I bought two 7-gallon Dunstans at my local Walmart last week for $19 a piece. I thought I was getting a pretty good deal for really good looking 8.5 foot trees. I had a meeting on the other side of the state today and used my lunch break productively to see what the local Walmart there had. Their trees looked rough, but the 3-gallon trees were $7.80 while the 7-gallon trees were $14.80. Using the knowledge I acquired here, I asked the garden center manager if she would cut a deal on three 3-gallon trees since they looked better than the larger trees. I was hoping to get them for $5 a piece. She initially looked at me funny, but then decided to do another price drop on them. She marked them down to $3.90 a piece so I wound up buying four trees. These 3-gallon trees are over 6 feet and two of the four have catkins.
I bought a 3-gallon clearance Dunstan last year that had a bur on it when I bought it and produced three nuts as a two-year-old tree. I realize that trees are easy to grow and I am currently growing several hundred oaks, but if I can buy 6-foot tree for $3.90 I am going to save a few years. If I could find good producing 6-foot oaks for this price, I would probably just plant trees and not grow them.