Fruit Trees Are Becoming Unaffordable

It used to be that buying a bare root fruit tree was an inexpensive investment well worth the upfront cost.

I remember ordering several a year with money I earned in a low wage student job.

Mail order and locally.

They were good quality and produced well.

Now, if you dare order a bareroot tree, and not even a potted one, they cost 50-65 dollars a piece and add in $30 in shipping (at least!) and it’s a harder investment to make.

This for a small tree with few roots.

So what can you do if that is out of your price range? That depends on how patient you are.

You can grow some fruits by seed. Yes, they won’t be the same as what you ate and they will take many years to fruit. I’ve done this with apples and lemons. It can be done with pears, peaches, etc.

You can start with cuttings from trees other people have. I e don’t this accidently a time or two, sticking freshly pruned branches directly in the ground and had a few root and start growing. That hasn’t happened often, though.

You can buy fruit trees, potted or bareroot at auctions but there won’t be much choice. And as clearance locally at the end of the seasons. Do be aware the trees will be more stressed and might need more TLC and may struggle.

Yesterday at Costco I picked up a few bareroot trees. They are still fairly reasonable in cost if you aren’t too picky on variety. The 3-n-1 grafted trees were $27.99 and the regular semi dwarf grafted was 19.99. Probably the best price around town and the only place standing up to the pressure of the anti-diversity crowd around here so worthy of my $$$.

If you are looking for a specific and rare type you will have to shop around and plunk down some major cash. And it won’t be a bigger tree than what you get here.

People will say “don’t buy Costco trees they don’t do well.”

That’s not true, I’ve bought so many. I had over 80 of them at the farm and they did fantastic. They are producing fruit. I’ve had a couple fails, and that was because they were peaches and apricots which was a crapshoot in my area anyway. The late frosts would kill them.

Anyway, times are going to be hard with the diapered don in office. The best time to have planted fruit trees was 10 years ago but now is better than never. Plant one of these and you’ll have fruit in 4-7 years. Invest.

You can help the earth by planting trees and food. You can also use EBT to buy a tree at Costco as well if need be.