Please note that our bare root availability list is always changing.  Use this guide to skim through what is currently available and avoid searching.

Click on the name of the tree to be linked to the product page >>>

Bare Root Fruiting Trees

Bare Root Berries

The post 2025 Bare Root Availability List appeared first on One Green World.

The Wedge Method

The first step is to collect your dormant scion wood. Scions must be cut while they are still fully dormant for the highest grafting success rate. Be sure to cut wood on new growth that is disease free and growing vigorously. The healthier and more vigorous your scion is, the greater chance of success when grafting and having a fast-growing young tree.

Once your scion is cut, label it and store it in the refrigerator where it will easily keep for at least a month until you are ready to graft.

Selecting rootstock is just as important as selecting what variety you want to grow. Most people think of height at maturity when thinking of rootstock, but disease resistance, vigor, lifespan, soil adaptability, suckering, and how well anchored the tree will be are other factors to consider. Most rootstocks are widely adaptable and resilient, hence their use as rootstock, but checking in with other gardeners/farmers in your area or your local extension agency can help you to choose the perfect rootstock for your location. And of course, trialing many different rootstocks for your location always yields valuable data.

We realized a few years ago in our grafting classes that using red fleshed apples is a great way for beginners to clearly see the difference between the pith, sapwood, cambium, and bark. The pith is that white spot in the middle, the sapwood is red in this case, and the cambium is the lighter layer beneath the dark red bark. The cambium is the most important part here as it is the layer that is lined up between the scion and the rootstock in order to get the vascular tissue to fuse and form a successful graft union.

Be sure to sterilize all of your tools before you begin grafting to avoid the potential spread of pathogens across plant material.

When choosing which piece of scion to graft onto which rootstock, it can be helpful to find diameters that are similar so that both sides of the graft match up, but this is not essential. Often the rootstock or scion will vary in size and if you can get one side matched up perfectly then you’ll have success.

The first and easiest graft that most folks start with is the wedge graft. The take rate on these grafts is typically pretty high and you don’t need to have that skilled of a grafter’s hand to have success with it.

First, make a split down the middle of the rootstock. It is important that the knife cuts the wood cleanly rather than having it split so that a more solid connection between scion and rootstock is achieved.

TIP: We often put our thumb on top of the blade and above the rootstock to ensure that the blade stops when our thumb hits the top of the rootstock. This ensures we don’t cut our other hand that’s holding the rootstock and keeps the blade from making too deep of a cut.

Next, cut the scion wood on both sides to form a wedge that tapers down to a very slim point. It is important to cut at a direct angle rather than “scooping” with the grain of the wood so that there are no air pockets between the cambium layers.

The scion should then fit neatly into the wedge you’ve created in the rootstock with no gaps between the two pieces of wood. It is better to line up one side perfectly than to put the scion right in the middle of the rootstock. Eventually as the young tree grows, it will fuse on both sides.

Once the scion is situated, wrap it up with grafting tape and tie a rubber band around to hold it tight so the rootstock is squeezed to the scion. Some growers will wrap the scion completely to keep it from dehydrating, but with apples it’s usually sufficient to put a small piece on the top like a little hat unless it’s a very old or dehydrated piece of scion that you’re trying to save.

The Whip and Tongue Method

Once you’ve gotten the hang of wedge grafting, you can try moving on to the whip and tongue method. The take rate is similar with both methods once you’ve mastered them, although, the whip and tongue has the advantage of lining up the two pieces in a more fluid way. It also has a bit more structural integrity for the young graft because of the interlocking wood.

To create a whip and tongue graft, you’ll make a cut about 3/4″ long from one end of the scion diagonally across to the other. After this cut, make the “tongue”, a little incision into the middle of the wood – usually right where the pith is. Create a mirror cut on the rootstock then interlock the two pieces together. The trick here is getting the two tongues on either side of each other. We’ve found the budding tool on grafting knives can be helpful for opening the tongues up a little more so they easily fit into each other.

The interlocking pieces will help the young graft be more resilient to anything knocking it out of place. Follow the same finals steps from above to secure it with grafting tape and a rubber band.

Final Steps

Pot up your newly grafted tree and put it in a frost-free location, but somewhere that is not too warm. We’ve found that for many of the more temperate plants, if they’re put into a warm greenhouse immediately the scion will break dormancy before the graft is fully fused and can then collapse. Other species such as figs and persimmons much prefer a hot environment while the grafts are fusing, but in the case of apples it’s best to either graft them after all danger of frost has passed or put them in a cool hoophouse or garage. The use of bottom heat can be helpful here too as it will cause the rootstock to begin growing and breaking dormancy more quickly while the cooler air above keeps the scion dormant. 

Grafting your own trees is a very fun and economical way to propagate young fruit trees. It is also an essential skill for orchardists, nursery workers, and anybody trying to conserve rare varietals. Experiment with different techniques, rootstock combinations, interstems, and materials and you just might discover a unique new way to propagate your favorite fruit trees.

Happy grafting!

The post A Step-by-Step Guide to Grafting appeared first on One Green World.

What in the One Green World does “well-draining soil” actually mean? We’ve all seen this listed on indoor, garden, and orchard plant descriptions. We all know most varieties grow best in this elusive, mysterious medium. But what exactly is it? How do we tell if our soil is well-draining? If our soil isn’t well draining, should we reject gardening as a hobby altogether? What are some signs we’ve finally attained it?

Let’s get down to it!

The goal is to have (or create) soil that supplies both air and water to plant roots in about equal proportions. If you have coarse, sandy soil, you may notice that water drains quickly through it, so your plants dry out and wilt sooner. But in heavy clay soil, you may have the opposite problem, where water takes a long time to drain, causing roots to rot from a lack of airflow. Fortunately, it is possible to improve your soil if your garden suffers from either extreme. Improving its drainage will go a long way toward creating a healthy, successful garden or orchard.

Simply put: well-drained soil allows water to enter the soil structure at a moderate rate without pooling or puddling, hang out for long enough for the plants to absorb the water they need, and then move along, making way for good ol’ oxygen to join the party; the oxygen is also absorbed by the roots and allows them to “breathe” between waterings. Cool, right?

What are some characteristics of well-drained soil?
Imagine you fill a jar with various sizes of marbles. Each marble represents a soil particle. The spaces between the marbles are filled with oxygen and water, both of which are necessary for healthy plant growth. When it rains or you water your garden, these pore spaces in between the soil particles fill with water. As the water moves downward through the soil, it’s replaced by air. This movement is referred to as soil drainage, so let’s talk about why the speed of this process is important.

Well-drained soil retains water long enough for roots to absorb what the plant needs and dries out sufficiently between rains or waterings so that roots can take up oxygen in the air that replaces the water once it drains out. Puddles that form after heavy rain are absorbed quickly by well-drained soil. Generally, these soils have a loose structure that makes them easy to dig in. When soil drains too quickly, plants do not have enough time to absorb the water and can die. Likewise, when the soil does not drain quickly enough and plants are left in pooling water, their oxygen intake from the soil is reduced, root rot can set in, and the plants can die. Plants that are weak and suffering from insufficient or over watering are more susceptible to disease and insect damage too. Bad news bears!

How do I tell if my soil is well-draining?
Determining how well your soil drains is pretty easy. Just dig a hole approximately 15” x 15” and fill with water. After it drains completely, refill it with water and note how long it takes for the water level to drop. In soil with good drainage, the level should drop about an inch per hour.

How can I improve drainage?
To improve soil drainage, begin by simply digging organic matter (like compost or shredded leaves) into your existing soil. Compacted, clay, and sandy soils all benefit from being amended with rich organic materials. For areas with poor drainage to either extreme, too wet or too dry, thoroughly mix in organic materials such as peat moss, compost, shredded bark, or manure. Nutrient-rich, properly drained soil is very important for healthy plants. This is a straightforward solution and works for almost any soil that drains too fast or slowly. For an unplanted bed, spread 3-4 inches of your organic matter across the surface of the soil and work it into the top 8-12 inches (a garden tiller or pitchfork will do the job). For a bed that is already planted, add a couple of inches of compost to the soil surface each year and over time, nature will do the mixing. Compacted and clay soil can drain poorly and cause plant roots to sit too long in wet conditions. We advise against adding sand to clay soil to improve drainage– this will just make the problem worse! If you have heavy clay or compacted soil, either amend the soil to make it more porous or choose plants that can tolerate wet areas. Clay soil may be improved by installing a drain tile. Sandy soil can drain water away from plant roots too quickly. For sandy soil, amend the soil or choose plants that can tolerate dry and drought-like conditions. If you’d rather avoid lots of digging or want a quicker solution, you may find your solution in installing raised beds. The beds should be at least 6-8” above the existing soil level. Recipes abound for soil mixes for raised beds, but they are basically combinations of high-quality topsoil (40-60%) and compost or other well-decomposed organic matter. Creating well-draining soil in pots is similar. You can either buy bagged potting mix or make your own blend. We don’t recommend using soil from your garden in containers, no matter how well-drained.

Why are some parts of my garden or yard more well-draining than others?
It’s important to note that drainage may be different in different parts of your yard. There are many reasons why this occurs, including the removal of topsoil during construction, compaction with heavy equipment, drainage towards or diversions from municipal systems and utilities, or simply the lay of the land. If there is an area of the yard where the soil stays wet for long periods, the best solution may be to simply select plants that thrive in poorly drained, soggy soil such as Elephant Ear, ferns, and willows. Similarly, if an area of your yard stays on the dry side, no matter how much it rains or you water, that’s where you should place drought-tolerant plants, such as ceanothus, lavender, and yucca.

The post Soil Drainage 101 appeared first on One Green World.

Bags of dried fruits and a universe of jars of wonderful treats. Winter salad greens and fresh cut herbs could grace your plate. Your onions and potatoes seasoned with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, and more – if you’d only planned (or maybe you did!) Like they say, it was best to have planted a fruit tree 7 years ago. So, let’s get started on garden planning!

Well, what do you want to grow?

Focusing around economics, kitchen recipes, and personal/family/friend preferences will help shape that list. What do you spend most on in your monthly food budget that you could instead begin to grow? Think of the produce items that never look great or are devoid of flavor at the grocery store, especially in the winter. What does your family enjoy eating? That vegetable or fruit your friends really adore when they come over for a shared meal. The ones that the kids get excited about. Or, maybe that they should get excited about. What will make the neighbors squeal with joy when you share your abundant harvests? Hmm… Create a list to grow based on those considerations.

Part of the garden planning process is remembering what worked and what didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. Sometimes we get lucky and even get to figure out why things turned out as they did. When planning, whether you have a small backyard, patio garden, or even a full-on farm, it’s good to take an inventory of what we have and where we want to go. What’s growing well? What’s been struggling all along? “Right plant, right place.” Sometimes the plants we had high hopes for our growing conditions for whatever reason limp along while other times it’s nothing but uncontrollable gangbusters from the start!

Planting varieties proven for your growing area is essential especially if we don’t have a large area to experiment with. It’s good to strike a balance between honing on the tried-and-true, what provably works, but going out and trying that wild-hair experimental idea. Strike a balance, that way you won’t get in trouble with your spouse for being too “out there”. Thankfully, OGW’s got you covered with the right plants no matter where you live!

Designing Your Garden

Creating a map of your site and how everything relates to each other is important for best long term success. Gaia’s Garden by the late Toby Hemenway remains one of the most important works toward understanding the basic workings of an integrated garden design. Worth checking out and digesting its contents.

First off, we’re going to be interacting with the space, right? So, that means thinking about how people including yourself will use that space. How can they move around efficiently. Plan around what tasks currently happen there, what tasks you will want to happen there in the future, and how people need to move around in that space to complete the tasks. Design your garden so that it is both easy and safe to move around that space quickly and with ease but also so that physical movement time is minimizing by grouping tasks around the function they perform. This will look different to each person and that’s perfectly fine.

What are the permanent features of this area? The buildings on the property, the water features like ponds and downspouts, the paths and how they fit into the lay of the land, the trees, shrubs. What about the surrounding neighborhood and greater area. Then think about how the annuals fit into that scheme.

Think of your garden in terms of time. Creating a four-season plan for your garden that includes season highlights, planting schedules (both short-term growing year goals but also long-term), rotations, and processing storage time estimations can really help ensure you make the most of your growing season and also that you have the time to “put away” as much of your produce as possible. We all know the person that grows a ton of tomatoes but never finds the time to can! Maybe this means getting together with your neighbors to help share and preserve the harvest. This is obviously a huge subject, just broad-brushing over some greater concepts that we’ll touch more on later another time.

Timeliness and Garden Planning

Part of successful winter gardening is often starting with planning the year before. Many of the garden vegetables we love like Brussels Sprouts (Mar), Garlic (Sep-Nov, or Jan), winter hardy salad greens (July) require planning ahead usually at the height of Spring or Summer. Not a time our intuition screams WINTER! and yet, the seasoned gardener knows how to plan in advance during that time. To the maxim “right plant, right place”, add “right time”. Of course, the entire practice of gardening or farming revolves around starting and finishing tasks with the correct seasonal timing.

You’re in luck because there are many different books, guidelines for your bioregion, and blogs that have been published for pretty much any region of the US or Canada. For us in Cascadia (Vancouver Island to Northern California), Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide Second Edition continues to be a great for not just winter, but throughout the seasons as well. Strangely despite its popularity, it’s been out of print for the last year, but it’s still easy to find and pick up a copy online. Two other excellent books on this general subject continue to be Binda Colebrook’s Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest despite the planting dates being a bit off and a number of the Elliot Coleman books like The Winter Harvest Handbook and Four-Season Harvest. Here is our recommended books to plan your own food forests and gardens – OGW BOOKS

When planning for winter gardening, we need to pay attention to not only how we are going to help our plants cope with the typical lows and winter conditions like snow or ice, but also provide some planning for how to do with the occasional extreme winter weather. Getting to know your areas first and last average frost dates can help with planning ahead. It’s a bit technical, but NOAA publishes this information. Just select your state on the website to get your list.

It All Starts From the Soil

Speaking of temperatures, remember that soil life is basically dormant below 45 F. Which means if the compost doesn’t have core heat, no composting will happen. It means that the nitrogen fixing soil organisms are dormant and not ready to feed your plants. Which is part of the reason many plants stay dormant during the cold months. Which leads us to chatting a little about soil health.

Once the ground begins to thaw, typically in Feb, it is a great time to get a comprehensive soil test. I personally recommend the company Ag-Source – they are geared towards organics, very competitively priced, have great customer service that make the process simple, give excellent recommended fertilizer recommendations. and have offices throughout the US. Often us in the “ground yer own” crowd are driven by a desire to produce food that is not chemically contaminated and flavor rich. A big part of flavor equation is ensuring that our harvest is not only nutrient rich but nutritionally balanced. This is part of insuring that our homegrown isn’t an empty promise – having been chemically contaminated and/or devoid of nutrition. For more information about soil fertility in layman’s terms, see the book The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon. Biology also plays a role of central importance with which Dr Elaine Ingham has extensively written about. The marriage of these two ideas achieves balance.

On the biology side of things, as you are cleaning up your garden and assessing winter damage, remember to recycle those on site nutrients as well! One of best ways to build soil fertility is by feeding it all sorts of vegetation. It has been said many times that composting is both an art and a science. But, by adding those clippings and woody debris to all those vegetable scraps you’ve been dumping on the pile, this will both help keep the compost pile aerated, heated and active, but will also help balance the carbon to nitrogen ratio in the pile which will make the best compost and in turn the best soil. Sometimes I like to compost in place for some things in layers, but for vegetable scraps I like to make layered piles in new locales over time, slowly enriching more and more space. Bio-intensive Approach to Small-scale Household Food Production shows the mineral makeup of different compostable materials. The rest of the guide is pretty cool, too!

By working on that compost, you’ve probably already checked on your tools a bit. But, take the time to clean, sharpen, repair, and replace those trusted tools that allow us to complete our vital work every day. Fix that wobbly wheelbarrow, repair or replace those leaking hoses and water lines, etc. Also, don’t forget about those motors! Periodically starting and briefly running will prevent later work flow problems in the early Spring or Summer when you need them most! Two-cycle engines like weed wackers and chainsaws don’t like their fuel/oil mixture just sitting in them indefinitely. Refer to your equipment’s owner manual for specific information about how to preform maintenance tasks for them.

A Lil’ Bit about Seeds!

Are your vegetable seeds still fresh? Check the dates. Try to keep records of when/where/who they came from. Save and learn the stories. Memorize like the keepsakes they are. Even if its scribbling on an envelope. Periodically check over your winter squash, potatoes, bulbs and tubers to keep your produce and planting stock in good order.

Seeds can be started early for transplant using southern facing windowsills and a chamber to keep humidity high. A great place to start those slowest growing seeds for transplanting months later. You can also test the viability of those heirloom tomato seeds that you got at that seed exchange several years ago. Taking out a few and planting them to see if they germinate in warm indoor conditions, will save later wasted time. A good wealth of information for starting seeds inside can be found at Wintersown. Some great local companies to check out are Adaptive Seeds,  Green Journey Seeds, Nichol’s, Peace Seedlings, Siskiyou Seeds, Uprising Organics, Wild Garden Seed and many more. OGW also has a great selection of seeds from these amazing NW growers in online and at OGW’s Garden Center in Portland. Don’t forget your local seed exchanges either!

Maybe you want to build some infrastructure? A bigger dedicated space to growing like a full-on with lights indoors grow space or a heated greenhouse. Perhaps building heated propagation beds in simple hoop house is the way to go? It’s also very easy to build germinate beds in a hoop house using a thick layer of finished compost a top fresh manure or hot compost bed. Also, cloches and cold frames can both help us start plants earlier, protected from winters worst, but also extend the growing season into the Winter. Floating row covers help keep winters worst off already established plants. Decisions, decisions.

Some Things to Think About

If you live in a more maritime climate or a milder area, January and February are excellent times to prune many types of fruit trees. While thinking about pruning, it’s good to also think of pollinators like mason bees. Check out our Mason Bee Guide. Check the bases of your trees for signs of girdling from voles or mice. There are various products you can add to the bark of tree bases to prevent damage. Learn the difference between mosses and lichens. Lichens as they fall to the ground over time actually feed the soil and thus the trees nitrogen while mosses, if not gently rubbed one, can actually cause harm to trees over time. Finally, most bareroot and potted plants can be placed into the landscape if the soil is not frozen.

January is also your first window to start planting those early vegetables like cabbage, onions in trays to transplant, peppers and tomatoes (indoors). While in late January/early February it is a great time to direct sow certain flower seeds like poppies that need to settle in and stratify (receive cold wet conditions) for some time before they will germinate. Some vegetables can also be direct sown like peas and fava beans directly into fresh earth.

While it is perfectly fine to prune many fruit and nut trees as well as small fruits, it is best to wait to do summer pruning on peaches, plums, and cherries due to the potential to cause disease issues in cold wet conditions. Grapes should be pruned and trained late Jan/ early Feb. In fact, I’ve laid my eyes on more than one old farming book relating that the best time to prune is actually in late Spring/early Summer but that they’d always learned to prune in the winter because they didn’t have time to do it when it’d actually have been best. Something to think about.

Winter is a great time to do some pest management. The organics-approved Dormant Oil can be used to stop a wide number of pest organisms that are living dormant on or in the wood like certain aphids, mites, and scales. And, don’t forget to set out those crowns and divisions like asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish, onion sets, potatoes, artichokes, dahlias, lilies, gladiolas, and friends.

March is typically the month where many of our plants are awakening and is a great time to make divisions of many clumping or spreading plants like hostas, mint, strawberries, raspberries, bamboo, iris, daylilies, etc. It is also a great time to prune more winter sensitive plants like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.

Speaking of friends. I think of plants as friends, some are old friends, some I’ve just met. During the winter, it’s nice to have some plants that call out their presence during the silence of the winter. Some of my favorite winter interest plants include Garrya x issaquahensis which the males have these long white catkins, Jerusalem Sage  (Phlomis russeliana) which has interesting persistent flower heads, and the beautifully vivid yellow flowers of Witch Hazel and ‘Winter Charity ’ Mahonia. Winter flowering fragrant plants like some types of Jasmine, Winter Flowering Honeysuckle, Sarcococca, Daphne, ‘Dawn‘ Winter Flowering Viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense).

Okay! It is time to reach out beyond your garden! Garden planning is more than just being an indoor study. Get to know your neighbors. Find ways to bridge differences and strengthen ways to collaborate. Go to workshops and outings. Gain inspiration from those neighbors. Get to know your county’s extension agent. Join the local garden clubs and fruit societies, many are actually really lively and fun! If you live near Portland, OR come check out Home Orchard Society events and within Western Oregon, the Agrarian Sharing Network propagation fairs. And.. don’t forget to visit OGW and say hello!

~ Chris Homanics – OGW Community Coordinator.

The post Garden Planning This Winter appeared first on One Green World.

The following plants require less Chill Hours to go through dormancy.  The list is especially useful for gardeners in southern regions where other varieties will not grow and fruit satisfactorily. Treat this list as a guide and be sure to check with your local Extension agent or local growers to learn more about what you can grow in your region.

We would also love to know your experiences with these and other plants.

Low Chill Plants Listed Below

The post Low Chill Plants appeared first on One Green World.

This list is a work in progress and we’d love to hear your experiences with these and other plants.

Contact One Green World for any questions that you may have regarding the hardiness of your plants.

The post Extremely Hardy Plants appeared first on One Green World.