If you’ve taken any of my classes or I’ve consulted with you on your site, you may already know that I most often recommend planting bare root fruit trees to establish your food forest. Bare root trees and shrubs are typically 2 years old and come with, you guessed it, bare roots. So they are not in a pot with soil but instead, you get them from the nursery as dormant plants. The roots are kept moist by enveloping them in dampened mulch. There are a few reasons to plant bare root trees and shrubs:
- Bare root fruit trees are less expensive than potted or balled and burlap trees.
- There is typically more variety available at local nurseries and garden centers.
- Bare root fruit trees undergo less transplant shock as they are smaller trees and are planted in native soil.
- It also keeps the planting process at a human scale rather than needing machines for installation, which can be costly.
Making sure that you plant a bare root tree or shrub properly is super important to the long-term success of the tree. In this video, I go through the steps of planting a bare root tree including how big to dig the hole, how to prep the tree before planting, how deep to plant the tree, when to add compost, and how often to water the tree. Click on the video above to learn more!