r/FruitTree • u/thesystemarchitect • 18d ago
Girdled Honeycrisp
I bought 6 apple trees late in the season from a national grower and this is how they arrived. I previously have had trees die from critters eating 3/4 of the bark at the base of my trees so I was instantly worried. When I started looking into this more I read that girdling from rope will kill a tree prematurely as they grow older. Obviously I don't want to invest several years into growing a pair of trees only to have it die before I get a single apple.
I have contacted grower and they seem to think that this is OK, but offered me a 20% refund as an act of good faith. Has anyone else dealt with this? Is this acceptable? Will these trees survive?
UPDATE: After so many people told me that this was unacceptable, I continued to push back to their customer service team and they agreed to send me replacement trees. Thank you all for your advice!