ST, are you looking for specific cultivars or just any semi-dwarf fruit trees? Tons of places sell semi-dwarf fruit trees (especially apples), but if you want quality or specific cultivars, you may want to consider mail-order. Mail-order will GREATLY increase your options. Even really good local suppliers are going to have a limited selection. Below is a link to my list of mail-order fruiting plant suppliers.

Be sure to do your homework and choose the right tree (both scion and rootstock cultivars, in the case of grafted trees like apples, pears, and prunus-type trees) for your particular needs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sources for Fruit Trees and Plants

i have never had a problem with the linked seller ...

the key in mail ordering trees.. IS TIMING ...

the trees should be mailed AND planted in dormancy ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: stark

Try Covington Nursery. They seem to have a pretty good selection.

Although ordering online may increase your options regarding selection, not all selections (or even most) may be suitable to your location. Fruit trees in particular have rather specific requirements as to heating and chilling requirements and what does well in one part of the country may be a dismal failure in another. Local suppliers tend carry varieties most suited for that locale. And often offer larger and more mature plants than one could obtain by mail.

Here is a link that might be useful: Covington Nursery

"Local suppliers tend carry varieties most suited for that locale."

This is not necessarily true, and in many cases (especially with more "big box" type operations) is very often not the case.

Also, few local sources can afford to carry the selection needed for all the different needs. The ideal choice for one grower may not come close to matching the needs of another grower just down the street. Considering heating and cooling requirements, for instance, is only one very small part of choosing the best variety for a particular application.

"And often offer larger and more mature plants than one could obtain by mail."

Which is one of the problems. These larger trees (especially those at the big box stores) are often in poor shape to start with, establish much more slowly, and suffer for years. Even many local nurseries that include fruit trees in their selection, bow to the uneducated consumer and offer trees not suitable for planting in exchange for larger initial size. The smaller trees offered by some of the better mail-order suppliers will almost always far outgrow the big guys and will likely be more productive in all but maybe the first couple of years. When it comes to fruit trees, bigger is almost never better - at least in the long run.

a lot of the local type suppliers.. simply mailed ordered them a few months ago.. potted them.. and stuck them in the greenhouse to 'force' the trees into leafing for sale in early spring ...

i would not buy fruit trees from the bigboxstore ... so many more options thru the mail ...

ken

Womack Nursery out of De Leon, Tx. is who I have bought from in the past with good results. Might check their website to see if they carry semi-dwarfs.

Brandon, I'm going to disagree with you :-) First, box stores are NOT nurseries - they sell plants only as a sideline and suitability, selection or even current condition are of minimal concern to them. They buy in bulk regionally and they buy cheap. Operations that specialize in growing and/or selling plants only are where the OP should be looking. And these places DO focus on varieties that are best suited for local growing conditions. Retail nurseries that want to stay in business for any length of time rely on customer satisfaction to do so - offering plants that are not well-suited to local growing conditions are not the way to encourage any kind of repeat business. Sure, they may offer some things that are of questionable value or hardiness but it is not going to be something as basic as fruit trees. And with fruit trees, heating and chilling requirements that match the local climate are of paramount importance.....if it is not going to produce fruit or ripen the fruit successfully in that area, what's the point of growing it?

As to supply or varieties, the one source I mentioned offered 7 different apples, 7 different pears, 4 plums and 2 pomegranates.....not a bad selection to choose from in my book. And they include many of the varieties especially called out as recommended good performers for that area by the Texas Agricultural extension service.

And FWIW, fruit trees sold by retail nurseries in my area, while sold as potted plants, were initially received in late winter as bare root stock.......much the same as one would purchase online (although admittedly on the larger end). They are potted as soon as received to maintain the root systems in as optimal a condition as possible. Failure of bare root stock of any kind is typically much higher than if one purchased the same stock potted -- there is just too much chance for damage to that exposed and vulnerable root system. IF local nurseries offer the plants in sufficient selection, then I would encourage anyone to purchase these plants before ordering online.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recommended fruit varieties

GG, you have much more trust in local nurseries than I do (and than my experiences would support). I understand what you are saying, but I just don't agree with your confidence.

And, Take Covington Nursery, for instance...if you look at their selection of fruit trees (I downloaded their PDF file), it's skimpy at best. Also, it doesn't even mention rootstock, and I bet they don't even provide multiple rootstock choices for each cultivar! I'd just about as soon go down to K-Mart and buy one of their 'Mystery Cultivar' apples and take my chances. A nursery that sells apples without specifying the rootstock is not reputable when it comes to fruit trees. Maybe they do have a better presentation and selection on-site, but if they are like most local nurseries/big-box stores I'd be slightly surprised.

Hey, Scotjute's recommendation looks more promising. At least they have a decent selection, varieties do seem to be picked from recommended varieties (as in GG's link), and they specify their apple rootstocks (hopefully they could also provide rootstock info for the other types of grafted trees). A hundred mile drive isn't as easy as punching an order into your computer and having your order delivered to your door, but maybe they are worth the drive anyway.

Oh, and BTW, give me a bare-root fruit tree any day over what I see potted even at better nurseries. The bare-root may have a slightly (but certainly not much) better chance of initial survival, but the long-term outlook (unless the tree is bare-rooted before planting) is actually worse (girdling roots, etc).

Brandon, we'll just have to agree to disagree :-) Perhaps nurseries (most, anyway) in my area are just a bit more trustworthy and dependable than those in yours. And I'm not sure why I would put so much emphasis on root stock - why one needs multiple rootstock selections for each variety is a bit of a mystery other than providing a suitably dwarfing rootstock for each size grade they offer - semi, dwarf or mini. Virtually all apples in my area are on EMLA rootstocks, which offers excellent compatibility, disease resistance and cold hardiness and are an approved rootstock for zones 4-9. They are probably the most common apple rootstock used nationwide. If the OP was in a significantly colder zone, I might have other suggestions but they should have no issues with EMLA. Interestingly, the Texas extension service also recommends these (formerly referred to as M or MM rootstock).

And since most peaches and plums are by habit more compact trees or semi-dwarf anyway (compared to apples or cherries), a dwarfing rootstock is far less critical a concern, if needed at all.

IME, with nearly 20 years in both retail and wholesale nursery sales, most retail consumers know nothing about rootstocks other than they want one that will restrict growth to their desired size. I have yet to have a single fruit tree customer ask me what specific type of rootstock our trees are grafted to :-) Maybe customers in your area are more sophisticated or discerning about these things but I find it rather unlikely.

"Why one needs multiple rootstock selections for each variety is a bit of a mystery"

Not to those familiar with growing fruit trees. Rootstock determines or influences:
1. ultimate size and architecture of your tree
2. growth rate
3. amount and complexity of maintenance
4. ease of harvest
5. productivity
6. fruit size and quality
7. preciosity
8. senescence (both fruiting and vegetative)
9. hardiness

10. adaptation to different soils and soil conditions
11. drought tolerance
12. how well the tree will be anchored
13. whether the tree will need permanent or temporary support (not just how well it's anchored)
14. resistance to certain diseases
15. resistance to certain pests
16. rootstock and scion graft compatibility
17. proclivity to sucker
18. and I'm sure I'm leaving off at least something.

Selecting rootstock is every bit as important as selecting a good scion cultivar, and in some cases much more so!

"Virtually all apples in my area are on EMLA rootstocks, which offers..."

Actual, "EMLA" is not a type of rootstock. It is a broad series of rootstocks that vary to extremes in their characteristics. One EMLA-series rootstock that might be ideal for one grower, could have little chance of survival at another location or might not provide one of the many other characteristics desirable for the second grower. That second grower might find an entirely different EMLA-series rootstock to his liking.

"IME...most retail consumers know nothing about rootstocks..."

Exactly, and for those unwilling to do the research, why not go down to the local K-Mart and buy something labeled "apple tree". No need for the fancy nursery price or all those confusing details that you don't care about anyway.

Lovell Root Stock or for pears, plums, peaches, apricots etc. M-111 Root Stock for apples. "Wonderful" cultivar pomegranate.

Womacks and Bob Wells Nursery cover a lot of territory in regards to selection and sell locally grown bareroot trees.
Bob Wells, in addition, carries fruit producing avocados hardy to 14 degrees. It needs another variety to pollinate with that is hardy to 18 degrees, perhaps pot that one and overwinter it.

Read the link from a local fruitnut below and you'll learn just about everything you need to know or at least have a link to further explore growing fruit in our microclimate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Guy

And remember we have 800 chill hours so make your selection with these root stocks and pick a variety that has close to this many chill hours or you will lose fruit to late freeze every year.

A few sidenotes for those interested: EMLA, M, and MM are not the same. Most of the EMLA series was derived from either the M or the MM series, but they are different than their corresponding predecessors because they are virus indexed. Other differences may be present in some cultivars. Generally, members of the EMLA series are superior to their predecessors.

Some nurseries don't actually know the differences and refer to their trees' rootstocks as M or MM series rootstocks even though they are actually the superior EMLA version. Some sources actually do still use the older series. If in doubt, ask and hope that the answer you get is accurate. I know of at least one mail-order nursery that is fully aware that they use EMLA rootstocks but refer to them as MM because "more people have heard of that". Other factors can also be confusing, like for instance M.III (M.3) is not MM111 (the virus-infected predecessor of EMLA111).

Finally, do be aware that although semi-dwarfing rootstock will grow more slowly than seedling/full-size rootstock, it is still quite vigorous, especially in warmer climates. Many aspects of some of the semi-dwarfing rootstocks may be well worth choosing them in some cases, but it will take more vigilant pruning and likely more frequent pruning than some of the less vigorous rootstocks. Apple trees on semi-dwarfing rootstock can still eventually grow to gigantuous proportions if left unpruned/untrained.

Just planted a semi dwarf peach tree last year, it weathered our harsh winter in Buffalo just fine but what do I do to prepare it for spring and what do I use to keep away insects such as peach tree borers and other harmful insects?

Hey Frank,

If you have further questions about your peach tree, you may want to start your own thread. That way the different topics won't get mixed up and you'll receive the followup email notices instead of Fst061 getting the notices that were meant for you.

I don't always think the Fruit and Orchards Forum can provide the expertise (on some issues) that we can here in the tree forum, but in this instance, I think they have already covered your questions in depth and are probably even better able to address your topics. Below is a link to related thread from the Fruit and Orchards Forum that I think will answer your questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Search Results