that were once bare root become available to be sold as container stock. Our containerized growers receive their order of bare root product in the winter then pot them up so they can have a finished product for sale to Green Thumb in spring through mid summer. The container season for fruit trees is typically spring to early or mid summer, with inventory available year round but with lesser amounts during the off season. During the time of containerized fruit trees, you would plant them like you do any other containerized plant.

Taking Your Bare Root Tree Home

Our knowledgeable nursery staff will help you choose your selected dormant fruit tree. We will gently pull up the quality dormant fruit tree from the heeled in soil, shake off the soil, dip it in water, place it inside a plastic bag, tie it up, and then you are on your way. We highly recommend you plant the fruit tree right away so the roots will not dry out from the air. The journey of a dormant fruit tree is almost done.

How to Plant a Bare Root Fruit Tree

The final step of the bare root fruit tree journey is properly planting it in its new home. Double check that the root stock is compatible with the local soil. Make sure the soil drains well. To test the soil drainage, dig a test hole 1 foot deep by 1 foot wide, fill it with water, and let it drain. Fill up the hole again with water. After the second filling, the water should be completely drained in 4 hours. If the roots look dry when you get your tree home, soak them in a bucket of water for 2 to 4 hours before planting (University of Minnesota Extension). When planting the tree, dig a hole that is cone-shaped, where it is deeper in the center and tapered on the sides. The hole needs to be wide enough to encompass all the roots. Mix in soil amendments with the backfill (the soil you removed to make the hole), no more than 50 percent amendment and native soil mixed.

Set the tree in the center of the hole, hold it with one hand while scooping in the backfill mixture, making sure the tree is straight and the graft is above the soil. Never cover the graft with soil.
As you are backfilling, pack down the soil so there are no air pockets. When done, the tree should be firm in the ground.
When done planting, be sure to mulch around the area of the tree, making sure the mulch does not touch the main stem of the tree.
Prune if necessary. If the tree is really big with lots of top growth and small roots, don’t be alarmed. To help the tree get off to a better start, prune the top back so it is in balance with the root system.
Water thoroughly. The journey of a bare root fruit tree is now complete.

Watering a Newly Planted Bare Root Fruit Tree

Once planted in its new home, water initially, then don’t water again until it begins to leaf out. The tree is still dormant and its roots cannot use much moisture yet, so soggy soil does more harm than good. One exception: if we get a long dry spell in a Southern California winter, check the soil and give it just enough water to keep the roots from drying out completely, the same way we keep our heeled in trees consistently moist but never soaking wet at the nursery.

Visit Your Favorite Green Thumb Nursery

I encourage you to head on down to your favorite Green Thumb Nursery location and check out our wonderful selection of dormant fruit trees. We have them for a limited amount of time, so don’t miss your opportunity.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dormant Fruit Trees

What does it mean when a fruit tree is dormant?

A dormant fruit tree is resting for the winter. It has dropped all its leaves and paused visible growth, storing its energy in the roots and branches until warmer spring weather wakes it up. Dormancy is the reason winter is the best time to dig, ship, and plant fruit trees, because the tree barely notices the move. You can read more in our guide to preparing fruit trees to go dormant.

What is a bare root fruit tree?

A bare root fruit tree is a dormant fruit tree that has been dug from the growing field and had the soil removed from its roots, so it can acclimate quickly to the native soil in your yard. Bare root trees are sold without a pot during winter, are usually a real bargain compared to container stock, and establish quickly when planted before they leaf out.

When is bare root fruit tree season in Southern California?

Bare root season usually runs from January to early March, weather dependent. Trees arrive at Green Thumb Nursery from the grower in December and January, and popular varieties sell out fast, so shop early in the season for the best selection.

How do you plant a bare root fruit tree?

Plant it right away so the roots never dry out. Check that the soil drains well, dig a cone-shaped hole wide enough for all the roots, mix no more than 50 percent soil amendment into the backfill, set the tree with the graft above the soil line, pack the soil down to remove air pockets, mulch around the tree without touching the trunk, prune the top into balance with the roots if needed, and water thoroughly.

Should you soak a bare root fruit tree before planting?

Yes, if the roots look dry. Soaking the roots in a bucket of water for 2 to 4 hours before planting rehydrates the tree (University of Minnesota Extension). At Green Thumb we dip each tree in water and bag the roots when you buy it, so if you plant the same day a soak is usually not needed.

When should you stop watering a fruit tree?

For a newly planted bare root tree, water it in thoroughly at planting, then hold off until it starts to leaf out, giving water only if the soil dries out completely during a dry winter spell. For established fruit trees, taper off regular watering in fall as the leaves drop. In most Southern California winters, rainfall covers a dormant tree’s needs.

Why is my bare root fruit tree not leafing out yet?

Give it time. Bare root trees planted in winter often wait until mid or even late spring to push new leaves, especially after a cool season. Scratch a small spot of bark with your thumbnail: if you see green underneath, the tree is alive and still waking up. Keep the soil lightly moist, not soggy, and be patient before replacing it.

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