Bare Root Production

Christie-Elite produce over 8 million trees from seed each year including a wide range of native broadleaves, hedging species and commercial conifers.

• Native seed is collected every year from a variety of locations (or provenance zones), throughout the UK.
• To produce a bare-root plant, stratified seed is sown into prepared outdoor beds. To encourage development of a healthy, fibrous, root system the seedlings are undercut (trimming roots with a blade beneath the soil), wrenched, or transplanted during their development, which can take up to three years.
• Once the plants are ready for sale they are lifted and shaken by specialised machine. The trees then undergo rigorous grading for quality and size, before being transferred to our cold store for dispatch to our customers.
• Bare-root stock can only be lifted and planted whilst it is in a state of dormancy (during the winter) so these plants are only available during the winter season from October to April each year.

Watch a video of us lifting bare-root trees

for more information on the FORBO Bed Lifting Machine featured read about our nursery machines here