I decided to put my free arbor day trees into pots.. well, the ones that weren't already planted. Still, there are PLENTY of them. I can't believe I still have 10 things I could plant. Not that I have room for all of them, but there's always giving them away..lol.

Question is this-
I'm waiting to see how they do, ie- live or die, grow or not. Now, it's summertime here. When would be the best time to put any of these in the ground if they make it ok? Late summer/early fall? Or should I hold out until early next Spring?

Which brings a 2nd question to mind. They are in pots, out on my deck right now. If I don't bury them in the ground before fall, should I bring them inside for the winter?

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

If the trees are important, I would not plant them in the ground until the stem was at least 1-1.5 inches in diameter, unless a tree shelter was used. You are risking damage by animals, frost, people, etc. Tree shelters can be found on the web, and are well worth the investment. I use "Blue-X" but there are many brands available:

http://www.growtube.com/seedlingshelters.html

That's just my opinion, though.

Meg, it will be years before your trees are that big in diameter. You'll have to keep repotting them yearly in bigger and bigger pots. I've found it's not necessary. I think it's better to get them in the ground either this year or next year overwintering them only once in their pots. It's best to get their roots growing in the soil and to get them acclimated to their site. I've had excellent luck planting very small trees outside as soon as I got them protected only by a cage made of concrete reinforcing wire. (Like a tomato cage) Tubes will give added protection from the wind. Of course, these trees did have small root balls and didn't come bare root as ADF trees do.

Even if you choose to leave them in their pots, I'd recommend leaving them outside.

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Terry

May the force be with you

Oops, I sent you the wrong link. Those were seed shelters. Here are the tree shelters:

http://www.growtube.com/shelters.html

Well, an update on my trees from ADF. None of the 10 free flowering trees seem to be doing anything, except for one. It's the crabapple tree, the one nobody wants me to plant, for the mess it leaves on the ground. Somehow, I doubt that will be a problem until much later years.. the thing is only a foot long twig right now...lol. The rest of them seem to be doing NOTHING at all. I had pulled my cherry tree (which wasn't free) out of the ground, and put it in a pot, after it shriveled. The roots still looked good, so I put it in a pot as well. So far, nada. The free Maple they sent, I potted it, and it looks no different, but it also looks ok. The one I had put in the ground, looks bad to me.

I also purchased a peach tree from ADF, and planted that one in the ground. It is doing very well so far. It has 3 shoots coming off of it, with very nice looking leaves. The seedling they sent me of it, was about 4' and probably between 1/2" and 3/4" in diameter. It was the biggest one they sent.

Forsythias, doing great. Lost a couple arborvitaes. Most of them are doing ok tho. Out of 20 arborvitae's, I lost 4 or 5. Two of which were never planted.

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!