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Will my trees grow? #753418

Asked June 01, 2021, 9:59 PM EDT

Hello. I have planted 5 bare root trees in containers this past February. Three of them have sprouted and grew beautifully. They even started to bare fruits. But two of them, Italian Plum and Frost Peach, have not yet grew any leaves. It's been over 3 months and we are in the summer. Should I be worry? I have checked the branches by scratching them lightly to see what is underneath. Both trees have green layer under need the bark. I assume that they still alive. I also pruned them a bit, just to be sure there are no deadwoods on the branches. I could see green rings where the cuts were. But I wonder if there's anything I can do to figure out whether there are any issues with the trees. Or I just needed to be patient and waited a bit longer? Thank you! -Nick

Washington County Oregon

Expert Response

Nick: It is a marginally good sign that the two trees that haven't leafed out still show green under the bark. Did you look at any new buds to see if they are still green? It is very unusual that they would take so long. How extensive was the pruning? The buds that would break on young trees are on the newest growth. There would be other latent buds that, if the tree still had functional roots, might break later. The problem is that roots can't really show sustained new growth without the carbohydrates produced by leaves. You might pull the tree out of the container to see if it is waterlogged or bone dry and if there seems to be much new root growth. Put it back in the container after inspection. The stone fruits (peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, etc.) are really sensitive to waterlogging. If that happened, it might also have shut the tree down. Finally, depending on where in Washington County you live, a very hard frost at just the wrong time for these particular plants might have damaged buds which would have turned brownish. All this is just speculation. Let me know what you find. Chip  <personal data hidden>   Chip Bubl OSU Extension Agent/Columbia County.<personal data hidden>.

An Ask Extension Expert Replied June 04, 2021, 10:13 AM EDT
Hi Chip,

Thanks so much for your suggestions.

I have checked on the buds. They are very dry and brown. I decided to take the frost peach out of the container to take a look. It turned out there were not much roots left in there. Although I did not see any roots falling our as I gently rub them. I did not sense any foul smell either. I could not really see anything in the dirt that look like a falling out root. The roots which are still on seem to be fine. But they are very small as you can see in the picture. 

I washed the root by running though water and put it in a new container with new potting soil. Do you think this one still has a chance? Should I do the same with the Italian Plum?

I attached the pictures of the buds and root of the Frost Peach.

Thanks,
Nick

image

image

On Jun 4, 2021, at 7:13 AM, Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:

The Question Asker Replied June 04, 2021, 10:04 PM EDT

Nick: Those pictures don't offer much hope but you really have nothing to lose by re-potting them. The lack of any fine roots is not normal and the tree can't function without them. The other problem is that these are grafted trees and you might get growth from below the graft but they would have rootstock characteristics which won't produce fruit of the type you were buying (rather small and not normal flavor at best)   I would contact the place you purchased these from and indicate that two of their trees did well and two didn't. They should offer you two new trees. Chip

An Ask Extension Expert Replied June 07, 2021, 9:38 AM EDT

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