Issues with Trees Bought Online

So, I ordered some trees on behalf of my dad a couple of weeks ago and he's not happy with what he's received. I ordered several of these apples, Buy Jumbo apple tree Online | CRJ Fruit Trees Nursery UK and this was what was received.


At the time of ordering there was no size option (there was nothing on the email confirmation about size either) although since I contacted them, it has miraculously appeared on their website. Curiously, all of the size options they now have are the same price. At that price point, we weren't expecting a half standard but his biggest annoyance at the moment is the complete lack of side branches.

It's also a similar tale with this tree Olympic Asian Pear Tree | Pyrus pyrifolia



His issue with this one is the lack of side branches.

He assures me that he's tried growing trees that came with no side branches in the past and that they've never grown so he's not happy about what he's received. I have emailed both companies requesting either a refund or better quality replacements but neither are willing to entertain those options. Where do I stand with getting a refund/replacements?

 

Hi ,

they look like Maiden trees which is one way of purchasing them .. as I have in the past bought them and as long as they are looked after ie keep we’ll water over the summer into the autumn and you can train the way you want them. (They are probably one or two years old ) and being so young and bare root if not looked after they will fail which I imagine has happened in the past.

are they as advertised as maidens which normally don’t have side branches I cant see what the problem is but if not I would suggest you complain that they are not what was described..

What does the nursery say about returns ?

Spruce

 

Difficult to say as they probably are the fruit trees you ordered just maybe smaller than you was expecting ?

The sizes stated seem to only refer to which rootstock they are on not the size of the tree supplied
They appear to be just one year maidens.

They will probably grow away fairly well but do seem expensive for such young trees.

 

Pete looking on line that is roughly the price of Maidens from a reputable seller which Chris Bowers is .. just as everything has gone up in price ..

 

Yes I dont keep up with prices these days.
It doesn't appear to say they are supplying maidens though, unless I missed something.

When I was at the workshop in the orchards that is how all their new plantings looked, they establish better, I think, from bare root being young.

 

Agree with the others those are maidens that you've got and that was what I've got when I've ordered fruit trees.
From most companies you can get trees suitable for espaliers, fan training, cordons etc, these will have been selected as suitable for training and won't look much different when you get them.
The reason for this is that trees with side branches are difficult and expensive to ship.
All of the ones you have look as if they have had the leader removed, certainly the pears. This will encourage shoots to grow from the sides that you then train as you desire.

 

They look like standard bud chipped trees. You basically have your rootstock and you graft a bud onto them which grows a new leader and the rootstock leader is cut off. This method puts all the energy of the roots into upward growth which doesn't tend to branch out until you cut it back.
This is the problem with trees that need to be posted. We can buy local field grown trees 5-6ft tall with numerous sidebranches for less than that but they don't have to fit in someone's van and be sent halfway across the country.

If you are unhappy then contacting the seller is all you can really do.

 

Which is why I always buy things locally if I can.

 

Thanks for all of the replies. As far as the size of the apple trees ordered, there's nothing whatsoever on the CRJ website that says what size trees they send out. When I heard back from them, they said that their trees are 18 months old and had we known that, we would never have ordered them. My dad's about to turn 71 and is extremely ill, there would be no point in buying a tree that's going to take several years to fruit as there's a high chance he won't see it. Despite the Victoriana trees being older, the lack of side branches is obviously going to delay fruiting. If they were trees for me it wouldn't be a problem but since we don't know how long he has left, it's quite a big issue.

 

Unfortunately, growing fruit trees is not a short term project.

 

@pete It definitely isn't. He's been growing fruit trees for years now and he's got plums, apples, pears, gages, damsons and bullaces as well as various soft fruit bushes. He wasn't expecting trees that would produce a bumper crop this summer, that would be daft, he was expecting some that'd pop out an apple or two next year.

 

Well then I would look around local nurseries or even decent garden centres and buy pot grown trees.

 

@pete In the past that was how he got his fruit trees but since he's been medically unfit to drive, that's not been possible. He's in Essex, I'm in Leicester and also medically unfit to drive so I can't take him to a garden centre. The furthest he ventures out of the house is the post box a few feet away from his house and he's paranoid that if he goes anywhere there's people, he'll catch something that'll kill him.

 

Right yes I see your problem, not a good, sorry.