Plum, I thought about responding to your post yesterday, but didn't because I thought it too large a question to really know where to start. As usual Fruitnut has given you sound advice, but there are so many different ways to train and prune a tree depending on preference and goals. For example, some like to start their first scaffolds at 4'. Some (like me) prefer to keep all the scaffolds lower than 2' on the trunk. I prefer 3 scaffolds on peach, but visited a large peach grove last week where the owner liked to keep 5 scaffolds (He said he had 9000 trees, which awed me a little bit.) Peaches and plums can even be pruned differently because plums more readily throw adventitious shoots and peaches not. All that said, let me tell you how I start out peaches. Keep in mind I do it differently than some. All my trees are planted in raised mounds/berms. I don't spend a lot of time digging a hole. Maybe 8" in diameter and deep enough so the graft is at ground level. If the roots don't fit in the hole, I prune them to make them fit. Most recommendations are fairly picky about the planting depth. Most of the time it's recommended to plant at the same depth as the tree was planted in the nursery. I'm not as concerned about the planting depth because I've found raised plantings are very forgiving of planting depth. If the tree is small caliper with lots of buds lower on the trunk, I cut the tree back to 2'. Any heavily dominant side shoots I prune back to about 5". I don't put a lot of thought into pruning at this point because the real training comes later. With good weed control and soil drainage, new peach trees will grow very vigorously. After the tree has put on some growth (but before the second season) I select three scaffolds at even intervals around the tree (with at least 3" of vertical trunk space between each scaffold). I try to select scaffolds with good crotch angles, as Fruitnut mentioned, or tie scaffolds down to make good crotch angles. I think the biggest pruning mistake new growers make with peach trees is that they don't prune enough. People seem to naturally fear hurting a peach tree by pruning. I typically remove 50% or more of the wood per year from a young peach tree.

Do you know the names of the varieties and the rootstocks? I always start my bare root plants in pots, in good quality potting soil, and have around five apricots growing in pots right now. First, look at the size of the roots, the way they grow, and get a pot which would allow the roots to spread out and down as much as possible. A fifteen gallon plastic pot half filled with soil seems to be better for the plants than trying to cram the roots into a five gallon pot. The larger pots don't dry out as fast as smaller ones, and in our hot summer climates, keeping the pots watered can be a challenge. After a year of so, if the roots start growing out of the holes on the bottom, it's easy just to lift out the root ball in a 15 gallon pot, add 6-12 inches of fresh potting soil on the bottom, two teaspoons of slow release Osmacote fertilizer mixed in, and replace the tree at the top. And it saves buying another pot. You plant the trees in pots the same way you would plant them in the ground, spreading the roots out to their natural level of growth, filling in the potting soil carefully so the roots aren't compacted together. The branches are pruned (or not) to balance the root spread. If the roots are long and ample, the branches need less pruning. If there are a number of long branches that make the tree top heavy, then they can be pruned back by half. The article below will give you more information. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Trees in Containers

This is often the case with pears. The roots are not fibrous and just head down and nurseries don't make an adequate effort to lift more root. I believe that's one reason they are so sluggish coming out of he shoot. I've ordered from a commercial nursery that wouldn't guarantee their pear trees if you didn't drastically cut them back. The salesman told me he visited a commercial orchard down south somewhere where 1,000 pear trees died because the buyer failed to do this- whatever the Whitcomb research may say. I don't know for sure what's the best way to manage them but I don't usually cut them back and almost all trees live and give a little spurt of growth the first year.

Some nurseries(Dave Wilson) and other growers say to cut the trunk off at about knee high,when planting a bare root fruit tree.This gives the roots better early development and allows a person to choose the scaffold height and arrangement somewhat. I just planted 10 bare root stone fruit trees and the branches came shortened,at about eight inches or less,for shipping purposes and the trees themselves were about five feet tall.I could have cut them down,but decided to use the short branches as the scaffolds and left about three to five on,pointing at different directions from each other.The tops were cut off the main trunk when needed,so that the highest branch was about a half inch from the top of the tree. The trees are growing fine and with this method,I might gain a little time for fruiting.In fact a few of the trees have one or two pieces. Trees can really be grown the way a person wants them,as far as height and shape goes.Personally,I'd grow an Apricot tree with an open center. Brady