Transporting young fruit trees?

[Munch]

Hi Everyone.

Last winter I bought an apple and a pear tree in Lidl, they got put in large pots for the winter as we were unsure of their final position in the garden.

Since then we got our lottie, now I would like to take them down there.

The only problem is, the pots they are in are too heavy to move very far atall and wont fit in the car!

Can I pull the trees out give them a shake so they are practically bear roots, pop them (the roots) in a bag, take straight to the lottie and plant them?

If so whats the best thing to do the lottie end?

Ta muchly

[rustylady]

Can't see any reason why not. Get your site(s) prepared at the lottie before you move the trees though, then they will be out of the growing medium for as short a time as possible.

[donnakebab]

Give it a go. Prepare a big enough hole to accommodate root ball which will probably be the same size as the pot they grew in then just fill it in and water. Add some fish, blood and bone if you like and don't forget to stake. That's what I would do anyway.

[northepaul]

Make sure the trees are completely dormant before removing from the pot....

[Aberdeenplotter]

Make sure the trees are completely dormant before removing from the pot....

Exactly the words I would have used

[snohare]

I third that.
Regardless of how dormant they are, it will do no harm (as long as there is no frost) to drench the roots in water, and wrap them in burlap or damp newspaper while they are in transit.
Some might say that a decoction of willow bark scrapings left to soak in water for two weeks would help avoid transplant shock - if you don't have the time, I suppose dropping an aspirin would do just as well !
The reason I say this is that with such high temperatures nowadays, total dormancy will be hard to get - although the leaves might be off the trees, that doesn't mean they are totally dormant I don't think. (Others may know better. )

[VirginVegGrower]

Why not pull them from pot with rootball and pop into bin bag - lie down and tie up. Save the mess in your motor.