Fruit trees have to start somewhere, regardless of whether they are grown for commercial production or for your backyard garden. Fruit trees can be purchased from your local retail nursery, everyday home goods store or via e-commerce. However, when we do this, we miss out on the actual fruit tree nursery growing experience! I recently took a trip to get a behind the scenes view of the fruit tree nursery growing experience at one of Four Winds Growers locations in Winters, California, where they specialize in citrus, as well as a wide variety of edible fruit trees.
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Four Winds Growers
Four Winds Growers initially gained notoriety for their focus on the home gardener wanting to grow citrus and for introducing the Improved Meyer Lemon in the 1950s. The Improved Meyer Lemon was introduced as a virus-free clone that proved resistant to Tristeza, which is a devastating Citrus disease that results in a quick decline. It is now the industry standard for Meyer Lemon.
Trending Nursery Products
A common theme throughout Four Winds Growers was biblical fruit, as there was a large offering of olive, fig and pomegranate trees.
- Olive trees are popular right now, as there is a growing interest in homemade olive processing.
- The main pomegranate variety grown commercially is the Wonderful cultivar. This is available, as well as an array of other cultivars that have yet to make it to the market.
- There are also a lot of different fig cultivars offered, as everyone has their own preference. The cultivars that are grown commercially to be sold at the grocery store and farmers markets have been selected for their flavor and shelf-life (among other factors), whereas if you are growing your own figs, the shelf-life is not as important because you can eat them fresh from the tree.
The fun part about buying fruit trees from a nursery is that there are more cultivars to choose from compared to the fruit you purchase at the grocery store, and they are ready to plant once you purchase them. Also, if the fruit tree nursery is located in a similar environment to where you live, those cultivars will be better able to survive in that climate. One example of a cultivar that is sold at Four Winds Growers that you cannot find in grocery stores is this Variegated Pink Lemon that has flesh resembling the color of pink lemonade!
Caring for Nursery Plants
Just as if the tree were at your home, it needs to be cared for in the nursery. For example, the nursery is responsible for maintaining the trees at a certain size (so that they can be shipped), for maintaining their roots so that they are re-potted if they outgrow a container, and for applying insecticides when absolutely needed or required by law to ship. This needs to happen at the nursery level so that when the trees arrive to the customer, they will be pest free and will meet state requirements for shipping. This is why it is important to purchase your trees from a reliable nursery source, to ensure that your tree has been maintained properly prior to being planted in your garden.
Below is an example of what happens to a plant from arrival to shipping at Four Winds Growers nursery:
- Initial greenhouse storage
- The plants grow at the nursery, where they are properly irrigated, weeded and cared for
- The plants are re-potted (as needed) as they outgrow their original pots
- The plants are sprayed as needed and/or as required
- An order arrives and the nursery plants are packaged for shipping
- The nursery orders are sent out
Why Bare Root Trees?
The distinguishing factor of bare root trees are that they have all of the dirt removed from their root ball. With bare root trees:
- You will not have a mixing of soil when you plant the tree in your garden
- You can see the roots and can remove any problematic roots prior to planting
- They have a lower shipping cost since the soil and pot have been removed and more trees can fit into one box
Why Potted Plants?
If you are purchasing your plant from a reliable nursery, the trees will have been maintained and will have been re-potted when necessary in order to account for the growing roots. You will also not have any issues with the drying out of roots that can occur during the shipping of bare root trees.
Caring for Nursery Plants at Home
The main responsibility of the home gardener is size control, so pruning measures need to be utilized. For those with limited space, citrus trees can grow successfully for multiple years in 20 gallon containers. However, stone fruit trees will need to be planted in the ground after 5 years in order to be successful.
I would like to thank Four Winds Growers for the tour and for allowing the gathered content to be shared.
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