You might of read my other post about garden catalogs. I am just starting my orchard, looking for a couple of apple, pear, peach, cherry, and possibly even some other fruit or nut trees. Im in zone 5, NE OH. My average last frost is around Mid May, if that matters.

A very good nursery will also let you specify the shipping time.

It's best to order in advance, after the nursery opens its new season. This way you don't risk them running out of the variety you want.

The real question isn't when to order, though, it's when to plant. And that is when your ground is ready to dig. May is late for planting fruit trees, although if the nursery is good, the trees will be shipped dormant, bare root, and they'd probably survive.

So plant around april-may. But can someone, perhaps someone in my climate, give me a rough time on when to order the trees? Of course, soon as possible, but when is that?

The sooner the better. Now is good!
I probably will wait till January because I need money for Christmas, some bill you now, some bill when they ship, most bill you now. I can't afford it this month. If I could I would order now. The nurseries we mentioned, most of them have online catalogs, Google the names. I actually have never ordered any trees from hard copy.

Another online store fruit tree farm has 70 varieties of peach trees.

Think the beginning of January.

A good nursery will tell you what rootstocks their trees are on and what kind of soils they're suited for. In fact, this is one way to tell a good nursery. Places that just list the trees as "dwarf" or whatever are not the best nurseries.

Very good advice I am already aware of. Instead of just getting one opinion from the nursery im ordering from, I would like more opinions. I know some of you are experts, just wanted to see what you guys would say..

What rootstock would you use in Zone five, NE Ohio,clay soil? Keep in mind im planting(apple,pear,cherry, peach, nectarine).. Also, i understand that there are different rootstocks per fruit... Maybe i should make an entire new post...

I am in central MN and have planted bare root stock trees from a few different nurseries with good success. My trees go in as soon after the ground has thawed as I can manage. there is so much to do in springtime it's one of the things you can do before just about anything else.

also, get a soil test and deal with the results appropriately.

you have a big (but fun) learning curve ahead of you.

The reason is I've run into to several occasions where the nurseries were sold out of some cultivars I wanted.

For example, last year Adams sold out of TangOs in early Aug.

This summer I ordered them in June or July (for spring 2014).

Well that depends on how you plan to grow trees. I don't know anything about apples. I don't have any and have avoided learning myself. I do want to add apples in about 5 years, so at that time I will see what the current advice is.
Peach rootstocks:
Lovell is good for your area. not to be used in sand. Clay is great. Citation can wok but shuts down with lack of water so is not drought tolerant. Likes clay or sand. I have both.
Halford is good too..
Lovell or citation can be used on plums too.
I want my cherry trees small so I use Gisela 5 rootstock.
I also have clay loam soil. Many other rootstocks are fine. Seems nurseries use regional varieties of rootstocks for peaches and other trees. The South uses Halford, the Midwest uses Lovell, and the west uses Citation. All work in clay and can be used in OH. Citation is semi dwarf rootstock but pruning more determines size than rootstock. I plan to keep my peaches to 8-10 feet no matter what rootstock.

Drew, this is the exact advice I was hoping one of you would so kindly "give" to me.. Thanks so much! I do not have any loam, basically all clay, and it doesn't drain too good.. I never did a drain test, so i couldnt tell you guys specifics. But, after a good rain, the water puddles on the suface.. I plan on growing them in somewhat high density, say around eight feet apart.. But i am still unsure to what is best for maximum yield and health of the trees..

Olpea- great advice.. I think i remember you from a couple years back on this forum.. Do you have acres, or a nice size orchard? If so, i second iltilton, a newcomer definitely wants a lot more guidance! Any tips at all would be helpful. Im trying to be as succesful as I could..

Yeah I've been on the forum for a few years. It's a recreational thing for me - more or less. I don't do Facebook, so this is sort of like a Facebook account for me. What I mean is that I post/read the forum like most folks post/read Facebook.

I've got a yard orchard and a very small (emphasize "very small") commercial orchard we started a couple years ago on a separate piece of property. I've been selling fruit from by backyard for about 5 years, as a part-time thing.

Drew's given you some solid advice. I would just really emphasize if your ground is clay and poorly drained, you need some sort of raised planting for your peaches.

I lost lots of peach trees early on to drowning/phytophthora/crown rot, or whatever you want to call it.

Any of the seedling peach rootstocks (Lovell, Halford, Bailey, Tenn. Nat., Guardian, Red Leaf) are going to perform the same on poor drained clay - crappy. Citation is a clonal plum rootstock and may perform a tad better on water-logged clay, but I prefer the seedling peach rootstocks if you can get your clay to drain (which is what you need to do).

I've tried a couple different methods to improve drainage. I installed field tile first (in my backyard). This drained a lot of sub-surface water away and peach trees quit dying, but still didn't really thrive.

I next started converting my backyard planting to mounds. This can be done by cutting and filling in your own yard (no need to haul in dirt, unless you really want a pristine looking yard). Some of the first mounds I built with just a wheel barrel and shovel. I decided I wanted bigger mounds (plus digging by hand is too hard on my back) so I rented equipment like a Dingo mini track loader (walk behind). I also built some with a skid steer.

When I started my new planting at the farm, I didn't even try to plant the peaches without making a raised planting first. I bought a blade (i.e. motor grader) to build terraces to plant on top of. This should give you an idea how strongly I feel about planting peaches in a raised planting in this area. Here's a pic (in the background) of the terraces and me standing on the road blade (I've since sold it.) The pic is a little deceiving because the terraces are bigger than they look. They are 11' wide by about 3.5' tall. Your raised planting doesn't need to be near that big. Any size raised planting is bound to help some.