Burchell Nursery Inc

I’m a small farmer with only 2 ½ acres and planned to plant less than 100 trees, but I’m not new to orchards. My family has had hundreds of acres of prune, apricot, cherry, and pear trees dating back to the 1800’s. I was referred to Burchell by one of the Mariani’s (the nut and dried fruit producers) because they were one of the few nurseries that had both varieties of trees I was looking for.
In October of 2012 I placed a small order by phone (my rep is Ron, he’s very knowledgeable and nice to talk to) for 18 Blenheim apricot and 16 French prune bare root stock trees as a test order. I was looking for Italian prune trees, but these are not popular and have been replaced by the French variety.
Cold weather in January delayed availability of the trees by several weeks, but this is just a normal part of the orchard business. I was expecting to make a trip to Oakdale to pick up my trees, but I got a phone call instead saying that my order was going to be delivered to another local grower and that I could pick them up at his ranch. This was FANTASTIC news since the local ranch was only 15 miles away instead of the 90+ to Oakdale. I received mostly larger diameter trees in a mixture of Citation and NEMA stock.
I stored the trees for a few weeks and finally made arrangements for a tractor with an auger attachment to assist with the planting of the root stock. The spacing is 10ft apart with 20ft between rows. The trees have been in the ground since March of 2013 and so far so good… :)
One of the more pleasant surprises about the whole process was the fact that within two weeks of planting the trees and with minimal attention to watering and their initial care, the trees had blossoms. A few weeks later I installed a drip irrigation system that delivers a specifically measured amount of water based on the drainage of soil surrounding each tree.
In June of 2013 I placed an order for 44 more Blenheim apricots in order to complete the rest of the grid and I expect a similar experience to this one. I’ve already been told that I can expect delivery in mid-​February.
I wish that Burchell sold grape vines, because this is what I intend to plant next… :)