FAQ/Terms

How big are the trees?

The below summary is for trees that are priced at $59.99. The description below does not apply to bundled trees or trees priced under $59.99 (size descriptions can typically be found at the end of the variety descriptions). All of the trees must be pruned back to around breast height no matter what after they have been planted. That said, when the trees are out in the field growing (before you receive them), they are on average between 5 1/2 ft. and some up to 8 ft (some may be a little smaller than 5 1/2 ft., though). The average size of the trees at the base, is 3/4” (some closer to or over 1” and some closer to 5/8”). In the past, we would sell the trees to customers at the 5 1/2 ft. – 8 ft. height of the trees out in the field. However, we stopped doing this because we saw the mortality rate increase on the trees. Mortality rate increased because root loss that occurred during bare root transplant couldn’t accommodate feeding such a large amount of the aerial parts of the tree's anatomy, i.e. leaves, new branches, etc. People were happier when they received the trees because they were bigger, but they were not happy that some of their trees dies because that tops were never cut back to balance out the cut roots for transplant. We then experimented with pruning all of them to breast height before customers received their trees (which needs to happen out in the field) and although the trees survived, people were less happy with how big they were when they received them. So now, we take a middle of the road approach and prune them back during transit to about 6-7 feet, and then we offer a pruning and tree training demo free of charge (if we deliver them personally) or you can watch some of our videos online. This demo usually takes around 5 minutes and breaks down into bite sized info. regarding what must be done in order to prune and train the trees. After all, we want the trees to grow out and not up! This “out not up” approach allows for the trees to concentrate their energy into the fruiting structure that will set it (and you) up for fruit growing success! In terms of age, the trees are going on their third growing season and most trees are nearly an inch in diameter at the base of the trunk. See our video here, which explains that process.

As for shipped trees, these are all pruned back to fit in a 5 ft. box (this helps the trees grow out).

Several of the trees already have great branching yet some are just sticks. What’s the deal with this?

Although lots of our trees such as our peaches, several apples, some pears, nectarines, tart cherries, cider apples, some plums, and all apricots are “feathered” or already have started branching, some of the sweet cherries, Italian plums and some of the pears and apples are what we call late branchers. All of our trees are going on their third growing season. For the non-feathered trees, it is the same case, yet they have thus far concentrated more of their energy in their terminal buds as opposed to their terminal buds and their branches. Although this does not occur with most of our trees, don’t be shocked to see sticks for a couple of our trees upon arrival as this is completely normal for certain cultivars and they will branch out very well this year.

What do we do with the trees once we receive them?

Once you get home from pickup or once the trees are delivered, find a large bin, horse trough (if you have this), or other vessel. Fill the container with water and place the trees in them and in a garage (or somewhere out of the frost). Don’t keep the trees in water for longer than a day. And there are certain plants not to soak including strawberries, Black Walnut, Butternut, and Oak. Take the trees out later that day or the following day. Don’t let the roots dry and do not keep them in water for longer than 24 hours!

What do we do after storing them overnight in water?

The sooner you can plant the trees once you receive them the better. That said, not everyone is capable of planting them right away. If this is the case, the best thing to do is to store the trees in one of several ways. Our favorite is to use the moist sawdust that your trees came with (but you’ll need more if the trees were shipped!) and envelope the roots in the sawdust in a large bin, etc. (just use your water container). Make sure none of the roots are exposed/visible and that there are no air pockets in the sawdust around the roots. Store in a garage (or basement) for maximum a couple days. Another option (which involves more work) is to dig a hole (or two) that can fit all of your trees together (preferably a hole that one of the trees will go into later), place the trees in the holes, and fill the hole back in with the soil you just dug out. Make sure there are no air pockets and the roots are not exposed (very important!). Water the trees in well and keep them there until you are ready to plant.

How far apart should our holes be?

The simple answer is 14-18 ft. apart. Most of our trees are on semi-dwarf rootstock (the cherries are the exception and are on full size) and most of our trees will reach anywhere from 13 ft. to nearly 20 ft. tall (22-25 ft. tall for cherries) in 10-15 years. We should therefore plan for spacing that will accommodate that size. As a rough rule of thumb, the diameter of the canopy is the height of the tree. So if the tree reaches 16 ft. at maturity, with a 16 ft. canopy (remember that half of the 16 ft. or 8 ft. of the canopy is on one side of the main stem or trunk and the other half is the other side), you would space your next tree 16 ft. apart from the trunk of one tree to the trunk of the other. All of this said, cultural practices such as how you train and prune your tree also heavily influence appropriate spacing. A full size cherry tree may reach 25 ft. and “should” be spaced 25 ft. apart. However, cherry growers, especially as we see up on Flathead Lake, often grow full size cherry trees on Mazzard rootstock but space them closer than 25 ft. apart, i.e. 12 or 15 ft. apart, and then prune accordingly. When in doubt. check the rootstock that the tree was on (on the variety description page at the end).

How big should our holes be?

There is no exact answer as it depends on the species/size of the root ball. Go 2 ft. in diameter and 2 ft. deep for the cherries. You can get away with 1.5 ft. in diameter for the rest but some are ever so slightly bigger. Regardless of if the hole is 1.5 ft. or 2 ft. diameter, loosen the interior wall of the hole (which shovel heads or any other heavy machinery tend to compact) by taking a shovel and digging just along the outside of the hole and in towards the hole to break up the hole compaction. Plan to go off of these numbers when digging beforehand and then adjust once you are out in the field planting.

How do we plant the tree?

This can be daunting for many but fear not. First thing, make sure the tree roots are always moist. If you are digging the holes and your trees are out in the field with you, keep the trees in a water bucket or something that will prevent the roots from drying out. After the hole is dug, loosen the interior walls of the holes (think about how hard those hole walls are. No fun for roots!). I won’t go through each step for planting (again, see the video) but until we get one of our own videos up, this should suffice. Michael Phillips is certainly a wealth of knowledge and someone who you should be acquainted with (see his book The Holistic Orchard). Set the tree and infill. One of the main things to get right is how high you are planting the tree. Don’t plant the graft into the soil but also don’t plant too high and expose the roots. The root collar, or area where the roots join the main stem or trunk, is a good indication of how high to plant the tree. The soil horizon should be in line with the root collar. Often you can see a spot of discoloration below the area of the root collar and above it. The discoloration below was from where the tree was previously in the ground and above was where the tree was exposed to oxygen. Plant right at that line (actually slightly higher because trees tend to settle over time. Finally, make sure you tamp the tree down and ensure that it is vertical and not leaning. Water the tree in well (this is hard to overdo when planting). Mulch the tree ideally with hardwood mulch but since this may be hard to come by and we encourage the use of local materials, softwood mulch does more good than harm. This is armor for the soil, prevents evaporation, and will break down to into organic matter over time. Further, we dip all our trees in mycorhizzal fungi so this should help encourage mycellial growth and thereby speed up decomposition of woody biomass (wood chips) and forge a symbiotic relationship with the tree by exchanging phosphorous and other nutrients for the trees’ energy that it is capable of collecting from the sun.

How much water should the tree get?

When planting the tree, something that we have gotten in the habit of is making a basin or “doughnut” (as we call it) around the tree. About 2 ft. all the way around the main stem of the tree is a basin that we create out of the soil (we often use the native soil that was displaced when we added compost). The basin is about an inch lower than the soil horizon (ground). On the edges of the basin (4 ft. in diameter) are little mounds. Imagine a 4 ft. diameter doughnut placed around the tree. This allows the tree to keep water in place for now while the tree is young and vulnerable. The doughnut ensures that when you water the tree, the water stays within the rooting zone of the tree. This allows us to water less. Couple that with mulching the tree and you can often get away with one to two 5 gallon buckets of water a week (roughly equal to 1-2 inches of water a week). Pay close attention though. If the soil is more porous, or if there is less organic matter on the soil, water will not stick around and the tree may need more. The tree will tell you (see wilting).

What is your experience growing applecrabs for cider?

This is an email we sent to a customer who asked us about the potential for using applecrabs in ciders. here was Luke’s response: “I have had Wickson crab cider. Wickson I do not believe is a crabapple, but rather an applecrab. The cider was absolutely delicious. It's high sugar, high acid. Made for a complex very dry cider. We do not have Wickson at the moment but we will in future years. I can't say I have personally tasted other applecrab varietal ciders. I suspect they would all be good. Here is a take on chestnut applecrab cider. I have had Kerr fresh cider which was stunningly good. Very fruity, bright, and sweet/tart. Dolgo, which is one of the parents of Kerr and is a seedling of Siberian Crab, made for an excellent cider when blended with strawberry. Our local cidery in Missoula, Western Cider, made this.

So given that this is the case, someone needs to be experimenting with Kerr Ciders. But in short, yes, applecrabs make great ciders in my limited experience. I like drier, tart ciders, however, but I think that with the right experimenting, you could make some killer applecrab ciders.”

My tree has yet to bud out. What do I do? What is your policy here?

If it is still June and your tree has not budded out, give it at least until August 1st. Do the scratch test on the tree. Start at the top and work your way down with your fingernail every twelve inches. If you see green cambial tissue underneath the bark, then the tree is still alive. Sometimes trees can be sluggish and take a little bit to break dormancy. Although rare, we have seen trees not bud out until August. Peaches, nectarines, and certain types of plums are at times the most finicky to get to bud out in our climate (in some rare instances they can bud out in August). If at the end of the summer the tree still has yet to bud out, then unfortunately the tree has bit the dust. We offer a credit for trees that did not bud out and this credit can go towards the same tree or other plants of your choosing. We do not offer refunds. The credit must apply towards a new order either in the Fall or the following Spring. We do not cover the cost to ship out credited trees. Send complaints or issues with your order to office@montanafruittrees.com

I understand Montana’s winters can be hard on fruit trees. How do I prepare the trees for winter?

This is a great question. We try to explain to all of our customers that there are many things that need to be done to successfully grow fruit trees in Montana. At the top of the list includes protecting/preparing the trees for winter. The first is site selection of your fruit trees. Avoid planting the trees where the frost settles (use where the fog first settles on your landscape as a good indicator). If there are spots on your landscape that are higher up (e.g. on a bench) then this is typically a better spot. Also, anything close to buildings, structures, pavement/concrete, and hedges/other trees can also bump up the microclimate of the surrounding area. This is typically where we would encourage planting peaches and nectarines. Apples, pears, tart cherries, some of the sweet cherries, and certain hardy plums and apricots are less finicky here. After site selection, the best thing to prepare the trees for winter is to make sure you aren’t fertilizing after Aug. 1st. And we recommend cutting off water around the 3rd week of August. Although this seems drastic because it is still hot during this time, this helps initiate the tree’s winter metabolic shutdown process and accompanying “hardening off” for dormancy to protect the buds from the cold/frost. Lastly, we recommend wrapping in burlap on Oct. 1st all peaches, nectarines, less cold hardy apricots, sweet cherries, and asian pears. Montana saw extremely early fall flash frosts that had devastated fruit trees all over the state in 2019 where it got into the negatives on 10/31 (update: 2020 was even worse near -10 F on 10/26). These low winter temps have a devastating effect on the living tissues that are responsible for nutrient and water flow whereby the ice crystals penetrate the cell membranes and cause cellular rupturing, which kills the trees. Although we may not see these fall flash frosts for years, I wouldn’t bet on it. To wrap the burlap, have one person hug the limbs so they are all bunched together towards the main stem while the other person uses twine to tie the limbs up. Then starting at the base, wrap the tree with the burlap all the way up the entirety of the tree. Make four layers in any given area and leave on all winter. This should protect the trees, especially when it comes to the early fall frosts. No need to worry for apples, European pears, tart cherries, some plums, apricots, and sweet cherries. If this is too much for you, then take the chance or grow only our zone 3 trees but we have seen crazy weather the last couple years. Of course understand your given microclimate and maybe it isn’t necessary. But for instance, we lost some of our Gold sweet cherries that we didn’t protect from the fall frost. These are known to bear a crop after seeing -38F winter temps in January. But the couldn’t handle a -10 in October. Montana can be tough but if you take these into account, your odds of growing the marginal fruit trees will be much higher.

Where are you located? Can we come see the trees?

When picking up trees, we are located at 3200 Clark Street in Missoula. As for coming and seeing the trees, we are an online wholesale nursery and not a walk-in retail nursery. If you are just looking for one or two trees, check out other great nurseries in Missoula such as Marchie’s or Caras. To make an appointment, please contact us by phone or email.

I live in Minnesota where it is cold and am looking for some cold hardy varieties. Could you ship to me? If so, how much would this cost?

We certainly can! You’ll see a quote at checkout.

My tree died from the cold. Can I get a replacement?

We live in an area that does not make it easy to grow fruit trees. That said, we have spent an inordinate amount of time researching the best varieties to grow in a cold climate. So please read the descriptions! Given that every site is different and that people are often in microclimates (that may be colder than the surrounding area), it is very important to understand how cold your area has been, to avoid frost pockets or overly exposed areas, what the variety in question can tolerate, and cultural practices such as how to put the trees to bed before winter. We don’t guarantee the trees from winter loss (we only guarantee they will bud out) but we often provide a credit on a case by case basis to help soften the blow. This credit is not guaranteed, and may not be in the full amount lost. The credit must also be used on the website and minimum orders must still be met. Send complaints or issues with your order to office@montanafruittrees.com

Can I cancel my order?

We cannot cancel orders after Feb 1st. That said, we can provide a credit for the amount of the initial order if you are not ready to pick up your order or plant the trees, and you can then arrange shipping/pickup at a later date. Alternatively, we can swap your order with something else as long as we have it in stock. We understand that planting logistics, climate, etc., often change planting plans so we try to be accommodate as best we can. This is the case for errors in ordering, planting timeline changes, etc.