Treesuit,
Guessing your in South Carolina. Drought might be your top concern. I'd plant (2) bareroots about 18 inches apart, fine mesh cage the trunks with 18 inches of 1/4" mesh, then put your 4 or 5ft tall cages, 10-15ft of cage in a circle around the 2 trees. If both survive a year or two, then dig one up in the fall and move.
Using 4 pallets to make a cage would be a decent idea too. It would shade the trees a touch to prevent too much heat stress on the new trees.
Sandier soils usually B118 is considered better. However, they say M111 is more drought tolerant. Since most southern states have sept hunts, you could just plant a dolgo rootstock or transcendant and just use that for your trees. To get oct/ nov trees, you leaning more towards grafted varieties. I'd check the chill hours on them before decieding to not graft them. There are numerous crabs out there that are true to seed and you may not need to graft.
Most folks have their hunting spot away from their home. I'd plant one or two of the varieties you really want at home. This way you'll have tons of scionwood in 2 or 3 years, Still have a few spare twings the 1st year in. In zone 8 SC, you're not going to have alot of chill hours. There's a inhibitor hormone that get used up during cold days. The tree need enough time in "winter" to work. MY guess SC is 600 or less chill hours.
Macroclimate Zones USDA Cold Hardiness Zones If you look at most plant labels, you’ll see a zone designation, such as “Hardy to Zone 7.” These labels refer to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones, which divide North America into zones based... Read the full post
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Pink Lady, Fuji, and Granny Smith are common low chill hour varieties. With the nursery specific deer crabaaple varieties, I would email them and see if they know of anyone who had success in your zone.
Willis orchard has pretty mixed reviews by folks on this forum. However, they are close to you in GA. You can atleast get an idea what varieties might grow well there. A few members who regular this forum have apple trees in florida too.