Whether or not, here we come! (See what I did there?) Bare root liners will soon be here! I love this time of year. A picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll add some pics. There is something special about this part of growing trees.
There is often some drama. Brokers and truck drivers don’t always communicate like I think they should and schedules made with the shipping office at J. Frank Schmidt in Boring, Oregon don’t always survive the 1700+ mile ride my bare root baby trees take. I’ve had the truck show up with no warning in the middle of the night and park on the side of the road at the end of my lane. Sometimes they’re early, sometimes late and almost always show up on a very windy day. We open the doors and the sight and smell of better than 1,000 little bare root trees covered in wet cardboard and kept at 45 degrees always gets me goin a bit! I like to get what the industry calls whips ranging from 4’-6’ tall depending on variety and availability. They are bundled in groups of 5 or 10 depending on size. I don’t know how many a 53’ refrigerated trailer can hold but my small order only fills around 15’ of floor space stacked clear to the ceiling so many thousands of trees total. The driver often has numerous other stops before and after my drop, so we try to get him out the door as quickly as possible.
Then into the barn they go. We sort them by variety and check to make sure the counts are correct. We cover the roots in sawdust or straw and begin watering. This may be the most dangerous time in these little trees’ lives. Too much cover on the roots and we can’t get them soaked. Too little cover and they dry out. Ideally, we plant them ASAP, I’d like to begin planting the day they arrive but in 13 years of planting trees the stars have only aligned enough to do that a couple of times. Usually, they stay in the barn for a week or two until the weather, soil conditions and available labor all fall into place and they go into the dirt. The planting process is a topic for another time. For now, another pic is in order.
I may have gotten a little excited about this post. Man I love my job! Alright, back to work. Logan