Best planting time and bare root or container?

Catscratch

5 year old buck +
The situation I have right now is I want to plant a few trees and get quick production and high survival rates. I've planted large quantities of bare roots before and had some success with it, but it's slow to produce. What I would like to do now is plant around 5 trees with the hopes of getting quick production out of them. Is it better to buy container grown trees from local nurseries than to order on line? When is the best time to plant? I want crab apples and pears.

Any helpful tips or leads would be great.

Thanks!
 
Depends on your zone, but fall planting is beneficial if you are in a warm enough zone, generally zone 5 or warmer. Sounds like you would be best served by trees that are field grown and then transplanted by tree spade or balled and burlapped. Looking at significant cost that route as well as needing access to the planting site with a vehicle. Container grown trees are always a gamble because you dont know how root bound the trees are. Most branched trees are going to need to be pruned back when planted to balance out root loss and transplant shock. How long it takes until a tree bears fruit is directly related to rootstock, planting location and species. How long is it taking your trees to produce?
 
I'm in Kansas...
The only fruit trees I've planted from bare root were persimmons and they took about 8yrs to produce.
I don't want to spend a fortune so tree spading them in isn't really an option.
 
Most bare root apples in a good site and on a semi-dwarf rootstock will produce in 3-5 yrs. Pears in 6-8 yrs. Pretty hard to get fruit any quicker than that. Sent you a PM as well.
 
In the south...I like to plant container trees in fall when its an option.
I dont always get to do that, but I like to.
 
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