The complexity of your question is similar to "how's the best way to fly a rocket?", but I'll hit a few high spots...

First you need to decide the relative importance, to you, of various characteristics. Taste, disease resistance, climate compatibility, productivity, and storage potential are examples. There are NO perfect apple cultivars (technically not varieties) with the "correct" characteristics for every application. Once you have determined what's important to you, your local ag extension office, local growers, or maybe experienced fellow GardenWebbers can more easily point you to appropriate selections.

Another thing you need to consider is rootstock. Rootstock determines many factors including things like growth rate/size (dwarf, semi-dwarf, full-sized), disease resistance, suckering, soil/environmental adaptability, productivity, precocity, need or lack of need for external support, etc. Again, once you decide what's important to you, selection will be easier. You may want to start with how much room you have per tree/how quickly you want your tree to grow and start narrowing down from there. With a small lot, you may be better off with a dwarfing rootstock.

Purchasing fruit trees from Lowes or Home Depot is somewhat like eating from a dumpster. You don't really know what you are getting (mislabeling of cultivars and no labeling of rootstocks is common), the tree is likely to be of poor quality (overgrown and severely potbound - those huge trees in those little pots is just absurd), and you don't often have a very good selection. Just below this post is a link to some sources you might consider. Adams County Nursery, Big Horse Creek Farm, Burnt Ridge Nursery, Century Farm Orchards, C&O Nursery, Cummins Nursery, Greenmantle Nursery, Johnson Nursery, Rolling River Nursery , Trees of Antiquity, and Urban Homestead are some popular sources. You may want to purchase trees from more than one source, because a single source may not have all the cultivars you want. Ratings and website links are included in the linked document.

Also, you really really really need to watch this video:

Gene Yale's Amazing Backyard Orchard Video

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

you will NEVER get what you want at bigboxstore ... and if you want to do it right.. you are not going to do it on a bargain budget.. pay for the right plants ....

though i dont know about eating from a dumpster.. lol ... is brandon speaking from experience????

i was going to link you to the same video ...

do understand.. that for premier fruit production.. you will be needing to spray chemicals .. at a minimum 6 times per year ... with exact and precise timing .... and that is the reason i gave up on fruit trees ... it just wasnt worth it..

there is a fruit forum.. and there are a couple experts over there.. who i have never seen over here..

good luck

ken

Thanks for your input, brandon and ken! I made my questions more specific and posted in fruit & orchards-- every time I try to post on these forums, I always seem to do something wrong, haha!

Nice vid, btw!

You did absolutely nothing wrong in your post. You just asked the question that you thought you needed to based on what you knew. It's not even like you could have easily have searched for the answer, because you didn't have the specific info to enter into the search function and you would have pulled up thousands of posts before finding enough info.

Don't put all your eggs in the "Fruit and Orchards Forum" basket. There are a few really smart/experienced growers there, but the forum seems less informative than this forum, to me. I see at least as many "wrong" answers there as I do "right" answers. I used to be a regular in that forum too, but just got burned out by the lack of knowledge and, sometimes, contempt for common sense. I agree with most of what Scottfsmith said, but ya never know what else will follow.

Do look carefully at my list of vendors. Willis (mentioned in your other thread) is probably not a good bet. It's listed in the "sources with poorer reviews" section of my list. You've heard of "where there's smoke, there's fire"...well I haven't seen sure signs of fire from Willis, but the smoke is really boiling out of that place. Years ago, I used to give them the benefit of the doubt because I was pretty sure that some of their negative reviews were made up from their competitor, TyTy (really, really bad news). But, since then, other negative reviews appear to be from valid sources. There's just way too much controversy for there not to be problems with that nursery.

Another source listed in a response in your other thread, Stark Brothers, is a little better, but still certainly wouldn't be on the top of my list of suppliers. Unless they've changed their practices, they don't even provide rootstock ID. Their Garden Watchdog ratings are "OK/good", but not nearly as good as the sources I listed above. Most (all?) of them are rated either "excellent" or "very good".

You'll need to research other apple varieties, too. Liberty is self-sterile and will require a compatible pollenizer.

You can get by with a lot less chemical use than many of those good folks in the Fruits and Orchards would have you think. But you really, really have to know which apple pests and diseases are prevalent in your location and the accurate timing of the application of appropriate products. That's crucial, as Ken mentions. You'll be one step ahead of the game by choosing Liberty, such a disease resistant variety.

Put your local Rutgers Extension folks to work for you. Not only will they be able to help you with your research, but probably already have a list of suitable pollenizers for Liberty, if that's what you go with.

I'll attach a link to Rutgers' fact sheet page. You'll also be able to click on your county and obtain the contact information you need.

Here is a link that might be useful: Click here to see

also ...

after apple harvest is done ... if there are any local apple orchard in the area.. they are surprisingly knowledgeable .. and if not too busy .... pretty free with the info ... middle of the winter is probably a great time to talk to such peeps ...

listen to me.. the ONLY way to have a conversation .. and learn.. is to narrow the topic ... to a precise list of variables ... by coming here.. we can help you to do such ... so if nothing else.. you did right in shotgunning an issue .. and letting us help you define which direction to go ...

the web is a wonderful resource.. but no better than a giant maze.. so when you ask a question.. you get an idea of where to go ....

the only wrong or bad question is the UNASKED question ..

let me add one more clarifying thought ... in a limited space.. you need an approved apple grafted to DWARF UNDERSTOCK ... a dwarfing root system ... keeps the tree small.. but has no effect on the size of the fruit ... and that is what you are going to have to research and find.. and it wont be at the bigboxstore .... i think the guy in the video link spoke of such ...

good luck

ken

I'd lean towards a more dwarfing rootstock also, in this case, but it's not the only way to go. Ultimate size is not determined by rootstock; it just determines how fast the tree will reach a certain size. Dwarfing rootstocks can be easier to manage in a smaller area, because of reduction in pruning requirements, but is not necessarily the best choice for everyone (even with a very small area to work with). Unless you already have a pretty firm commitment to a certain type of rootstock, I'd discuss the possibilities with your local ag extension office and/or experienced local growers.

This brings up another topic. Don't get caught up in it too much, but do consider what pruning techniques/style you'll go with. Some people think they can just stick a tree in the ground and get great performance/production, but that's not the case. Optimal performance will only be achieved by a deliberate pruning regime and regular maintenance.

this is why i love this forum ...All your ?' answered pronto and then some.

I decided to go with jujube and removed the apple tree, some of the cultivars are arguably better tasting than apples. They can survive off of less than fifteen inches of rain, so you'll never need to water them, and are much less prone to disease than apple. Shouldn't ever have to spray them, just cover with a net to keep out birds, etc. They can grow in poor soil and poor drainage, they are rock solid plants much more evolved than apple. Jujube are known as the asian apple. It'll take as much research, though, to determine which ones you might like. Just my two cents...

Thank you for all your insight! I'm thinking I might just have to wait until spring--- the sheer amount of information on cultivars, rootstock, etc is incredibly overwhelming! Or maybe I'll just close my eyes, pick a few, plant, and see what happens!

I'm definitely a "shock and awe" gardener-- haha but my roses do so well with it! I'll have to look into methods for apples.

I won't be spraying at all, that's my whole goal in growing my own-- will they be imperfect/ugly and will I occasionally have to pull one up to find a better suited one for my microclimate-- definitely! But I don't care-- it's not like my life or livelihood depends on it, and gardening's all one big experiment to me!

Again, thank you for your advice, esp brandon-- I will have to look into other nurseries.

My advice, and I'm one of those that rarely visits this forum and heavily occupies the fruit and orchard forum, is start with just a couple of trees if you feel overwhelmed. There are so many issues that can come up at any given site and it sounds to me like you need to find out from doing just how hard or easy this is going to be.

Also, any forum with a lot of participants is going to offer different view points and there are a lot more people involved with fruit plants on the fruit and orchard forum.

Here you seem to be getting expert advice from a single person- which might have its advantages if you are feeling overwhelmed, but committees also offer a certain advantage as in two heads are better than one. I completely disagree that the info at the other forum is polluted with mis-information. Probably more like different opinions. Take a look and draw your own conclusions.

You will get much more detailed info about pest control and other things you should be aware even before you put the first tree in the ground at the other forum. I'll leave it at that and find my way to the door.

Sarah, even "organic" growers need to pay attention to the common pest problems of fruit trees. There are plenty of insect and disease control products on the market that comply to strict organic specifications. Not spraying 'at all' might not be the right path to go down...

Again, I strongly suggest that you tap into the resources of your local extension office. Yes, there is a lot of information, but they can help you sort through it. You don't need a college degree to grow a few apple trees, but you probably shouldn't go into it completely blindly, either.

Get some good advice on varieties to purchase, proper planting techniques, pruning to establish good branch scaffolding, pest problems. Why not go about it the right way? Information first, Sarah.