Alright, so thanks for all the good advice, though in the end that way didn't work out for me, as I will be out of town for the next two weeks and couldn't get things in time to get them into the ground before leaving. So I decided to make do with what I can get locally, and try to make the best out of it. There's always next year and better planning to extend or do over what I started now. So I got three apple trees between 2 and 3 years old, I think. It'll give me an opportunity to compare the different local sources. Tree 1, the cheapest one ($19) is from Home Depot, Golden Delicious (Dwarf). What was very noticable when planting is that the tree was apparently just stuck into a pot a short time ago, there were was not much on it in terms of roots at all, and the potting mix fell right off. Because of that, and the kinda screwed-up structure, I pruned that tree heavily: Golden Delicious before: and after pruning: I got a $59 Dwarf Honeycrisp tree from a local expensive-ish nursery. However, that tree is 3 if not 4 years old (can't remember now). It had a couple of fruit buds on it, most of which fell victim to my pruning. This tree was in a big pot with an extensive root system, so it must have been grown in this pot for quite some time. I had to untangle / cut lots of circling roots. The shape still isn't that great, the lower branches are at 45 degrees, but I'll keep them and see how it goes. A second, higher, scaffold was started, but it's only short spurs at this time. Honeycrisp tree before pruning I didn't prune it that heavily yet, but looking at the close-up, I think I need to prune off most of the leader (down into two-year old wood) in order to get the 2nd scaffold to grow (hopefully). Does that sound right? I'll try to train down the lower branches, though they're not very flexible anymore. Finally, I got Liberty, semi-dwarf from another nursery at $29, and one to hopefully give me a break on disease. This one is two-years old, has a well developed lower scaffold made from 3 branches. Root-wise, it was so-so. Apparently it is a vigorous grower, as last season the central leader grew more than 3, if not 4 feet. I headed it quite a bit down to start a 2nd scaffold, and I'm trying to train the 1 scaffold to grow more outwards then up (it's currently kinda curved, leaving the trunk at a good angle but then turning upwards. Should I head the side branches? If so, at what point? Liberty before pruning: That's what it currently looks like (except that I used bamboo stakes to straighten the branches): I got no experience with pruning at all, other than what I learned from the internet, so any advice is very welcome. Also, I already got bugs on the Honeycrisp, some very tiny beetles or something, all black, which are apparently munching on the just opening buds (small holes in the new leaves already). Should I do something about them? If so, what? Thanks ;)

Whenever a tree is transplanted, it loses about 90% of its original root system. It is for this reason that most experts agree that whenever you plant a tree, you should prune it back severely at planting to about 2-3 feet high so that it will remain in balance between growing new roots and the top of the tree at the same time. Unfortunately, it sounds like you did not prune when the tree was planted several years ago. So then it has taken the last several years to grow all the roots, and hasn't done much of anything in the top of the tree. If you want to see real growth, I'm sorry but I wonder if it might do the tree a lot of good if next spring if you just chop it down at about 3 feet off the ground. Not to worry -- it has indeed spent the past several years growing a lot of roots, so I bet the tree will bounce right back and start acting more normal again. Alternatively, you could just leave the tree alone and keep on hoping and praying that next season will be the one where it's done growing roots and starts acting normal. Maybe it will be. But the best guarantee might be to lop off the top next spring. Seriously. Don't do it right now in summer/fall as it is most likely too late in the season for it to have time to recover. Best of luck to you, whichever route you decide to take.

A bitter winter could kill the roots and the tree if they are all in potting soil but this can be averted by several inches of insulating mulch (or snow). Just make sure you trap out or poison all field mice (voles) in the area during fall so they don't girdle your trees in winter. If you have pine voles in your area they seem to like eating roots of trees in potting soil, maybe because its a great medium for them to get around in- soft easy digging and relatively dry. It's a good idea to protect the trunks with some kind of barrier- even foil works well. You can remove it when trees begin to grow in spring. If you have rabbits, protection must stay well above the snow line.

1. "Growing Fruit" is a consise book which covers every aspect of fruit-growing including espalier, fan, and stepover pruning methods. It is a good place to start. It would be good if there were a more thorough book but I have not found one that was in-print. There are also many older out-of-print books which have a great deal of information in them; I don't recall the titles now however. 2. Sounds good to me. 3. If you are buying 50+ stocks, Williamette is a good source. For scionwood I keep a suppliers list, here it is: Richard Fahey Catholic Homesteading Movement Oxford, NY 13830 WSU NSRP5 program Nick Botner Lon Rombough Fedco http://www.fedcoseeds.com/forms/ft29scionOSreal.pdf Joyce Neighbors, Carlos Manning 681 Maplewood Rd. Lester, WV 25865 jneighbr (at) internetpro.net Tim Strickland, stricklt at gvsu.edu Tower Hill, http://www.towerhillbg.org/thwebscion.html Maple Valley, http://www.maplevalleyorchards.com/Pages/ScionWood.aspx Richard Fahey is my default source, he has a good list and very good quality and service. Lon is also very good but he has only a couple apples. Joyce has many older southern varieties. Fedco will surely be good but I never ordered from them (or the others). Well I tried to order from NSRP5 once but they were not offering much at all. Nick has the most varieties; I have heard the statistic that 10-20% of his varieties are mis-labeled, but he is the only source for many varieties and I have gotten many true-to-type scions from him. Scott