advice: dwarf apple trees for Whidbey Island

I am 90 percent committed to planting a few (like two or three) dwarf or semi-dwarf apple trees in my new garden here. I have not worked with fruit trees in years and then it was only to prune existing trees.....

I have to plant semi dwarf or dwarf varieties, because there is a local height limit in my area of 14 feet. I am clear that it's pretty easy to keep apple trees under that limit but I do not want something that if untended would go higher, so going for safety in eventual height..... I am now looking for info for best varieties for this area and hoping some folks here will have some guidance for me or tips as to where to look for more info as well as sources.

I have successfully stopped myself from making a midnight online order from this outfit (in my initial burst of enthusiasm):
http://www.raintreenursery.com/ -- I ran across them during a bout of online searching for initial info and learning about the possibilities of dwarf fruit trees...... but know of no other sources nor do I know at this point what varieties might do best here..... I do love and eat a lot of apples! so I am enthused about beginning this.

So, y'all, any advice for the noobie? :)

Kyla, here's my 2 cents. I have found that most plants/trees grow taller and wider than the tag for me. I think this is due to our temperate and wet conditions. So, I'd lean toward dwarf trees rather than semi-dwarves since you have a height restriction to consider. Do you have deer to also consider? If so, you will likely have trees in jail for quite some time - if not forever, if you go with little guys. Give that some thought and perhaps come up with a nice looking jail. Good luck. Apples are yummy.

Why, thank you, that does help! And yes, I do have deer to consider and intend to be a big investor in various forms of netting. I am also intending to ring the outer dripline perimeter with daffodils, did i mention that yet? Not that that will stop the deer but it is meant to stop grass encroaching.... Our neighborhood herd do look quite well fed and healthy and so will be less likely to be desperately determined and willing to eat anything at all, which I believe will help me deter them.

I am still hoping for maybe some specific varieties to be suggested to me, as well as anybody with preferences about nurseries from which to purchase.

I really came very close to buying three trees from those raintree folks, but stopped mainly due to the vast number of choices as to what kind apple, and me not having a clue! other than what I like at the grocery and that is not really useful info.

one friend did tell me a couple of her fave varieties but she lives in the very arid Southwest and I am not sure the same apples would grow here?

Welp, I found what seems to be knowledgeable and trustworthy advice, here: http://www.onegreenworld.com/garden.php?g=2

This is a nursery in Oregon and the article speaks specifically to the challenges of growing apples in a wet climate, even recommending specific varieties. Plus their prices are less than that first place I was looking at.

I found this by nosing around in the forums over at http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums. LOL, but now I've lost the post I found the link in, oh well!

I will look to see if One Green World has a listing in the watchdog, but their online catalog looks mighty good to me.

In my opinion, both One Green world and Raintree may be dicey to purchase trees from, though they both have good information on their websites. I guess I like to see my trees before I buy them. The bare root trees available at a local nursery are larger and more robust looking than any fruit trees I have purchased mail-order. The down side of this, is that it is much harder to find specific varieties locally that sound so good in the catalogs. I like both Melrose and Liberty for late maturing apples. I also have a Gravenstein, an older variety that ripens early but is somewhat susceptible to disease. I'd like to try a Fiesta, but they are not easiy found.

Ah, thanks, that is the conclusion I was coming to also. Before I order anything I intend to see what is available locally that I can look at..... The OGW Watchdog entries...... apparently it is really good except when it is really bad...... gosh.

But I did like their information about varieties and will be looking for disease resistant specifically. There were a couple I noted down but my notes are "over there" right now and I am too lazy to get up and get them. :) They did recommend LIberty, as I recall.....

I've had mixed results ordering live plants via mailorder also.... even from highly reputable companies.

I also live on Whidbey and am anxious to see what you find out regarding apples. My neighbors have some fabulous heavy bearing apple trees. Gravensteins are my personal favorites. I will try to find out what kind are next door. Have you talked them at Christensons Nursery? I think they would know what grows well here.

Ah, good neighbors to have! And nice to see someone else from here too so thanks for posting.... :)

But, I am feeling like maybe I was jumping the gun on this and not sure I am going to pursue it after all, this year. I'm building a garden from scratch, in a rental situation...... so find myself just not sure I want to invest in fruit trees and then wait 2 to 3 years for them to produce..... But I will share the names of varieties I was zeroing in on so far:

Wynooche Early
Liberty (said to be a mid season ripening apple)
Enterprise (late season)
Chehalis

All of these I found by wandering through the OGW website and looking for disease resistant...... so if I really do plant apples I will next go to local nurseries and see what they have to teach me. Is Christensons on the island? I am very new here and still bumbling around quite a lot. :)

I also have to find out how nearby a second apple tree needs to be for pollination. In other words, do I have to plant more than one to get apples, if another fruiting tree is such and such a distance? (And then find out where the nearest apples actually are!)

So, what I DID do, when I was going wild with this, was order 125 daffodil bulbs, mixed varieties, on sale (they were really about half price a very good discount), thinking in the permaculture way I could ring the apple tree area(s) with daffs to be a grass barrier (then would plant other compatibles closer to the tree after nixing the existing grass probably by sheet mulching)

so now I have all these daff bulbs and thinking well, I was season pushing some but hoping if I plug them in in the next month sometime it will be okay.....

*sheepish grin*

I'm not from your area, but I'd like to be! Here in Minnesota, I have found the most reliable information to come from local nurseries and gardeners, and also from the University extension service. So I looked up your University extension - well, one of them at least, maybe there are more - and found this page, with variety recommendations for western Washington and also mention of specific problems to watch out for: http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/best002/best002.htm.

If (or *when*, how I wish) I move there, this is the kind of place I'd look first for help in starting.

Best wishes --
Joan

Thank you Joan........ the link doesn't work, though....... I appreciate your looking that far for me/us, though!

So....... what's keeping you from moving West, may I ask? :)

Try this: http://gardening.wsu.edu/text/treef.htm I just Googled Washington State Extension, and from there, chose WSU Gardening in Western Washington, and at the bottom of the page there are links for various particular types of plants. I picked "Tree Fruits." And there you go.

Oh, I do so want to be there! I started a great big long "Transplanting a Gardener to the PNW" thread about a year ago, and got some terrific advice; followed the PNW community threads, and almost feel like I met a lot of the regulars. (Thanks again, you guys.) I've looked at real estate for hours - but recently read an article that now is not the time to purchase real estate in the Seattle area, because prices are still likely to fall. This sort of suits me, as I'm not ready to buy right now anyway, and I think the value of my own property will actually increase this year, instead of fall.

Also, I have some internal conflicts about where to look for a place. I think of living outside the metro area, like even as far away as Port Ludlow, because I like the proximity of lots of trees and mountains and water and the rural feel (grew up in Anchorage, and it would be kind of like that without the long snowy winters). But if I'm to be a launching pad for my girls, now in their early 20's, I should be closer.

And - there's a lot of "stuff" here I still need to deal with (i.e., sort out and get rid of - years of accretions), to feel light enough to make such a move. And meanwhile, my Mom has recently been diagnosed with cancer. I'll be spending a good bit of time with her, traveling back and forth to Anchorage. I have a feeling this will function as a means of detaching me from my current involvements.

Life is weird. Just when I'm starting to feel that it's time to make a change, something has come along to change it for me.

Best of luck with your apples. I would not have thought it was much of an issue out there, as we have so many possibilities here in Minnesota, and in the PNW, I thought you could grow *anything* we can grow (except rhubarb), and more! Yet the list of recommended types is fairly short. This so strikes me as odd...