How to choose a sapling nursery for a commercial orchard: a checklist

A price tag is the easiest thing to compare, yet it says nothing about what will be in the truck. The buyer checks seven things: rootstock, cultivar, grade, tree height, feathers, documents and the stock date. The figures come from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture (OMAFRA) and university sources, and the terms of sale from the nursery’s price list of 9 October 2026.

First, the questions that need written answers

A manager’s spoken answer does not replace a line in the contract, so the first check concerns paperwork. For every line of the order the cultivar, rootstock, grade and quantity should be written down. If a nursery does not name the rootstock or cannot explain how it counts feathers, that is already an answer.

The second paper worth asking for is a dated stock table. Stock changes with every lifting, so a number without a date promises nothing. The price list and stock page is a model of such a table: on 9 October 2026 it shows 381,643 saplings of grade 1+ (17 cultivars), 200,389 of grade 3+ (12 cultivars) and 133,152 of grade 5+ (8 cultivars). Check that the cultivar you need exists in the grade you need, not only in the total line.

Rootstock and cultivar on the tag

Cultivar and rootstock set the planting scheme and the support, and a mistake in either cannot be fixed by pruning. The tag on the bundle, the invoice and the contract should name the same thing. For apple on M9, ask about the clone. The University of Maryland (UMD Extension, 2022) writes that the virus-free clones M.9 NAKB 337 (T337) and EMLA are slightly more vigorous than the original virus-containing rootstock. The name “M9” alone does not reveal this.

Rootstock mix-ups happen in nurseries too. A 1999 article in NY Fruit Quarterly records a mix-up of Gisela 5 and Gisela 6, although Gisela 6 is larger and less precocious. The difference between the two is covered in Gisela 5 or Gisela 6.

M9 is highly to extremely susceptible to fire blight (OMAFRA, UMD Extension), so health documents for the lot are not a formality here. What the set should contain is described in documents for saplings, and the rootstock itself in the M9 rootstock for an intensive orchard.

Grade and the feathers you count yourself

The grades 1+, 3+ and 5+ belong to no common standard. They are the nursery’s own price-list grading by feather count, where 1+ means one or more branches, 3+ three or more, 5+ five or more. Ask how the nursery counts feathers and write the counting method into the contract. What a knip tree is and how it differs from a maiden is explained on the apple knip trees page.

There are benchmarks from practice, but they are benchmarks, not a standard and not a description of our grades. According to OMAFRA, a target nursery tree for a high-density planting is at least 1.7 m tall (preferably 2–2.2 m), with 6–10 feathers 12–25 cm long, the lowest feather no lower than 60 cm above the soil, and one straight dominant leader. For high-density plantings UMass names 10–15 feathers up to 30 cm long and notes that many nursery trees carry only 3–5 long feathers.

Feathers cost money and bring the crop closer. Trees with side branches begin to fruit earlier than unbranched trees (ISHS), and maiden trees and small unbranched trees, according to UMass, give no significant crop until about year 4–5 after planting. The price gap is noticeable: on 9 October 2026 grade 5+ is RUB 90 per sapling above 1+, which is RUB 540,000 on the minimum lot of 6,000, and 3+ is RUB 40 above 1+, or RUB 240,000. Paying such sums without counting feathers on a sample is unwise. How the grade changes the budget for a whole hectare is worked out in how much a hectare of orchard costs.

Inspection table

The table puts the checks in one place: what to look at, how to check it and what you get in return.

The inspection routine in seven steps

1. Ask for a dated stock table and find the cultivars you need in the grades you need.
2. Find out how the nursery counts feathers and put the counting method into the contract.
3. Have the cultivar and rootstock written into the contract and the invoice for every line, with the clone for M9.
4. Ask for the list of documents for the lot and compare it with the invoice.
5. Agree the lifting window and the payment schedule.
6. On pickup day take a sample from different bundles, count the feathers, and measure the height and the lowest feather.
7. Before loading, compare the tags with the invoice and record any differences while the lot is still at the yard.

Agree the number of bundles and trees in the sample with the nursery beforehand and write it into the contract.

How this looks at our nursery

At the Sady Stavropolya nursery lots are released by pickup only, from the yard in the village of Sunzha, Stavropol Krai, so the sample can be checked before loading. The price of a sapling includes hand sorting, labelling and packing of the root system, loading onto your vehicle, a phytosanitary certificate and a document set for the lot. Saplings are lifted in October–November 2026 and in March–April 2027. The prepayment is 30% on signing the contract, and the balance is paid 10 days before pickup.

The order routine from the request to pickup is described on the how we work page and in how to buy saplings wholesale from a nursery.

Sources

• Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFRA), new apple orchard guide, section on nursery trees
• University of Massachusetts Amherst Extension, guide to high-density apple orchards
• University of Maryland Extension, “All About Apple Rootstocks”, 2022
• Government of Ontario, “Apple rootstocks”
• New York State Horticultural Society, NY Fruit Quarterly, 1999 article on Gisela rootstocks
• International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), Acta Horticulturae 514, article on feathered trees
• NIAB, description of knip trees
• Price list of the Sady Stavropolya nursery of 9 October 2026