Wait until spring anyway.......it is a much better time to plant! Very few - if any - mail order sources can ship fruit trees or even many other plants into CA due to very stringent agricultural restrictions. In the meantime, scout out your local nurseries to see if any carry this variety or will order it for you for late winter/spring planting. Since CA (together with OR) is one of the largest producers of landscape stock in the country - they supply the plants for virtually all the rest of the country - there should be a minimal need for any mail order. And you will always get larger trees for a better price (and no shipping costs) if you buy locally.

Use this time to amend your soil if necessary, check drainage and hours of sunlight in the location you chose. Most deciduous fruit trees are planted in the winter when they are dormant. Order in the fall for winter delivery or check your local nurseries after they clear out the Christmas trees. You will also need another variety as a pollinator and should check to see if you have sufficient chill hours for the tree to produce fruit where you live. Stark Brothers recommends it up to zone 8.

Thanks Guys. JXBrown - thanks for the links. Now I have 2 more options on my shopping list. Lgteacher - Stark Bros was where I was looking but not available until spring 2019.

I take it to heart your advice to condition the soil in the meantime. Being new to this area, I am not sure about the quality of soil but I can assume they’re poor and needed amending. This is a very different climate than the one I moved from in the Southeast so I will place focus on irrigation and amending soil as I prepare for my fruit trees in the spring.

Thanks.

Tim, you don't actually want to dig a bunch of amendments into the soil, it can result in the creation of a basin with drainage problems. Instead, lay a thick layer of compost on top of the soil and let nature do the job of distributing the organic matter through the soil. Your trees will need supplemental water applied initially fairly close to the tree, but then expanded to an area around the tree that gets wider as the trees increase in size. Mulch of some sort will reduce water loss to the atmosphere, but don't apply it all the way up to the trunk.

A rule of thumb if there are trees and shrubs that are healthy in existing yard the soil is likely in good condition for your new plants . Consider mounding up the native soil and mulch heavily

Update: since this post I conditioned my soil by putting straw bale on top of soil and it was a big improvemen. Previously the soil was dry and hard. After only a couple of months with straw as mulch, the soil was moist and pliable 6-8 inches below ground which makes digging a hole a much easier task.

I bought 2 Asian Pears from Starks Bro., a Hosui and an Olympic Giant. One was shipped bare root and the other one in pot. I planted them in a couple of months ago and now just waiting for the spring to come.

Thanks to all your help, particularly JXBrown, on soil prep. One thing to note since I don’t have compost or grass clipping, I bought a bag of alfalfa pellet from local feed store and just throw a handful into the hole and call it good. The alfalfa pellets provide nitrogen and a bunch of nutrient, and I think it lowers the Ph as well. This past summer I spread them alongside my Italian cypress and they definitely helped.

Be careful with the alfalfa.....avoid it coming in direct contact with any plant roots. Of most organics, it is very fast to break down and the release of N can often be too strong for delicate feeder roots. I've even encountered a case of an opened bag of alfalfa meal spontaneously inginiting and burning up the shed it was stored in!! That stuff can generate some serious heat as it decomposes and can quite easily 'burn' plants.

Yeah I read that too. But i’ve tried alfalfa on top of straw composts and I’ve yet seen it smokes or even at least a bit of warmth touching it. I threw them in plant hole on Crepe Myrtles and they did just fine.

I mixed alfalfa pellets with native soil and so far thankfully none of my plants spontaneously combust. Will see if they shoot out new leaves next spring. :)