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Farkesht buyer’s guide

How to choose the right sapling for your orchard

A nursery tree is the one purchase in an orchard that cannot be undone. The rootstock you pick today fixes the tree’s final size, its spacing and the year the first crop arrives — and no amount of good management afterwards changes any of them.

The sapling selection courseWhere do I start?
Years this one decision stays with you
25years
Minimum trunk caliper, first grade
12mm
Final tree size, dwarf against seedling
3×

Updated September 1, 2026Farin Kesht Taban Co.

Chapter one

The rootstock first, the cultivar second

Most buyers negotiate over the cultivar and take whatever rootstock they are given. It is the wrong way round: the cultivar decides what the fruit tastes like, the rootstock decides the shape of the entire orchard — from spacing to whether the row needs a trellis.

  • Final tree size

    The same cultivar on a dwarfing rootstock finishes at about a third of its size on a seedling. Pruning does not move that ratio, it only raises what it costs to keep.

  • The year the crop arrives

    A dwarfing rootstock fruits in year two or three, a seedling in year six to nine. Those four years are the difference between a return and a wait.

  • Standing up on its own

    Dwarfing rootstocks have shallow, brittle roots and fall over without support. Nobody quotes the trellis when they quote the tree.

  • Soil and disease tolerance

    Lime, heavy ground, nematodes and collar pathogens are all settled at the rootstock, or not at all. The cultivar has no say in any of them.

One piece of ground, five rootstocks

All five strips below are fourteen metres of the same row at the same scale. Only the rootstock changed; everything else — tree count, tree size, cropping year and whether a trellis is needed — is a consequence of that one choice.

14 metres of row, at one scale across all five strips

  • Dwarfing

    Dense planting, picking without a ladder, capital back quickly — given a trellis, precise irrigation and good soil. The least forgiving of drought and of thin ground.

    Size vs seedling
    30 %
    In-row × between-row
    1.4 × 3.5 m
    Cropping year
    2–4 years
    Density
    2,000 trees/ha

    needs support

  • Semi-dwarfing

    The sensible middle for a commercial block: still precocious, still needing support early, but with a stronger root system than a full dwarf.

    Size vs seedling
    50 %
    In-row × between-row
    2.5 × 4 m
    Cropping year
    3–5 years
    Density
    1,000 trees/ha

    needs support

  • Semi-vigorous

    The first rootstock on this list that stands up unaided. For medium soils and for orchards running heavy machinery.

    Size vs seedling
    65 %
    In-row × between-row
    3.5 × 4.5 m
    Cropping year
    4–6 years
    Density
    630 trees/ha

    free-standing

  • Vigorous

    For thin, sloping or shallow ground, where a strong root system substitutes for precise management. Large trees and harder picking.

    Size vs seedling
    80 %
    In-row × between-row
    4.5 × 5.5 m
    Cropping year
    5–7 years
    Density
    400 trees/ha

    free-standing

  • Seedling

    The toughest and the slowest. Long-lived and undemanding, but low density and six to nine years before a serious crop.

    Size vs seedling
    100 %
    In-row × between-row
    6 × 6.5 m
    Cropping year
    6–9 years
    Density
    250 trees/ha

    free-standing

The figures are for the standard apple rootstock series, the one series that is numbered and published everywhere, so every number here can be checked against a second source. The principle carries to stone fruit, pistachio and walnut — their tables are their own.

The cheapest tree builds the most expensive orchard if its rootstock does not match your soil and water. Before you ask the price, ask what the rootstock is and what ground it has been trialled on.

Chapter two

Read the tree in your hand

There are six places on any nursery tree that can be checked in five minutes, in the yard, before money changes hands. The order below is buying order, not top to bottom: roots first, because they are hidden and because nothing after planting corrects them.

  1. 1

    Roots

    At least four main roots, spread in different directions rather than all one way. The fine roots should be moist, pale and flexible.

    Reject if: Dry, brittle roots, or any knot or swelling on them.

  2. 2

    Collar

    Where root becomes trunk should be smooth, firm and free of swelling. This point is the way most root diseases get in.

    Reject if: A cauliflower-like swelling, or dark, soft bark.

  3. 3

    Graft union

    Fully knitted, no split, and no suckering from below it. At planting it must also end up a hand’s width above the soil.

    Reject if: A part-knitted or split union, or heavy suckering below it.

  4. 4

    Trunk and caliper

    A hand’s width above the union, measure the trunk with a caliper. That single figure is the best predictor of how the tree establishes in its first spring.

    Reject if: Wounds, canker, vertical cracks or stripped bark.

  5. 5

    Lateral branches

    A first-grade tree carries four or more laterals, wide-angled and spread up the stem. These become the framework of the years to come.

    Reject if: Narrow-angled laterals, or all of them from one point.

  6. 6

    Buds

    At purchase they should be dormant, plump and tight to the wood. A dormant bud means the tree has not yet spent its reserves.

    Reject if: Buds already broken, or leaves out during winter transport.

The numbers run in inspection order. If the trees come bundled, open three at random and check all six on all three — a good bundle is not proved by one good sample.
4main roots
Main roots, minimum

Spread in four directions, not bunched to one side. A one-sided root system means a leaning tree by year four.

25cm
Main root length, minimum

Shorter than this means most of the root system was left behind in the nursery when the tree was lifted.

10cm
Union above the soil line

Bury the union and the scion roots over it, and every property the rootstock was bought for quietly disappears.

100%
Root to shoot balance

The root volume has to match the top. A tall tree on a small root system cannot cover its own transpiration in the first summer.

Grades: the number a caliper can check

A grade is not a marketing claim, it is a diameter band measured a hand’s width above the union — the one specification a buyer can verify on the spot.

  • First grade

    Enough reserve to push roots in its first spring. Dearer, and about a year earlier into cropping, which usually more than covers the difference.

    Caliper
    12–16 mm
    Height
    140–180 cm
    Laterals
    at least 4

  • Second grade

    Acceptable for lower-density blocks on good soil. Needs one more season to reach the same framework.

    Caliper
    10–12 mm
    Height
    120–150 cm
    Laterals
    at least 2

  • Third grade

    Cheap, and false economy in a commercial block: it spends its first spring catching up, and it is the first thing lost in a drought.

    Caliper
    8–10 mm
    Height
    100–130 cm
    Laterals
    none
All three circles are drawn at one scale, so the gap between twelve millimetres and eight is the gap the eye sees. A cheap caliper in the pocket is the cheapest insurance in this trade.

Chapter three

Bare root, container or rootball?

What actually separates the three is not the price or the pot. It is the shape of the root system you are handed — and the window of time you have to plant it.

Bare root

Every root the tree grew, in the arrangement it grew them, and the cheapest format there is. It exists only while the tree is dormant — and that constraint is the reason the other two formats were invented.

Relative cost
Transplant setback
Low

Main risk: Roots drying between the nursery and the hole. Half an hour of sun and wind on a bare root system is enough.

Planting window

  • MMar
  • AApr
  • MMay
  • JJun
  • JJul
  • AAug
  • SSep
  • OOct
  • NNov
  • DDec
  • JJan
  • FFeb

Container

Plantable across most of the year and easy to move. In exchange it costs more and its roots grew against a wall: take the pot off and look before you plant.

Relative cost
Transplant setback
Moderate

Main risk: A root that has been circling the pot wall. It keeps going round after planting and strangles the trunk years later.

Planting window

  • MMar
  • AApr
  • MMay
  • JJun
  • JJul
  • AAug
  • SSep
  • OOct
  • NNov
  • DDec
  • JJan
  • FFeb

Balled and burlapped

For larger trees and older stock. The roots stay in their own soil so the setback is small, but part of the system was cut off in the field and the weight is considerable.

Relative cost
Transplant setback
Low

Main risk: The outer roots cut off during lifting. You take delivery of fewer roots, though what is there stays in its own soil.

Planting window

  • MMar
  • AApr
  • MMay
  • JJun
  • JJul
  • AAug
  • SSep
  • OOct
  • NNov
  • DDec
  • JJan
  • FFeb
The part above ground is drawn identically in all three panels so only the roots are compared. The month strip is each format’s planting window.

Chapter four

Read the tree against your orchard, not against a catalogue

A healthy first-grade tree on the right rootstock, if it does not match your winter, your soil and your water, is just an expensive healthy tree. Three checks before buying: chilling, salinity and soil.

  • Fig: 100–300 h
  • Grape: 100–400 h
  • Almond: 200–500 h
  • Apricot: 300–900 h
  • Peach: 350–900 h
  • Pistachio: 600–1,000 h
  • Walnut: 700–1,000 h
  • Cherry: 800–1,200 h
  • Apple: 800–1,400 h
  • satisfied by the reference winter
  • not reliably satisfied by the reference winter
The figures are ranges because the spread inside one species exceeds the gap between some species: a low-chill peach and a high-chill peach are three hundred hours apart. The orange line is a reference winter; draw your own from the nearest station’s record.

Salinity thresholds: the number to know before planting

Irrigation water above these thresholds does not kill the tree; it takes yield off at a published rate per unit. But a threshold crossed at planting is crossed for the life of the orchard.

  • Date palm

    ≤ 2.7 dS/m

    04 dS/m

    The most tolerant species on this list. On the saline water of the south it is close to the only economic choice.

  • Pomegranate

    ≤ 1.8 dS/m

    04 dS/m

    Works on saline and calcareous ground, which is what makes it the first option on marginal land.

  • Olive

    ≤ 1.8 dS/m

    04 dS/m

    Moderately tolerant — but high salinity takes fruit size and oil percentage down before it takes yield.

  • Apple

    ≤ 1.1 dS/m

    04 dS/m

    Sensitive. On brackish water the rootstock matters far more than the cultivar.

  • Grape

    ≤ 1 dS/m

    04 dS/m

    Sensitive, and more so under drip, because salt accumulates at the edge of the wetted zone.

  • Almond

    ≤ 1 dS/m

    04 dS/m

    The most sensitive here, and it reacts sharply to chloride and boron as well.

How do you measure that number, and what if it comes back higher?The soil salinity dossier

Which species copes with which ground?

A coverage grid, not a ranking: "suitable" means the combination is routinely grown, not that it is the best use of the land. Note that the rootstock choice moves several of these cells.

Fruit species against site conditions
Fruit species against site conditionsApplePeachAlmondPistachioWalnutPomegranate
Calcareous soil (high pH)unsuitableunsuitablesuitablesuitableunsuitablesuitable
Heavy clay soilsuitableunsuitableunsuitableunsuitablesuitablesuitable
Shallow soilunsuitableunsuitablesuitablesuitableunsuitablesuitable
Late spring frostsuitableunsuitableunsuitablesuitablesuitableunsuitable
Brackish waterunsuitableunsuitableunsuitablesuitableunsuitablesuitable
Short winterunsuitablesuitablesuitableunsuitableunsuitablesuitable
Nematode pressureunsuitableunsuitableunsuitablesuitableunsuitablesuitable

Buy the pollinizer with the trees, not three years later

The commonest mistake in a new orchard is that every row is one cultivar. When it flowers in year four and sets nothing, adding a pollinizer means waiting another three years.

  • Self-fertile or not?

    Ask before buying and have it written on the invoice. Even self-fertile cultivars set better fruit with a pollinizer nearby.

  • 10%

    Share of pollinizer trees

    About one tree in ten, distributed through the block rather than parked in one row, so no tree is more than two rows from a pollinizer.

  • Overlapping bloom

    The pollinizer has to flower with the main cultivar. Two excellent cultivars ten days apart are useless to each other.

  • 4hives/ha

    Hives at bloom

    For most insect-pollinated species this density during bloom is the difference between flowering and fruiting.

Chapter five

Buying day, in this order

Six things, in this order, in the nursery yard. If the first one fails, do not do the rest — go to the next nursery.

  1. 01

    Paperwork before trees

    Ask for the phytosanitary certificate and the tree’s own record: cultivar, rootstock, year of production and origin. A nursery without those has nothing else to offer either.

    Certificate and record, with the rootstock named

  2. 02

    Ask the rootstock, and have it written down

    The rootstock name belongs on the invoice, not in conversation. "Seedling" is not a name — ask seed of what, and from where.

    Rootstock named in writing on the invoice

  3. 03

    Pull one tree right out

    From the middle of the bundle, not the edge. Open the roots, bend one and see whether it flexes or snaps. On container stock, take the pot off.

    Moist, flexible roots with no knots

  4. 04

    Measure the caliper

    A hand’s width above the union, with a caliper. Take three random trees from the same bundle and average them — not the best of the three.

    Caliper matching the grade you are paying for

  5. 05

    Inspect the union and the collar

    Fully knitted, no split, no suckers, and no swelling anywhere on the collar. Feel this point with a hand as well as looking at it.

    Sound union, collar free of galls

  6. 06

    Wrap the roots for the journey

    Bare roots travel in moist soil, sawdust or damp sacking, out of sun and wind. If they are not going in the ground that day, heel them in.

    Roots covered from the yard to the hole

Do not return these trees — do not buy them

Six faults that are visible in daylight, before money changes hands. The first three are a refusal at any price; the last three are a reason to argue, or to walk to the next row.

  • reject

    Crown gall

    A cauliflower-like swelling on the collar or roots. The bacterium stays in the soil and reaches the trees planted after it, and there is no cure.

  • reject

    Circling root

    A root that has gone round the inside of the pot. It carries on round after planting and strangles the trunk from within, years later.

  • reject

    Dried, brittle roots

    Dark, shrivelled, inflexible. The tree was lifted weeks ago and left out; no planting technique recovers the take rate.

  • warning

    J-rooting

    Roots folded upwards to fit a hole dug too small. The tree survives a season or two and goes over in the fourth year with the first real wind.

  • warning

    Low or buried union

    If the union ends up under soil, the scion roots over it and the rootstock is effectively deleted — along with everything you paid for.

  • warning

    Trunk canker

    A sunken, dead patch of bark with a defined margin. On a tree this young it means the wound has been open since last season.

The healthy shape is drawn faintly behind each fault, so what stays with the reader is the shape rather than the caption.

Chapter six

The Farkesht sapling selection and planting course

What you have read so far is the frame of the decision. The course makes the same decision with a camera in the nursery and at the side of the hole: the rootstock in hand, the caliper on the trunk, the tree in the ground.

  • New orchards

    You make this decision once and live with it for twenty-five years. The course starts before the purchase: from soil and water analysis to placing the order.

  • Replanting and gapping up

    Putting a tree where an old one stood is the hardest case. The course covers replant disease, tolerant rootstocks and preparing the hole.

  • Nurseries and suppliers

    Grading honestly, keeping roots alive, packing and transport — the things that separate a good load from a complaint.

What the course covers

Every module ends in something you can do, not something you can define. If you finish a module unable to do the thing written beside it, that module has not done its job.

  1. 01

    Rootstock: choosing from your soil and water

    The rootstock series across species, what each does to size and cropping, and choosing from a soil test and a water analysis rather than from nursery stock lists.

    Name one specific rootstock for your own orchard

  2. 02

    Cultivar: chilling, market and pollinizer

    Matching a cultivar’s chilling requirement to the local winter record, choosing the pollinizer and laying it out, and looking at the destination market before choosing at all.

    Lay out your cultivar and pollinizer combination

  3. 03

    Inspection: six points on a tree

    The six checks from this page carried out on real trees, with defective and sound examples side by side.

    Accept or reject a load in the nursery yard

  4. 04

    Paperwork: certificates, records, invoices

    The phytosanitary certificate, the tree record, what belongs on the invoice, and what is actually enforceable if there is a dispute.

    Document a purchase so it can be pursued

  5. 05

    Planting: from the hole to the first irrigation

    Hole size and preparation, correct depth against the collar and the union, spreading the roots, backfilling and the first watering.

    Plant at the right depth with the union clear

  6. 06

    The first three years

    Formative pruning, water management through the establishment year, protecting the collar and trunk, and weed control around the tree.

    Write the first three years of a new block

  • Sectioned curriculumEach course is divided into sections and lessons, so you can go straight to the part you need.
  • Pick up where you left offProgress is saved per lesson and the player resumes from the point you stopped.
  • Free preview lessonsSome lessons are open before purchase, so you can judge the depth and the tone first.
  • Permanent accessA course you buy stays open in your account. There is no time limit on watching it.
  • Phone or desktopThe player runs in the browser. Nothing to install.
  • Ask an adviserStuck anywhere along the way, post the question in the forum and get an adviser’s answer.

Courses available now

This list is read straight from the Farkesht library — every course published appears here.

See all courses

Chapter seven

Plans and how to get in

There are two routes to these lessons: buy the single course you need, or take a plan that opens the whole library at once.

  • Buy one course

    You buy a course and it stays open in your account permanently. Right when you know exactly which subject you need.

    See courses and prices

  • Farkesht plan

    Opens every video course, the technical knowledge base and the species files together — and any course published while the plan runs is included too.

    Compare plans

  • Basic

    Register your orchard and keep its record

    150,000 Toman90 days

    Includes

    • Ask questions in the forum
    • Orchard records and care sheets for your species
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  • Our pick

    Professional

    The expert knowledge base, and every species

    350,000 Toman180 days

    Includes

    • Ask questions in the forum
    • Orchard records and care sheets for your species
    • Care sheets for every species
    • Expert knowledge base
    • Recorded video courses
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  • Complete

    Everything, for a year

    600,000 Toman365 days

    Includes

    • Ask questions in the forum
    • Priority placement for your questions
    • Orchard records and care sheets for your species
    • Care sheets for every species
    • Expert knowledge base
    • Recorded video courses
    • Private consultation with an agronomist
    Subscribe

Questions

Common questions about buying nursery trees

The eight asked most often in the forum.

How do I work out which rootstock suits my orchard?

From a soil test and a water analysis, not from what the nursery has in stock. Soil depth, lime, texture and water salinity shorten the list of possible rootstocks; you then choose among those on density and on whether you can afford a trellis. On shallow soil or brackish water, a dwarfing rootstock is effectively off the list.

Is a bigger tree better than a smaller one?

Caliper matters more than height. A tall, thin tree carries a top its roots cannot cover, and it falls behind in the first summer. A tree with a twelve-millimetre caliper and moderate height establishes better than a two-metre tree at eight millimetres.

When is the best time to buy and plant?

For bare root, during dormancy — from full leaf fall until the buds move. Planting inside that window gives the roots time to establish before the first heat. Container stock has a wider window, but planting in high summer is a risk even in a pot.

What is the difference between a phytosanitary certificate and a tree record?

The phytosanitary certificate says the consignment was inspected for quarantine pests and diseases. The tree record says what this tree actually is: cultivar, rootstock, year of production, origin. The first attests to health, the second to identity; you need both and neither substitutes for the other.

Grafted trees, or seedlings and cuttings?

A seedling is not genetically identical to its mother tree, so its fruit is unpredictable — it is grown to make rootstocks, not fruit. A grafted tree is a known cultivar on a chosen rootstock, which is what makes it the commercial standard. Cuttings are normal and correct in species such as pomegranate, fig and olive.

Do I really have to plant a pollinizer?

For a cross-pollinated cultivar, yes — without one it flowers and sets nothing. Even self-fertile cultivars set more with one nearby. What matters is planting it at the start: adding a pollinizer in year four means waiting another three years for it to crop.

I want to plant where an old tree stood. Anything special?

Replanting on an old tree’s site is the hardest case: the soil is depleted of nutrients and enriched in pathogens and nematodes. Leave a few years or a rotation if you can; if not, move the hole, amend the soil and choose a tolerant rootstock. The same species in the same spot is the worst combination available.

Can I buy trees from this page alone?

The framework is here and it is enough for a cautious purchase. What a page cannot give you is practice with your hands: telling a gall from a natural swelling, feeling the flex of a sound root, spotting a part-knitted union. That is exactly what the video course shows, on real trees.

Get the choice right once, before you place the order

Start with the video course — or request a consultation if you want an adviser to look at your own soil and water analysis and name a rootstock.

Start the courseRequest a consultation+989130306001