Sanda:

Did you buy "standard", "semi-dwarf" or "dwarf"?

A standard will get maybe 15-25 feet.

A semi-dwarf maybe 10-15.

A dwarf is usually in the 5-10 range.

Joe

I have to go home and look at the tags. I got them at Costco. How wide do they get?
Thanks for your response,
Sanda

These trees can grow very large, you should take a look at the concept of Backyard Orchards:
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_what-is.html

The overall concept is to keep your fruit trees pruned to a height that allows you to pick fruit off them without a ladder. Unless you are into preserving or doing other things that require hundreds of pieces of fruit, what you end up with by allowing a tree to grow to full size is hundreds of pieces of fruit over the two weeks that the fruit ripens and then nothing else for the rest of the year.

I sat though a class on this just last weekend at my local nursery, the guys from Dave Wilson do talks all over the place, their schedule is here:
http://www.davewilson.com/br40/calendar_events/calendar40.html

One of the cool things they have on their website is a Harvest Chart, so if you like Apricots (say) you can plant 4 varieties close together with different harvest times. By keeping the trees small you get Apricots at 4 different times a year instead of just once.

For what it's worth, I have a very old Apricot in my backyard (inherited when I bought the house) that is around 25' tall and probably 20' spread. It drops hundreds of Apricots every June and I end up making Apricot wine and giving most of the fruit away.

Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard Orchard Guide

That's a great site. I've tried their method with my apricots and so far, so good. They are about 5 yrs. old and I've been able to keep them around 10' tall and about 6' wide. I have two and that is plenty for me and my neighbors (DH doesn't like them).

Apricot wine - sounds yummy. I've only made apricot jam and the freezer kind at that. I'd probably blow up the kitchen if I tried anything more adventurous. lol!

I was told by the guy from Dave Wilson (or maybe L.E. Cooke), that there really is no such thing as dwarf or even semi-dwarf; that they will get to be full size trees 25-30' or even taller.
The key is to keep them pruned. He said that you can cut them anywhere as long as it is above the graft.
Mind, this is second-hand knowledge, but it came from a reliable source.

wanda

wanda:

I'm not sure what the guy from Wilson or Cooke was actually saying but there ARE dwarf, semi-dwarf and standard (and in-between) rootstocks for fruit trees. And they DO affect the growth rate of trees.

The fact that one should prune fruit trees to best keep them shaped and at the right size is a given. Unfortunately, training-pruning fruit trees is coming close to be a lost science/art.

One of the more important points about home fruit tree culture is the practice of summer pruning. Contrary to popular belief, winter pruning is not the most important or best time to prune. It's fine for making serious, heavy-duty cuts (on older trees) but the most critical pruning is done starting after flowering and fruiting and through the growing season. Not only does this lead to healthy trees, it's also much easier than winter pruning.

With that aside, rootstocks do influence how frequently you prune and where you can make key cuts (internodes are shortened on dwarfer rootstocks).

Joe

When you plant your trees, you might want to ask the person who sells you the tree about planting some kind of sand barrier around the rooting system. Subterranean termites like these kinds of trees. I just took down a nectarine tree because of them, & another Cal grower previously posted he had the same problem with a peach & apricot tree. The person who planted the tree put sand around the roots, but it was minimal. They also need to be planted in a well ventilated area to avoid powdery mildew.

baci -

I can appreciate the damages done by subterranean termites. Last year, I accidentally removed a section of bark from a 20 to 30 year old plum tree. It had almost 5 ft x 1 ft. of termite damage and active insects.

I thought it would surely die, but it still produced a sizable crop of nice plums anyway. I did buy another plum tree, however, as I expect it will not survive its invasion/damage much longer.

Bejay

bejay9, I tried for 3 years to save mine  I loved that tree. It was probably 15 years old. Unfortunately, I had a neighbor who would had termite infested wood close to my tree & would not remove it. I do not know whether it was the same species, but it certainly did not help. That neighbor has now moved & I am now fixing anything that could attract this pest. That stuff spreads, and although I will not stop it, I am certainly going to do my part in preventing more damage.
I did find that the termites invaded from the limbs down and from the trunk up. I could easily identify the limb damage, but could not see the trunk damage until I started getting deep into the stump. They can not burrow through a certain particle size of sand supposedly, which is why it is believed to deter them.
I am glad you shared your experience with plums. They also like camphor trees. I like stone fruits, but where I live now, I would put them in pots or boxes, & treat the rooting systems with repotting. Maybe that is not necessary, but this experience has made me very nervous.

This damage sounds like tree bores that attack soft fruit trees. There's spray and topical insecticides for them. I plant garlic around my trees and it seems to help.