Farmers Weekly Review

Everyone is in full garden mode now that we finally have a few warmer days, and the garden centers and big box stores are humming like beehives.

There are bright beautiful annuals, a wide selection of perennials and the rows of potted up trees and shrubs. But there is also a section that is often overlooked and gets no respect — that lonely display of bare root plants, especially the bare root, small fruit plants.

I am here today to be a cheerleader for these sad little plants, in their rolled-up paper containers. All too often in the too warm section of the store, these plants are already in leaf, stretching toward the imaginary sun of the led lights in a big box store. And they look, well, sad and pathetic.

I know some of you, like me, belong to the Florence Nightengale of the Sad Plant Society. Just one look at any plant that they forgot to water or knocked off the shelf and stepped on, or just completely ignored and I am drawn to rescue them.

Of course, I try to get a good, discounted price, but these days, the old opportunity for a friendly bartering is often lost on the self-checkout aisle.

For years and years, I had seeded concord grape vines that produced bags and bags of the most delicious, naturally sweet fruit for my family and whole neighborhood (including many wildlife families.)

Those grapes had the humblest of starts; when one of the original big box (small by today’s standards) stores, Handy Andy, was going out of business, I was there to scope out some deals. At the checkout line, I couldn’t help but notice two of the bare root packages being trampled by carts and feet of everyone in line.

I picked them up and asked how much they were, and the clerk laughed out loud saying I could have those “dead sticks” for free. Little did the clerk know, those sticks were just waiting for a little proper care, and they became extraordinary food for decades, as well as a great landscape cover for my old 1960’s cyclone fence.

But what inspired me to focus on this topic today, occurred just last week when I happened to see the clerk at a local big box store marking, what I thought still looked pretty good bare root small fruit plants, down to two dollars. Now tell me, what can you possibly by for two dollars today that could literally give you years of fresh fruit, or flowers of beauty for very little effort? Nothing, that is what.

But many gardeners ignore the bare root style of plant in favor of paying the three to four times the price of a potted plant. But fear, not. As soon as you know these easy tips, you, too, will know how to get the most out of packaged bare root plants.

Bare root plants are dormant perennials that are packaged for sale in a combination of some organic material like sawdust, peat, or wood chips. A simple process (usually outlined on the wrapper of the bare root plant) is all you need to prepare these plants for planting.

Before purchase, as with any plant you are buying, inspect what you can see. Dormant plants may be totally packaged, but in the case of the small fruit plants — like the brambles-raspberries and blackberries-and the grapes — usually the main stem(s) of the plants are protruding out of the top of the package.

Be sure to look for strong woody canes, nothing soft or weak. Actually, many times, I see the bare root small fruit passed by because of some broken stems, but actually, they will be fine; you just have to do a little extra pruning clean up before planting.

Another detractor of bare root plants is that they often look, well, dead. Either the plants started growing in the packages and weren’t watered (pretty tough to water those tightly bound packages), and the leaves are all withered. Or the plant is completely dormant, and it looks like you are spending money on some kindling for your next campfire.

Once you purchase your bare root plants, there are just a couple extra steps you need to follow to wake them up and get them growing. First, remove all of the packaging. And, no, the material they were packed in does not go in the planting hole. That sawdust, peat and chip mixture was just there like Styrofoam peanuts or other packing material you get from Amazon.

Only this time, the function of the packing material goes one step beyond, keeping the plant protected. This helps to keep the plant in a sort of horticultural suspended animation. Not too wet, not too dry, just enough moisture to keep the roots alive.

So, discard (into the compost pile if you have one) any of the packing materials around the bare root plant. Then rinse off the plant so you can get a good look at the root system. Prune off any broken or dead roots, and then soak the roots in water to rehydrate them for a few hours.

Don’t do a “set it and forget it” here, where you leave the plant languishing in the water for too long because the roots could get waterlogged.

And this should go without saying at this point, but before any plant purchase, we should have chosen the right site for the plant’s needs. Hang on, I can’t stop laughing. Who really does that? Not me. Ol’ Impulse Buy Nancy is often seen walking around her property, pot in hand, muttering, “Now where can I put these?” The good news is, there is always room … somewhere.

Once you have your site, and prepared the soil, look at the bare root plant and note the specific place where the roots diverge from the shoot. That is a crucial spot. The hole should be only deep enough for the root/shoot to be at the soil line. Spread the roots out in the hole, then cover the plant.

Water well; mulch if you can tolerate. Since the plant is dormant still, be sure to remind yourself to water regularly if we aren’t getting adequate rainfall (remember, an inch of water per week between rain and water is ideal).

And in no time, your bare root plants will spring to life, and give you years of enjoyment.