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Grandpa has been growing trees in the nursery for many, many years, but as he has grown older it has become more difficult for him to grow them in the field like most bareroot trees are grown. His back just can’t take the strain of bending over to bud and perform other nursery duties.

Over the past years, Grandpa has been developing the FastFruitTree™ concept or FFT. In order for him to continue to propagate trees without growing them in the field and to better meet smaller, special orders which are not efficient to grow in the field, he has finally succeeded in developing a peat potted tree which can be propagated in his greenhouse and done efficiently in smaller quantities.

The FastFruitTree starts out as a newly planted rootstock in a special peat pot which is then usually budded in the summer with the variety desired. It will be grown into a light caliper tree which may be as tall as 6 feet in the greenhouse the following spring thru fall season. In some cases, he might shorten the cycle by bench grafting directly onto the rootstock the first season, and growing a shorter tree that summer.

The FastFruitTree is not as heavy a caliper as the normal bareroot tree that Grandpa’s Orchard tries to sell because getting that caliper in the greenhouse climate is not possible. However a healthy tall, whip-type tree with few if any branches is possible. The peat potted tree can be planted directly into the orchard since the peat pot is compostable and does not need to be removed. Extra care though needs to be given to make sure that it is well planted, watered, fertilized, cared for, and protected from critters.

Potted-FFT Grade Shipping Restrictions

FastFruitTrees™ are special apple and pear trees grown for Grandpa’s Orchard by it’s partner commercial nursery grower, Moser Fruit Tree Sales, Inc, in compostable, Jiffy R-2 peat pots in a soilless, peat-lite media. These FFT pots are approximately 7” in diameter and the trees have been grown in accordance with the US Domestic Japanese Beetle Harmonization Plan adopted by the National Plant Board. During the appropriate time of the season, and under the supervision of Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Plant Inspectors, we treat these pots, media and trees with an approved pesticide that controls and prevents infestation by Japanese Beetle in order to meet the criteria to ship to Category 1 states as provided by the plan.

Regardless, Grandpa’s Orchard will NOT ship these FastFruitTrees™ (aka FFT grade) to CATEGORY 1 states out of an abundance of precaution. Because of our compliance with the Harmonization Plan and Certificate of Quarantine Compliance, we will usually ship to CATEGORY 2 and 3 states. Please refer to the map and charts below for those states which we will and will not ship to. We are sorry if this is an inconvenience, but we feel it is wise in avoiding any possible spread of Japanese Beetle to non-infested areas.