Fruitnut, I have 2 methods and I'm sharing my trade secrets here (what the hell- I'm 6 months from 60 and hope to retire in 25 years anyway). I start some plants straight in the ground, planting them way too close in a fenced off area. Planting them close makes maintenance per plant much less expensive given that it's all done by hand (don't ask). For apples in my climate it takes about 3 years to size them up to about 1.5" diameter- at least when planted this close. I carefully dig up these BR and put them in short 20 gallon pots (wide and shallow) in a mix of 1 part peat, 1 composted wood chips or stable waste ( almost pure humus with some carbo lumps) and 1 sand, plus a little wood ash. They limp the first season but I sell them the next for around $180 per. At this point they are bearing, 12' tall and well branched and the foliage is back to mormal. Other trees I transfer to Carl Whitcomb grow bags in real soil and let them grow about another 3 years and sell them for $250 per, or less to contractors. The grow bags I use are his last edition because they allow more root out of the bag and I can grow them without any irrigation at all- even through drought. Irrigation would reduce production by about a year, I'm sure, but in my operation only my potted plants get any and they are set in the soil as well. I always take some trees in the grow bags, remove the bags and put them into 25 Gallon pots with the soil intact but surrounded by my potting mix which allows me to sell some larger trees during the growing season. Surprisingly the soil surrounded by potting mix works very well and you might want to try that method for your trees as the soil gives you much more bang per square inch and costs less. Repotting would require only replacing the artificial soil on the edge of the soil ball. It makes things real heavy though, and my soil is not too fine so I don't know how it would work with a more clay soil but I bet it would work just fine. I'm sure my prices seem outrageous by your regional standards but I'm less than an hour from NYC and here it's more than competitive- it's the best deal around- because I have scores of varieties and they're actually properly shaped for fruit production. They also plug in better than the competitions BB'd trees, especially the ones I have in pots.

I see my neighbor stealing some of the raspberries between the houses (kind of a shared spot). Not a big deal, as I steal some beans on my side of the fence, and she also gives me some food as well. I have gotten her addicted to blackberries! I do grow more plants then just fruit - like castor beans, and I had to chase down some teens who a bunch. I managed to track them down - they thought it was weed, and man would they have gotten a shock when they smoked it....... I had to tell them what it was. OF course they didnt believe me. I had to use one of their phones to show them the differences. Ive had cops stop and ask what it was as well.

I purchased a three-in-one plum tree from Raintree last year. It has grown nicely and was well labelled. I weighted down the branches with rope and a stone to make the tree more open centered. Looks like it may be budded for fruit next year. I transferred some chip buds ( my first attempt at chip budding) to other plums that I have, so we'll see next spring if that was successful. I have been grafting scions onto existing apple and pear trees for a few years now. My first reaction when these grafts fruited was that flavor must be affected and in decline when a graft. (Mollie's Delicious on Jonathan had no taste; Vista Bella on same tree was o.k.) However, this year has changed that --Honeycrisp is one of four grafts on Hawkeye Delicious and is wonderful. The Grimes Golden on that tree is also great, and expecting great things from Florina in a few weeks. One thing I think I've learned is to not let the tree overbear.

Hi all, When I started my mini orchard, I also went after trees that were as close to bearing age as I could afford. I order 2 five gallon persimmon trees from buyplantsonline in January of this year, one tree produce about five persimmons and the other tree never really leaf out but John replaced it at no cost to me (great customer service too) unlike other places that ask you to pay the shipping for a replacement. I also ordered several trees from Bay Laurel this year, the nursery employee said they would produce some fruit in 2012 and the crop would increase each year thereafter. Three of the BL trees flowered this summer but no fruit formed. Also another member on this forum has posted that his trees from Bay Laurel (I think he said they were from BL) fruited in their second leaf. Baylaurels trees cost much less, but I'm very happy with all the trees. Goodluck