I just received my first shipment of apple and pear trees. They are bareroot stock. I was not expecting them to arrive this early. Is it too soon to plant. The extended forecast looks like it will be between mid 40's to mid 50's for highs, with lows to about freezing.I am concerned because the ground is close to frozen right now. I will be able to get them in the ground, but will placing them in freezing or near freezing ground harm them? Thanks for the help.

Assuming they haven't started to break dormancy yet I think I'd like to get them in the ground as soon as I could. I would just try to make sure you aren't backfilling with frozen stuff. I'd also be cautious about adding much water (assuming soil is already pretty wet), I wouldn't want a hard freeze to lift plants.

Where are you located? If you have more coming, I would see if you could get the others delayed until the conditions are reasonable enough to plant them. ...and where did you buy them? They should be keeping tabs on the conditions of the area to which they are sending them if they care at all about the survival of their product...and repeat business, especially if they do not ask for a delivery date when you order them.

It was my fault that they came so early. They did ask on the order form a a window, and I left it blank, which I beleive defaults to when it is convenient for them, which apparently was right now (no one else is asking for deliveries now). I am in Syracuse NY. I planted them today, 42 trees total, a variety of apple an pear. The ground was not frozen, but it is very wet. There is patches of snow in places. The temp right now is 42 degrees and raining. Hopefully they will make it. I put them in Blue-X plant shelter tubes. My next delivery is late april, all evergreens, from the NYS DEC nursery. If I can figure out how, I will post pictures.

Those are actually good conditions in which to plant as long as the roots haven't gotten dried out since they were lifted. Keep us updated on their survival!

The roots were wrapped in moist newspaper and placed in a plastic bag. I will keep my fingers crossed. The county mulch pile will be open on April 1 and i will mulch around the bases shortly after that. I planted 6 apple trees last year and mice/chipmonks or other rodents had eaten the bark off of 2 of them. I don't think it was rabbits because it was under the snowline and it looked like mole or mouse tunnels in the snow.