New here - starting a home orchard ?’s

Welcome to the forum Kelpy! If you are looking in the 100+ tree range I’d recommend buying from a wholesale nursery and getting larger bare root trees if you want to produce fruit sooner. Keep in mind bigger trees means more work digging bigger holes.

Other considerations - look for the traits you NEED for your circumstances and be brutal about reducing the amount of varieties you are looking to grow once you have your qualifications.

For example, do you intend to spray? If so you can grow many more apple varieties. If not, you should be extremely picky about the varieties you choose so you have a better chance of getting good fruit.

Also, do you have irrigation set up or will you need it for your trees to survive with the soil in your location? If so, I’d highly recommend setting that up before you invest the time and effort into trees that will struggle.

There are plenty of discussions about various good nurseries here, start reading to get a feel for them. Vaughn Comes to mind for a large order at a good price. Make sure you familiarize yourself with sizing of rootstocks and what that entails for your trees. This influences spacing etc.

If cost is the limiting factor, I’d recommend learning to graft right from the start. Rootstock is cheap in bulk and one scion can usually be used for 5+ trees if you are careful.

Also - Idaho is a beautiful state. I’ve been to Coeur d’Alene, Boise, Stanley, Driggs and rafted the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

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