Deborah: Your thinking is much clearer than your nursery. For semidwarf 10ft between trees with 15ft rows is doable depending on how much summer pruning you do. Even 15ft by 20ft, which is a lot for any semidwarf apple, is way less than 30ft.

The Fruitnut

Thanks! That makes SO much more sense.

Also...how deep to plant? Just to where soil is in pot which is below the graft. Is that correct?

Hi debstuart1-

That's correct. You want to plant the tree at least as high as the original soil line otherwise roots can form above the union down into the soil which effectively removes the benefit of having a (semi) dwarfing rootstock. The reason to plant it even higher than the original soil line was talked about by Harvestman (see post below) today: Often the trees will sink a bit in their new hole, especially if it was dug too deep. Also, you'll be adding mulch on top of the soil, which, year after year, becomes a slightly higher and higher soil line. Make sense?

-Glenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Have you expereinced scion rooting

We just received a lecture from a local orchard regarding this at our local plant swap 2 weekends ago. A semi-dwarf is meant to grow about 10-12 ft tall, maybe more. So, figure your spacing on that.