Frequently asked questions

Apples and other perennials are best planted in the fall and very early spring to reduce stress and transplant shock. Most of our trees are bare root and ship out between January and March, they can and should be planted right away. If you live somewhere the soil is still frozen when you receive your tree, heel it into some soil or potting medium in a protected spot like unheated carport or garden shed, and plant it once the soil can be worked in the spring.

The size of the tree and amount of branching or feathering will depend on the age of the tree. All our trees have field grown root systems that are 1 year older than the variety itself. Our 1 year old whips have no branches or very small amount of branching known as feathers, we sell these between 3-5' high. Our 2 and 3 year old trees are between 4- 6' high and have defined branching structures at least 3-5 branches. The trees are also bare-root, usually bundled together in bags that are extremely compact for shipping and car travel. If your order is being shipped, the trees will be pruned down below those sizes prior to shipping in order to fit in the specialty boxes, but rest assured the root stystems and tree's maturity are still robust and suit the age and price point of the tree you purchased.

Tress grafted onto rootstock like B9 are an ideal choice for dwarfing apple trees. These trees stay small for their whole lifespan, and are ideal for training techniques such as espalier. To learn about the rootstock sizes click HERE.

Apples are pollinated by insects that can fly long distances, so trees that are planted some distance apart still work as polination partners. If you have a tree in the front yard, and want to plant one in the back yard, that's probably fine; likewise with a neighbours apple across the street. Triploid apples (Gravenstein, King, Belle de Boskoop to name a few) have generally sterile pollen, so if you'd like one or two of these, we will definitely recommend you plant a crab apple (on any rootstock size) at the same time.

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