Thapranksta: Your question is a bit difficult as most orchards do not plant all their apples on one rootstock. Often they use several different ones based on what was available when they bought the trees, what pruning/spacing system they wanted for that orchard block,ect. Sometimes hardiness is an issue. For example hardy standard rootstocks (antonovka, prunifola, ranetka ect) are necessary in super cold regions such as ND,SD, WY,MT ect. Most other areas abandoned standard rootstocks years ago as they grow too tall to easily prune/spray/pick. Easier with dwf or semi-dwarf rootstocks. Often spur-type or low vigor varieties (Jonathan) need to be on a less dwarfing rootstock or they runt out and never amount to anything. I hate the terms dwarf or semi-dwarf as too generic. Orchards years ago in WI where I live switched to using M7 as semi-dwarf and free-standing, however they pruduce tons of root suckers. Now the hot rootstocks are Bud 9 & Nick 29 but these trees must be staked for the life of the tree. M26 is still used (8'-12' tall trees) but more prone to fireblight and can tip in heavy clay soils. Every rootstock has advantages and disadvantages depending on climate, soil type, low density planting or high density planting (Tall spindle) ect. My 17 tree hobby orchard has apples on M7, MM111, and yes even 4 on a standard rootstock. I vase prune heavily on some for height control. Others seem jsut fine. My site is weird as very low nitrogen levels. I have to fertilize heavily on new trees and even lightly on old ones or the leaf color is poor. I find my apple trees do not grow as tall at my site as other sites I have grown at. Hence my need for more vigorous rootstocks. Nobody can make you a good suggestion unless we know what soil type you have, are you willing to stake each tree permanently or want free standing orchard ect. Can you provide more information? When you do purchase your trees, watch out! Many mail order and almost all retail outlets will either list them as dwf, semi-dwf or no listing at all. Always ask what rootstock they are on. Don't buy if they can't tell you. A Mcintosh on M26 will be quite shorter than one on MM111. You cannot properly space your trees if you have no idea what rootstock they are on. In fact, one mail order place I called had Cortland on two different rootstocks. After the trees were harvested, they are all mixed together since both rootstocks are "semi-dwarf". Big difference though when some were on M7 and others on Bud 118.

thanks for the info, but what I was planning to do was use my garage and keep the plants right next to the door to the outside(which will be open) to the outside A. for good circulation (I will also use a negative ion blower blowing on them slightly). So it will definitely feel the chill of sacramentos winter and get the required chill hours. So when you say defoliate the plant, does that mean I take off all leaves? or which ones would I leav? thanks

Oh! And when moving the apple tee, I notice two holes have been eaten/bored) into the bottom of the tree, just above the nub). What? Should I do something for that?

Peaches bear on last year's wood, every year you will need to prune it to head that wood back and to remove old wood to make room for new. Pruning that one for size won't be any additional work. But it may be easier to do all the pruning on the peach if it's not 15'. The pear will bear on long lived spurs so it will require very little pruning (if it's well behaved) once it's trained and probably reach larger than expected if you don't do size pruning. So you can only consider "to prune or not to prune" with the pear, and even then you're going to have damage control and thinning of some branches required. I've seen companies that were right on the money with their estimates and I've seen companies that greatly underestimate their sizes. I have never seen a company predict a huge size and hand out dwarf sizes. My rule of thumb is that if it's going to be other than claimed it will err to the large side. I've seen trees bought as dwarfs that dwarf my accurately sized semi-dwarf apple that's pushing 20 years with very little pruning later in life. I'd go dwarf for both. If you flipped the planting spaces around I may change to semi-dwarf for the pear just to get more fruit. But I wouldn't want to be climbing 15' to head back branches or be thinning out old 15' branches.