bare root fruit bushes-forgot to soak before planting!

I think the idea is that they may have become dehydrated in transit/storage.

I didn't soak mine (I forgot) so instead I just gave the newly planted bushes some good bucket fullsof water - I think around 3 bucket fulls to each bush. It rained the next day, anyway - typical! .

Don't know about the bud - you may just get a new bud/branch from beneath the part snapped off - some of mine have been damaged by frost so I've cut them off, buds are forming below them. Not sure if you'd be able to tell if it was a fruit bud though?

I'm sure with all the rain we have had recently they will be fine. You will have to water through their first year until they become established, and a good mulch will hold the moisture in during summer.

I wouldn't worry about the bud as a good frost at the wrong time will cause them all to drop off anyway! (Wifes Apricot tree! )The branch should split into two at that point now so you have more fruit next year.

I will bow to the more experienced fruit growers on here but I'm sure you are meant to limit the trees fruit production anyway in its frist year to help it establish.

Good luck

Dave

great stuff ta both,watered them in after i planted them at lunchtime and have just been out and watered again!

fingers crossed for my tree-its a apple tree that i brought to late in the season last year (brought bare root,planted may/june it did blossom,but it was too late and they all got burnt off by the hot sun we had last june),so i never actually got a fruit! but they looked very pretty for a couple of weeks :-S was so pleased when i saw it was coming to life and now i've gone and beaten it up LOL

Not a problem that they didn't get a soak.
Just give them a decent watering as soon as possible - but not so much water that the heavy soil at this time of year remains waterlogged and rots the roots!

Regarding the damaged bud - just prune off the damaged bit with a clean cut.
There's a good chance that a young tree won't have many fruit buds - and even less chance that they'll be at the end of a branch. Most apple trees fruit on branches that are 2-3 years old, although a few are tip-bearers.
Besides: a fruit growing on the end of a branch will pull the branch downwards - where it will remain when the branch hardens in autumn - and this will prevent normal development of a good tree structure.

Newly-planted fruit bushes are unlikely to give a decent crop for a couple of years because they need time to lay down a good root system that can support the proper development of fruits.
Young trees - if they don't drop it all before ripe - tend to produce small, flavourless fruits that can suffer from bitter pit and won't store well.
Additionally, those two or three apples growing on a young tree almost end up being fought-over by the pests. Until the tree is producing large quantities, the pests and diseases will destroy most of the fruit and it will be a waste of a young tree's precious energy; it takes 10-20 apple leaves to gather enough sunlight to support just one fruit; quite a drain on resources.

Yes you have, it's should have not should of

500 lines, he shall do - and a detention to go with it, too.

or else the gun comes out!

Spud gun.
Which tatties are the best for use in a spud gun?

Blighty squishy ones, def

Nar, I think mashed ones would be soooo much more fun

John, while I agree with much of what you say, I strongly disagree with this - based on having lost a lot of trees (including several "heavy standard" M25 trees last summer!) to root and crown rots, due to frost and water-related damage.
I would never soak in water for more than about four hours (and preferably *never* use rainwater, or other water that has been standing/stagnant).
I find that many of the "modern" rootstocks are very prone to root-rots (and prone to being stressed by standing water). Soaking in water for more than several hours (especially apple trees and especially "dirty" water from a water butt) can allow certain root-rot fungi time to germinate spores in the water and penetrate into the half-drowned roots, resulting in a slowly-developing infection that builds - unseen underground - for a few years, gradually rotting the roots.
At the age of 3-6 years, the trees then put on a truly spectacular blossom display before collapsing and dying a couple of months later, at which time the root rot finally appears at ground level and is spreading rapidly up the dying trunk.

* Slopes away and rescues bare rooted trees from the water butt*

Maybe they do things differently in California?

Care and Planting of Bareroot Fruit Trees

(the source of what John wrote)

The risks of causing harm from prolonged wetness are not as bad during winter, due to lower temperatures slowing fungal development and the trees not very active - you'll often "get away with it" (MM106 or M25 are more prone than other rootstocks) - but there is a risk and it doesn't hurt to be cautious.
Believe me; it wasn't at all pleasant for me to lose several MM106 and M25 rootstock trees in the last couple of years to these types of fungi.
I think that mine grew late into the autumn of 2009, then suffered a "deep freeze" shock from the winter (which damaged them), followed by persistent wetness as the snow and ice thawed, followed by additional ice damage during freeze-thaw cycles of day/night.
The killer was the late-to-dormancy rootstocks such as MM106 and M25, combined with numerous deep freezes and thawing, combined with saturated ground when snow melts. It gave these damaging fungi an opportunity to attack.
Healthy trees can fight-off a small amount of occasional attacks, but the damaged roots of bare-root trees may be particularly vulnerable.
The chlorine in tap water would considerably impair fungal attack on the roots.

Dirty or stagnant water is much more likely to harbour these root-rotting fungi. Other fruits and veg (or heavy soil) can carry the disease, so the disease may be present almost anywhere - but you don't notice with smaller fruit/veg plants because you just put it down to death of a "bad plant" - or you've eaten it before it suffered the terminal stage of infection.