New guy questions?

You've got some good tips about pollination.

Here are some healthy tree planting tips for anyone--

1.)Don't dig a hole to deep. It's imperative that you NOT bury the trunk flare. It has to be open to the air for good growth. It's better to have roots exposed than the trunk flare buried because roots can adapt to thrive above ground, but a trunk flare can't adapt to being underground.

2.) When you dig your hole, don't put any fertilizer or litter material in the hole-- rather than feeding the tree, it creates a "rotting" environment for your roots. Bad. Put your organic material on the surface of the soil after you bury the root ball.

3.) If you can do so without damaging the roots, untangle the root ball a bit so help the roots spread out from the base once planted.

4.) Don't stake up your trees. A little wind whipping them around helps develop strong trunks. Loosely stake them only if they are fragile enough to snap.

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You might want to ask around in the goat section, but from everything I've ever heard one goat is trouble on the hoof and two goats are easier to cope with. They are very social animals, like many others, and do better when there are at least two of them. I'm no goat expert, but have known several people over the years who have had the experience of having just one and they had some wild stories about the things the single goat got into. Of course, even in multiples they can still get into quite a lot of mischief.

Regarding rootstock for fruit trees, one size does not fit all that is why a variety is offered. standard, semi-dwarf and dwarf. The size of a tree is directly related to the root mass of the tree. Here are some generalities. The larger the tree the slower it will start producing fruit, will be more toleerant of drought conditions, will be more tolerant of grass competion, will be better anchored, unless annual heavy pruning you will need a ladder to pick most of the fruit, the longer life span. That makes is sound like standard has most of the advantage, but I have all dwarf and semi dwarf planted. getting fruit in 3 yrs as opposed to 7 is a big deal to me. You should also be aware that there are differences with in the classifications of dwarf and semi-dwarf. Some semi rootstocks will produce a tree 15' some 25'. I would suggest you look at the newer geneva rootstocks for apples which are resistant to fireblight.