Tube-packed trees OUT OF STOCK

In Spring, we packed thousands of tube-pack trees ready to courier to clients within the next few months, but summer has come and our remaining tube-packed trees have outgrown their small tube-packs. We, therefore, are out of stock of tube-packed trees. We do have large supplies of thriving young lucerne trees in individual 1-litre potting bags in stock.

Remember that lucerne trees have a very vigorous root system and want to grow deep down into the soil. This fast root growth means that lucerne trees should not remain in potting bags for more than a few months. We recommend that you shelter your young sapling until it reaches 40cm and then plant them in your lands. This growth takes about 4 months.

Please fill in the contact form on our Orders page to order your your trees.

End of season lucerne tree stocks

All our trees in tube-packs are either sold out or potted out into our 1-litre potting bags. Because lucerne trees’ roots grow so fast, we cannot keep them in either the tube-packs or potting bags indefinitely.

Our trees in 1-litre potting bags are about 20-30cm tall, almost ready to be planted out into the land. Stocks are limited, so please order as soon as possible so that you can plant your trees in this late summer season.

Happy farming!

Video – How to pot bare-rooted trees into bags

We courier bare-root lucerne trees to clients all across South Africa and we are confident of your success if you follow our tried-and-tested transplanting instructions.  Here is a  video to show how we transplant bare-rooted lucerne trees into our 1-litre potting bags ~

It is vital that you immediately pot out your newly collected trees into individual 1-litre potting bags and keep them in a sheltered spot until they reach about 30cm in height.   This growth could take another month or so, depending on the temperature.

To save on transport costs, we courier our young lucerne trees bare-rooted.  We take young saplings out of their potting bags, remove most of their soil and package them in some moist soil.  We wrap the root bundle in wet newspaper and place the bundle in plastic bags to keep the roots covered and moist. Bare-rooted trees can survive several days so long as the roots are not dried out.

Plant out your trees immediately into potting bags filled with potting or topsoil soil.  Do not use compost or manure in your mix.  Water the soil in the potting bags just before you transplant your trees.

Here’s how to transplant your bare-rooted trees into potting bags ~

1. Once you receive your trees, open the bundle and carefully unwrap the trees. Place the roots and soil into a bowl of water.
2. Gently loosen the trees and do not simply pull them apart. It is imperative that you do not break the roots when you separate the trees!
3. Use your finger and make a hole in the soil in the potting bag, deep enough for the roots to go their full length.
4. Gently ease the roots into the prepared hole, making sure the roots are able to fit into the hole without damaging them.
5. Firm the soil gently around the roots and stem.  There should be no air pockets in the soil or else the roots will dry out and die.  Trees like to have a snug fit in their bag.
6. Water well immediately.  Thereafter water lightly regularly, but don’t over-water as these trees don’t like sitting in prolonged soggy soil.
7. The trees often go into transplant shock and may look wilted and take several days to recover. Should the tips remain wilted after two weeks after planting, prune the damaged tips. If most of the leaves fall off but the stem remains green, your tree may still bud again, so don’t give up too soon.
8. Protect your trees and prevent anything from eating them. Keep an eye out for snails and sprinkle snail bait around your bags

Once your saplings reach 30-40cm tall, plant them out into your land as described in our step-by-step planting instructions.  This is the very simple yet successful method we use to our transplant trees into bags.

Please share your experiences with us via our email ~ lucerne.trees@gmail.com.  Order your trees today!

We wish you every success!

 

Ready-to-plant trees

Our lucerne tree nursery is bursting with saplings ready to plant. All our trees are going at R10 a tree and we have thousands of trees in stock!

We courier these saplings across the country with PostNet’s Overnight service. This means that you could collect your trees the next day and plant them immediately into your prepared holes in your lands.

While this method is a fairly high-risk approach, we always tuck in a lot of “spare” bare-rooted trees in the parcel as a back-up for any tree that doesn’t recover from its transplant shock.

We also have lucerne trees in individual potting bags. Clients who wish to visit us here on our farm and collect their trees should place an order and make an appointment for their visit.

Update ~ These trees are only available for South African clients. We are not permitted to courier trees internationally due to strict import and bio-security laws.

Please pop over to our Price & Orders page to fill our contact form and place an order or ask for a quote.

Update ~ These trees are only available for South African clients. We are not permitted to courier trees internationally due to strict import and bio-security laws.

Happy Farming!

Trees in stock this spring

Spring has sprung!  We have germinated our seeds and transplanted volunteer seedlings during this winter and currently have thousands of tiny trees growing in our seedling beds.  These trees are very small, about 3cm-5cm tall, and they are too vulnerable to sell at this time.  Trees should grow to at least 10cm before we can sell them and then they should grow to be 40cm tall before planting them out into your lands.

We will no longer sell 1m-tall trees. This is because lucerne trees have very vigorous root growth and quickly become pot-bound when left in their potting bags too long.

As you can see in the photo, the root growth is stronger than stem and leaf growth.  This continues well into the trees’ first year in the land.

A tree takes about 4 months to grow to 40cm-tall when they are ready to plant out.  It can take up to 6 months until they grow to 1m-tall.  When we leave them in potting bags this long, their roots fill up the bag completely, becoming pot-bound.  This affects the success of their establishment when planted out into the lands.

In order to keep costs affordable when we courier trees, we will pack them bare-rooted.  This entails wrapping the trees’ roots in wet newspaper and plastic to keep the exposed roots covered and moist.  They can survive so long as the roots are not dried out.  Clients will need to plant out these trees immediately and will need their lands and holes prepared before the delivery is ordered.

Tree Order Options ~ Trees will be between 20 to 40cm tall only when stocks are available. NO 1m-tall trees will be sold.

1. Trees can be couriered and quotes will depend on distance, weight and size of the loads.  We courier trees bare-rooted and clients should have their holes prepared in order to not to break the wet-cycle and plant out their trees immediately.
2. We can meet clients to deliver trees in their individual 1-litre bags in George, Western Cape. Note that each tree is in a 1-litre potting bag and weighs about 1.5kg.
3. Clients can collect trees at our farm. Please email or call us to make an appointment.  Directions are available once the appointment is made.

Note that our price list has been updated to reflect this information ~ Price List 2018.  Please place your order on our Prices & Orders page.  

Hope that you have made your plans for planting lucerne trees!