julie wrote:
Hi there,

For the first time in my life I am buying trees, specifically fruit
and probably citrus.

Is Home Depot any good for this? There are a number of terrific
nurseries around here but it is a matter of time not money, if there
is even a difference. I am not sure. I was kind of caught by surprise
here.


What do you all say?

Take care,
Julie in SFBA

I can relate one experience of mine. Two years ago, I purchased what
was labeled as a Belle of Georgia Peach. It soon developed fruit, but
the flesh was yellow, instead of white. My guess is that it is a
Elberta Peach. Out of curiosity, I tried to trace this tree from Home
Depot. It seems like this tree went through about two or three levels
before Home Depot sold it. The exact identity of the tree could not
be verified. It is a healthy tree, just not what I was expecting.
True, you can get some bargains at Home Depot and other big box
stores, but be aware of the risks involved.

That was probably the last tree I will purchase from a big box. When
I was first getting into growing fruit, I purchased five trees from
Frank's Nursery, who went out of business in my area. A few of them
survived, but some grew larger than I wanted.

As I got more into fruit trees, I discovered the best and most
reliable trees were orderable on the internet as young whips. These
trees grow rapidly and catch up in a year or two to the ones you see
sold in local nurseries and big box stores. There are several good
suppliers, like Raintree Nursery and Tree's of Antiquity out there.
The advantage of ordering from them is they carry many uncommon
varieties not found locally. They grow their own trees, with no
middle men involved. You can be almost certain that the better ones
of these nurseries are accurate on the rootstock (determines final
size of the tree). If you were expecting a tree to grow to 10 or so
feet, you won't be surprised when it grows many feet higher. I grow
mostly semi-dwarfs on rootstock like Bud 9 that produces apple trees
about 12 feet high. If I had to do it over again, I would have bought
the very small trees on M27 that grow about 6 feet tall. You don't
get as much fruit on a dwarf, but maintenance is much easier, and the
trees yield fruit sooner than a full size tree. There are some
nurseries that I avoid simply because they do not specify their
rootstock, just calling it a dwarf of semi-dwarf. Starks and
Millers are two of these that come to mind. They plant their own
stock, but on an assembly line basis, so they cannot track each tree.

If you want to grow some unusual and very tasty fruit that you can't
find in your supermarket, look at these heritage fruits. Visit a
fruit fair in your area where you can taste these unusual fruits
and be sure to pick one that is compatible with your climate zone.


Sherwin