Bargain Fruit Trees

One of 3 Pear Trees

I love fruit trees! Brad bought me a couple of little fig trees for my birthday because he knew how much it meant to me to plant some. If I had it my way, my property would be planted full of them! A tight budget puts a fast halt on this idea... Fruit trees are expensive! You know, the problem with fruit trees is that the best time to plant them was always 10 years ago! If we had planted some when we moved here they would be producing fruit by now! I decided that it was time to start planting and I finally found a way to afford it.

I have always been amazed at my step-dad's ability to talk anyone into giving him a good deal on things. He can go into any store and manage to talk them down on the price of something. I was always under the impression that in most stores there is a set price. Not so! I was killing time while waiting to pick up my mother in-law, so I decided to go to some garden centers at various large super-stores. While looking longingly at the fruit trees I noticed some sad looking trees that had been knocked over and weren't in the best of health. Picking up one sad little key lime tree, I decided that it needed a home and that I would take a chance and ask about it. I took the tree into the garden center and found the manager. After surprisingly little convincing, she marked the tree 50% off! Apparently, they would rather sell it at a lower price, than to potentially lose money by having to throw it out later on if nobody wanted it.

Of course I couldn't stop there! I stopped at every garden center in the area, found sad little trees that just needed a little love, but would definitely survive, and sought out managers. I brought home 3 pear trees, 2 peach trees, a key lime tree, and a grapefruit tree! All for 50% off! I think all of the trees together came to about $65. That is a bargain for fruit trees!

It may seem that I am starting off with sick trees that won't do well, but being a biology major has its advantages. Most people want super lush trees covered with leaves and perhaps even some little fruits starting to grow. In reality, those trees won't do as well as trees that have not started leafing out yet. They are supposed to be planted when dormant so that all of the tree's energy is put into growing a strong root system. When trees are focused on growing leaves, the roots don't develop as well. Small fruits should actually be removed from the trees during their first couple of years to keep the energy focused on the roots. These sad looking little trees will actually be stronger because the leaves had died. Scraping stem with my fingernail was all I needed to do to make sure that the branches were still alive. Scratching the branch will show green under the bark for live branches. If they are dead it will be brown and dry underneath.

One of my two peach trees

I heard a saying a while back, that has really stuck with me. Don't plant a $10 plant in a $0.10 hole. I dug each hole about 1 1/2 times as deep as the pot, and a little over twice as wide. I back filled the hole with compost and soil dug out of the hole so that the top of the root ball was just barely lower than the soil surrounding the hole. I then replaced the soil, alternating compost and soil in layers, and pressing the soil in, until the hole was filled to the top of the root ball. This left the soil level in the hole about 2 inches deeper than the surrounding soil. I do this to allow water to pool in the hole so that the trees easily get enough water until they are well established. The hole being dug so much larger, not only allows the roots to easily spread, but also allows good drainage. I did this for all of the trees except for the grapefruit tree, which is more prone to getting root rot very easily, so I raised the level of the root ball above the surrounding level rather than leaving a depression for water to pool.

If I add a couple trees every year, I will soon have a yard full of them! I can't wait to get fresh fruit! My goal is to walk out of my door and feel like I am entering the Garden or Eden. I don't think it is too lofty of a goal!  I will keeping working on it and until then I will be dreaming of my Eden on Sunflower Hill.