I'd stick my fingers in the potting mix against the pot and see if there is a developed root system holding the potting soil together- if so, you can transplant it at any time, if not, it is probably already in shock from being transplanted into a tiny pot after having most of its roots cut at the nursery you bought it or by their supplier. When flower buds show, the tree is just beginning to throw out new root- if it is already established in the pot it would benefit from moving now into a larger one. If not, it might benefit from staying put.

There is a Cooperative Extension bulletin, "Renovating Old, Abandoned Apple Trees', that you can purchase - only 50 cents - online, or your county Cooperative Extension Office can get it for you - that gives a good overview - and nice line drawings, if I recall correctly - of how to go about renovating/reinvigorating old untended apple trees. After reading it, you may or may not decide that you're capable of attempting it yourself. Be careful - it can be dangerous work, but also be aware that even if you cut every limb back to the main trunk, it probably won't kill the tree(I'm not advocating this, and yes, I've seen recommendations against removing more than 1/3 of the branches/leaves in a single year) - but the regrowth would probably be difficult to manage and re-train into something you'd care to look at. Big, old standard apple trees can be great climbing trees for kids - though most folks anymore would be mortified about their kids climbing trees like many of us did 50 years or more ago; yes, some of us fell out, and occasionally got a broken arm as a result, but most survived - but you'd certainly need to remove any dead or unsound branches beforehand Here is a link that might be useful: Renovating Old Abandoned Apple Trees

Dave: If these trees are "dwarf", they sure aren't acting much like it. Eight feet tall in the original container is pretty large, although many nurseries sell these big trees since unsuspecting customers seem to prefer them. I'm not surprised the nursery doesn't know the rootstock, but would guess they are semi-dwarfs on something like M-7, which will grow a tree 12-14 feet tall, and that is with some pruning. They should be planted at least 12-15 feet apart. Granny Smith is a pretty vigorous cultivar and should be summer pruned to prevent crowding from twigginess. Many Fuji trees also tend to be twiggy, and many are tipbearers, especially the older cultivars. Granny and Fuji are two of the latest-ripening apples grown in this country, and zone 5 is not appropriate for most long-season apples. Again, I'm not surprised the nursery doesn't know that. In the PNW, some of these apples can be grown in colder zones because of the intense summers. Please indicate just where you live in zone 5. The first thing I would do with 8-foot trees would be to cut them off at less than 4 feet, and start training from there. You may wish to wait for spring to do that. You seem to be aware of the advantages of branch selection and spreading, so my advice is to do what you already know you should do. Your soil preparation sounds pretty good, although I would have left the compost out of the hole and spread it on the surface around the trees. I hope when you planted that you unfurled and spread the roots to the extent possible. If you get these trees whacked down to where they should be, it may not be necessary to provide external support at all. But you may not ever see fully ripe apples from Granny and Fuji trees where you live. Even here in much warmer Northern Virginia zone 7, these varieties ripen in mid to late October, but if you get them down to where you can control them you may have a shot in some of your warmer summmers. My preference is always for young, 1 or 2 year trees, but there are an awful lot of trees sold at local nurseries or bigbox stores as "sale" or impulse purchases that are a whole lot bigger. They don't offer any advantages. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

In my opinion and experience you can move this tree bare root, but even that will be quite a job, even if the soil is not too heavy or rocky. You can do this during fall or spring dormancy. I use a heavy cultivating fork with bent tines so you swing it like a hoe and carefully pull away the dirt from the roots freeing up as much root as possible untill the tree can be lifted to its new home. If you do a good job and get lots of root the tree will actually anchor pretty well even without being staked. It is still a good time to do any major structural pruning that is useful for the tree anyway. If the tree doesn't seem solidly anchored than you will need to stake it. It will take at least a season for the tree to recover and you need to make sure it has adequate water until it does. If you have access to cheap labor, you may want to go that route as this will be several hours of hard work. In the long run, I believe bare root transplanting is better for the tree than balling when moving to a contrasting soil. No matter how you transplant a tree, you loose most of the funtioning root system (fine hair roots) unless you remove huge balls of soil- much more than is generally done. Tree spades really butcher a trees root system. Apples are strong trees and usually recover even from relatively brutal transplants. Be sure to remove the flowers and/or fruit (sooner the better) for at least one season and maybe two. Fruit is the first energy sink of fruit trees and slows down re-establishment to a point that can be fatal.