Thanks for the reply. I've been looking at ordering from Raintree and they use the EMLA26 for the semi-dwarf apples I'm looking at. I found this description of it: "EMLA 26 Dwarf, Zone 4-8 (EMLA9 x EMLA16) Introduced by East Malling in 1969 Mature Height 10-12ft. Introduced as a virus free replacement for Malling 26. Rootstock stem piece develops large burr knots, so trees should be planted with the union a few inches above ground level. Good in areas with frequent spring freezes, due to its delay in spring bud development. EMLA 26 is considered shallow rooted and therefore subject to drought stress. It has little tolerance of heavy, excessively acid, or unusually wet or dry soils. Not resistant to collar rot and is subject to fireblight. Generally it is free standing (not require staking), but with heavy fruit set can lean in very windy areas. The advantage of this rootstock is an early, heavy production of quality fruit." With the part about little tolerance of heavy soils, I'm even more in doubt about trying it here. I do have room for standard trees, but would prefer not to have 30ft apple trees if I can keep them a bit smaller. Does anyone have experience with these rootstocks in a zone 4 environment (and maybe even with clay soil?). Or some other suggestions? The varieties I wanted to get were Honeycrisp and Ashmead's Kernel.

Kristimama, Citrus are nearly carefree in the Bay Area, so there is no reason not to grow as many as you like. Fill up your whole yard with them! The only real problem that most people run into is infestations of sucking insects (particularly scales), vectored by the omnipresent Argentine ants. Other than that, you basically just plant them and let them go. Give them some acidifying fertilizer in the winter, and keep your soil healthy through mulching. That's about all you need to do. Calamondins are small, sour citrus fruits. They are generally used for their juice, much like you would use lemons, etc. (You wouldn't eat them out-of-hand, unless you *really* enjoy tart flavors!) Calamondins are essentially everbearing, meaning that they should carry ripe fruit just about all year long. This is a very nice characteristic. It is very handy to be able to pluck a few fruits for squeezing into water, over a piece of fish, etc., at any time! I haven't been following this forum that closely, so I'm not sure why folks here prefer to put citrus in smaller pots. However, I would say that most participants on this board probably don't live in areas where there may be absolutely zero rain for months and months on end. Keeping potted plants going when it is extremely hot and dry can be burdensome, and using large containers like half-barrels will at least minimize this problem.

Hi Hammer, I don't have any direct experience with finding Valencias but check GWD (garden Watchdog) for evaluations of companies that do mail order. One in California is pretty bad and has changed its name. Check out the feedback. Good Luck. I hope this note is not too late. I am looking for Washington Navels but I have a great nursery just down the street.

REVIEW: I bought "Catherina" peach, at http://www.plantworld.net/ - promotion, 30% off My decision points: - with most fruits (they were flowering there one month ago); if it has a lot of fruits then it is good for Toronto (specifically for my area; because it was flowering one months ago, 5 min. drive) - find with nice "framework" - so that little needed for shaping. The best choice was Catherina Peach: same size as Redhaven, but twenty times more walnut-sized peaches. 20-30 peaches on Catherina, and 1-3 on competitors; same height, same number of branches. GRAFTED: no, nothing grafted... very strange. - find healthiest! Last one, "healthiest", was really hard. I noticed one huge Catherina Peach with about 30 peaches on it almost bought it - but frame needed a lot of hard pruning, and at the soil level I noticed big walnut-sized piece of sap at first I thought it was rotted peach... Anyway I bring mine home, and I washed out whatever hidden under soil, and here are my subjective (or so-so) observations: 1. Soil: three gallons rootball was very deeply planted in 15 gallon pot. I washed out almost all 'soil' which was pieced of wood chips (not bark!!!) mixed with some manure (of unknown origin: the next few days I had hundreds of small green flies at the area!!!) - that was washed out from roots. 2. It was planted too deep: 5" deeper than needed. So that bark has a lot of weird holes in it, bacterial infection. And sap... too much. I washed it completely with high-pressure hose, and sprayed it (*heavily*) few times with Hydrogen Peroxide. Still some sap comes out, but stopped on third day: Note that there is no graft here. About 6" cutting, and main branch goes under angle to it. It was completely hidden under 'bad' soil (producing green flies!) at the retail store for about two months. 3. Replanted tree. Trying to establish roots properly, and it will straighten itself: It had 6(!!!) tags on it, and fortunately one contained nursery name: Catherina Bailey 11/16" Mori Essex Nurseries Inc., 905.228.6917 No idea what 11/16" means... not grafted. Note: I washed out 99% of soil it came with, and planted into my soil (which is almost pure sand, with zero additions). Picture taken on third day, tree is looking happy. Be careful with those nurseries! I had extremely opposite experience with mail orders from https://www.whiffletreefarmandnursery.ca/ - very healthy bare-roots, grafted, exact species names of stock and scion, booklet (how to plant it), and so on. Thank you! UPDATE: It is grafted. I found that "Bailey" is name of rootstock. Some nurseries advocate to plant with graft union 2" below surface, but I want it to look beautifully "ornamental" with roots going outward at the surface level. And as you can see, I was right: "Bailey" was going to die, I tried to save it. 11/16" on the tag probably means trunk diameter of the rootstock. Quote: Bailey: An old peach cultivar released from West Branch, Iowa. For several decades this rootstock has been the most predominant rootstock used in the Ontario peach fruit industry. The Bailey rootstock is very a reliable, cold hardy rootstock that produces uniform trees that are medium to large in size with reliable yields and good yield efficiency. It is compatible with most of the scion cultivars grown Ontario. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/news/tenderfr/tf1705a1.htm