Advice for ambitious newbie apple orchard

Some general advice-

I think you are trying to do too much too quickly. I would try to scale down your rootstock order to maybe 250 or less instead of 1000. A thousand trees are going to demand more labor than you can supply unless you have done a bunch of planning and have invested in equipment that will reduce the labor requirement.

Also you should try to do a test plot and figure out which scion, rootstocks and training systems are going to work for you. Something like 2 trees X 3 rootstocks X 2 training systems X 20 cultivars= 240 trees. If your long term goal is a commercial orchard the trees you plant are going to have to produce apples you can sell at a profit. Many of the scions you have on your list are really cool but are unlikely to yield apples you can market.
You won’t be able to compete with large commercial orchards in Washington state. Those are low cost producers. You’re going to need a niche market where you get good prices.

Also expect some failures. That’s why a test plot is a good idea if you find 1/2 trees aren’t going to work in the test plot that’s great. If you find this out and have to remove 500 trees on the main orchard …it gets expensive in terms of time and money.

Growing apples as a business is quite different from growing them as an advanced hobbyist. I would suggest you buy and read two books.

Storey’s Guide to Growing Organic Orchard Fruits: Market or Home Production
by Danny L. Barney

This book is aimed at setting up and operating an organic orchard in the 5-30 acre range. It’s comprehensive. It’s covers a bunch of material… here is the link on amazon. Useful for non-organic orchards as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Storeys-Growing-Organic-Orchard-Fruits/dp/1603427236/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=organic+orchard&qid=1612564036&s=books&sr=1-3

So You Want to Start a Nursery
by Tony Avent

Now I know what you’re thinking why is this guy recommending a book about nurseries when I want to start an orchard. Well, this book focuses on the business aspects of running a firm that is involved in raising living things. It can be sobering at times but lots of useful info about the challenges you are going to face.

https://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Start-Nursery/dp/0881925845/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JNTBJ6UNMJEK&dchild=1&keywords=so+you+want+to+start+a+nursery&qid=1612564320&s=books&sprefix=So+you+want+to+start+%2Cstripbooks%2C186&sr=1-1

I would also approach the local cooperative extension agent and see what information is available. Use the internet and search for information on setting up a high density modern orchard. There is quite a bit of information for the technical side of doing this and they also have detailed cost analysis on the web including comparisons with more traditional free standing trees. Pay back period for high density orchard is something like 7-8 years. For a traditional orchard on say m111 it is something like 15-20 years.

Are you doing a pick your own orchard? A cider orchard? A wholesale orchard? Or maybe producing apple boxes of exotic and heirloom apples you ship all over the United States? You need to answer these questions (and many more) before you move from a test plot to an actual commercial orchard.

edit******* It dawned on me that this post may appear a bit negative. I don’t mean it to be. I want to you to be successful and the apple business is hard. It take planning, skill and bit of luck to be successful running a orchard. Read the books and learn from others experiences and mistakes ( the nursery book is real good here and somewhat funny).
And finish your college degee too :slight_smile: .

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