Thanks you all for planting trees!
2011 North Central Road. Denman Island. BC
General Information
Shipping Info
All ORDERING will now happen through the online store. The "STORE BUTTON" is in the main header or just below.
Most packages go out Monday to minimize mail time. Shipping within BC can happen throughout the year. Shipping to the eastern provinces is open from November to April and excludes cold-sensitive plants such as citrus.
We ship via Canada Post. The store will calculate a custom shipping rate based on your exact order and address. Average rates are as follows: 1-6 plants to Vancouver Island/Lower Mainland: approx. $29-35. 1-6 plants to the rest of BC: approx. $40-50. 1-6 plants east of BC: approx. $50.
Adding extra tall plants and/or more than 6 plants will add approx. $10-$15 to the previous numbers because of Canada Post "over-sized" surcharges.
Shipping time, door to door, is usually 2-3 days for the plants in the west and around 5 days to Ontario. Large orders ($1000-$2000) by mail are possible for around $150-$200 in S&H.
Truck Delivery is possible for larger orders as well. Please contact me directly.
Other Details
Payment by etransfer is preferred: treeeaterfarmandnursery@gmail.com . We also accept Paypal, major credit card (via Square) by phone (250-897-8540), old fashioned cheque made out to “TreeEater Farm and Nursery” or cash! (GST#860110782RM0001)
I offer basic recommendations/consultation with most orders. Outside of orders i consult regularly with small farmers, home owners and project managers at $50/hour.
In person visits/deliveries get 5% less on bundles of 10 of any given cultivar/species. Larger volume discounts available on some items. This doesn't apply on the webstore.
Planting and Care Information
If you are receving “bare root” plants in the mail you'll need to immediately pot them up, “heel them in” temporarily, or plant them permanently. The worst thing that can happen is the roots being exposed and drying out or freezing solid. Keep the roots moist and covered with sand/soil/potting medium. Many people prune back trees when they plant them: sometimes it seems harsh but my observation is that it prompts better growth rates.
The average plant needs a light fertile loam soil. In order to ensure that the soil is adequate for growing i recommend soil testing with <www.loganlabs.com> and following the recommendations of <https://growabundant.com/> If this isn't possible it is a general rule that west coast soils need calcium from agricultural lime, organic matter in the form of composted manure and additional phosphorous, nitrogen and trace minerals.
Most trees need soil that is well drained in the winter (no water logging) and irrigated in the summer to prevent the soil and plant from dying from drought. I recommend at least 5 gallons each day over the summer drought for a tree to thrive. 5 gallons a week is a base survival dose. I recommend drip irrigation for this purpose. Grass generally steals both nutrients and water from young trees and harbours rodents. For this reason you should remove grass withing at least 2 feet of the tree when you plant it and keep this area clear for several years. Mulch helps with this provided it isn't harbouring rodents that will eat the tree roots. Mechanical damage can also be caused by dogs, deer, lawn mowers, and weed-wackers. Perimeter fencing, individual ring
fences and/or staking is required.
It is important to plant any tree at the same depth it was provided in the pot it was propagated in. There are many different opinions on planting trees. Avoid excessive root disturbance and J-rooting. Root pruning any circling roots is good. I recommend loosening the native soil and amending its deficiencies with thorough mixing. Nothing fresh or concentrated. It is usually better to amend by adding new nutrients as a mulch above the soil so it can trickle down slowly to the new plant: it can't utilize them in its first year anyways. All of TreeEaters plants have already been inoculated with beneficial soil microorganisms (mycorrhizal bacteria) and potted with mineral rich glacial rock dust, molasses, kelp and all appropriate macronutrients (NPK).
Some trees have specific needs. For example: Citrus and needs greenhouse protection from deep winter cold temperatures. Chestnuts and teaplants need particularly dry soils due to their susceptibility of rot. Pawpaws need early in their lives. Figs and Asian Persimmons need particularly hot sunny conditions to ripen properly. Some trees have specific pollination requirements: Moist nut trees need to be planted in multiples for x-pollination. Fruiting female kiwis require male kiwi pollen.
During planting I highly recommend permanent labelling and mapping of your food trees for future reference.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone
Each plant in the store has a USDA hardiness rating number. You will need to check to see if the plants you're looking at buying are appropriate for your location's zone rating. Its safer to give yourself one zone of "buffer". So, if you're property is rated to Zone 6 , which gets a bad winter of -23.3 C, then i recommend you buy plants that are rated for Zone 5 (-29 C). Of course many of us have zone-itis and like to push the limits by going in the other direction.....
Our Guarantee
We sell quality plants that we feel confident in. Providing the conditions for these plants to thrive is the responsibility of the buyer so please do your research and ask lots of questions. If a plant is purchased directly or shipped within southern BC while dormant in the spring and does not wake up it will be replaced. Plants sold in the fall, shipped in the fall, or shipped long distances in the spring are not covered for replacement.
This is because Canada Post does not warranty their service. So, i reserve the right to limit the shipment of certain plants at certain times of the year in order to limit my exposure. An example of this would "no citrus to Ontario at anytime" or "no citrus to the Kootenays" if any freezing temperatures are expected. Please read the other "terms and conditions" in the footer.