the fruit trees have landed

[grawrc]

I am really pleased: my order of fruit trees and bushes from Blackmoor has arrived - damson, cherry, mirabelle de nancy, pears, redcurrant, white currant and blueberry. All courtesy of a generous cheque from my colleagues when I retired at the end of  August.

The annoying thing is that I couldn't go to my plot yesterday (when the parcel arrived) because I had various people coming to the house and today it's p.....ing down. So what should I do? The carton is currently sitting in the porch - the coolest place in the house - but I imagine I should unpack them and maybe stick them in buckets for today and hope tomorrow's weather is better?

I don't want to heel them in in the garden quite yet!

What do you think?

[grawrc]

[Squash64]

It might be an idea to put them in buckets of water, but I'm no expert.
Good luck anyway!

[manicscousers]

glad your fruit has arrived, anne..all that jam 'n' stuff  ;D
our soft fruit arrived last week, it said only soak for an hour at most, bare roots, don't know if it's the same for trees  ???

[Robert_Brenchley]

As long as you keep it cool, and the roots can't dry out, it'll be OK for a day or two. Putting the roots in water is better than leaving them to dry, but they can't breathe underwater, so again it's strictly short-term.

[grawrc]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I hope to plant tomorrow!

[grawrc]

Well it's been a lovely day here and I have planted everything so that's another problem solved. Now I just need to water and fertilise tomorrow. Then read up about pruning.

[manicscousers]

don't know if it's right but we feed our fruit in spring  ??? :)

[grawrc]

I would normally too but the instructions said a sprinkling of growmore and epsom salts. Normally I'd do that before planting but I had to use the few dry, sunny hours of daylight as productively as poss so planted instead.  It was getting dark as I finished and I still have to protect 2 of them from the rabbits but I can do that even if it is raining tomorrow.

[manicscousers]

at least they're in the ground, ours are still heeled in  :)

[tonybloke]

I would normally too but the instructions said a sprinkling of growmore and epsom salts. Normally I'd do that before planting but I had to use the few dry, sunny hours of daylight as productively as poss so planted instead.  It was getting dark as I finished and I still have to protect 2 of them from the rabbits but I can do that even if it is raining tomorrow.

forget the growmore and epson salts, give them a light sprinkle of BFB in the spring (would have been better in planting mix)

[mark45]

yeah i got a cherry tree to plant tomorrow lol