Fruit trees online: how I ordered them and how I planted them

Online fruit trees are currently the most convenient way to buy them. I doubted how they would arrive packaged, whether they would arrive without breaking or drying out. Furthermore, you cannot look and choose with your own eyes. But in the end I made up my mind and here is my order: see how I bought them online, how they were packaged for delivery and how I planted them in the ground:

This episode was inspired by tadoukis.lt, because it provides online plant ordering services with delivery. So about everything at the beginning.

Fruit trees online: what I ordered

Tado’s farm I found the online store very convenient, so it’s really easy to choose. I ordered the following plants:

• ‘Morellenfeuer’ cherry column. This cherry has narrow foliage and medium-sized dark burgundy fruit, so it will be not only tasty, but also beautiful!
• štambinė medlieva is a large tree, blooms with beautiful flowers in spring, ripens berries in summer and is decorated with colorful leaves in autumn. It’s one of those multitasking plants that makes it perfect for small plots. This is grafted and will grow to 1.20m – 1.80m tall.
• columnar blackcurrant ‘Tihope’. I saw some currant hedges in the shape of columns and I really liked that solution, so when I saw the columnar currants I decided to try growing them in our garden.

I liked that I received detailed planting instructions with pictures in my email when I placed my order. Since the plants are different, it was very convenient to get this help right away. And honestly, I immediately felt the difference that I was buying from a family farm instead of a supermarket, and I love that feeling!

Home delivery of plants

Although it is announced on the Internet that delivery is expected within 5 days, the fruit trees arrived to me online after just two days.

The courier delivered a well-packed package, in which each tree is also packed in cardboard for the entire height of the plant. So the plants arrived completely safe and intact during transportation. I have not experienced any dispersion of the soil, no dryness, no cracks.

I was happy to see that each plant has a tag attached, which is a sign of quality. On the labels it is clearly written that both currants and medlieva are grown in pots, but it is recommended to keep the cherry in pots for another 3-4 weeks and only then transplant it. It was grown in the ground and only recently planted in pots, so it has not yet had time to take root. If I want to plant it right away, I’ll have to be very careful not to disturb the roots – that’s exactly what we’ll do.

How to prepare for planting fruit trees

As before any planting, the first thing to do is prepare the site. In our case we plant fruit trees along the terrace. It would still be enough to dig some holes, but we decided to dig a trench: the soil here is quite clayey and later I will want to plant perennial flowers among the fruit trees. Therefore, let’s not waste time and start digging a trench.

We do not throw excavated earth anywhere and in any way:

• If we throw it on the lawn, we will have to revive it later. Therefore, we spread a film on the lawn and throw it on top.
• If we put everything in one pile, the layers get mixed up. And we want to use everything intelligently.

We have the following layers:

• turf with grass: now we throw it into the far corner of the film,
• fertile soil,
• the dead layer of soil that lies beneath that fertile soil. Since clay dominates here, the difference is also visible in the color.

We prepare a mixture from the rest of the soil: we mix the sterile one with the fertile one and generously add compost. We still had some ash, so let’s mix that in too. We bury the trench with this mixture and level it with a rake.

When the pits or trenches are dug, we throw the sod upside down into them so that the grass is at the bottom. Then we watered it very well. Humidity is critical for trees to establish well.

We take the remaining soil into the compost container. In it the soil will mix with organic waste and we will have excellent compost again.

How to plant fruit trees?

Let’s start with the currants. We measure the distance from the terrace so that all three plants are at the same distance from it. We dig a hole for him, press the pot and remove the seedling from it.

We plant it, cover it with earth, press it with our feet (but not right next to the trunk) and form a kind of plate, which will protect against water loss during watering. We watered well.

Medlieva is planted exactly the same way.

And here you will have to try your hand at the cherry a little. After all, our cherry grows in the ground, so its roots must be protected. The cherry tree is usually planted at the graft site, or a few inches lower than the graft site. Colonial cherry is an exception to the rule: it should be planted so that there is a spring distance between the graft and the ground.

We dig a hole in the cherry tree, since it has just been planted in a pot, we have to be very, very careful. We do not take it out of the pot, but cut the pot itself and plant it in the ground without moving the roots.

After planting, there are two steps: watering and tying the tree to the stake forming a figure eight.

Care after planting

After sowing we will take care of better acceptance of the plants. “Tado ūkis” also introduced a rooting stimulator: it is a natural product that only needs to be mixed with water and watered. I absolutely don’t recommend fertilizers in the first year, but root stimulators can be used if you want to reduce transplant stress and help the roots take root.

And, of course, as without mulch. I use what I have on hand, this time it’s buckwheat mulch. However, grass, hay and compost can be used in the best possible way. And who needs mulch for fruit trees? With mulching we leave no room for weeds, we improve the structure of the soil, we maintain humidity, so the plants will certainly be better.

READ ALSO:

“How to prune young fruit trees in spring”

“Forming apple trees with cardboard: you can control their growth”

“How to plant a columnar apple hedge”

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