Please read this in a good natured tone of voice. I am not being snarky. To someone whose idea of gardening is to buy a condo and let the landscaping crew mow the lawns, a fruit tree would look complicated. Growing organic fruit can be a challenge. I gave up and I spray. The upside to that is I actually get to eat fruit. When I grow fruit trees, I am producing food for my family and I literally spend less time working on the trees than it takes me to drive to the market and buy tasteless, under-ripe, expensive fruit from the produce department. Thanks to the internet and especially thanks to this forum, all the information about how to grow fruit trees is readily available. Seriously, it is simply paint-by-the-numbers to get started. Follow simple instructions. Get a couple of easy trees to begin and then you can get fancier as you learn. I'm still not ready to espalier. My veggie garden is a lot more work. I only have to dig one time to plant the tree. Did I mention that tomato horn worms are close to being the grossest thing on the planet? I'm going to agree that berries can be easy, as long as you like feeding the birds. Pruning brambles can be intimidating. They fight back. I find grapes to be easy, but I know that they take a lot of spraying in climates different than mine. The simple truth is that some people like to garden and some don't. For those who don't, that's why they build condos.

The suckers also "suck" nutrients from the tree and will slow both the growth and ripening process i would remove them but if it's not on a rootstock it's totally up to you, you could essentially let one grow from the base and form a second trunk but I wouldn't recommend it, that's a technique for replacing aged fruit trees which doesn't sound like its your case

i use cardboard, sometimes 2 layers, with a woody mulch on top. it seems to stop weeds for a year or 2, then you can remove the larger chucks, and add another layer, and more mulch... just keep 3 to 4 inches away from the trunk. rain will soak in from around and even from the top. its not been an issue. it keeps the weeds down to 0. at least for a while. ikt keeps moisture in the ground too. getting 2 female papaya is pretty unusual. especially solo/strawberry. they are bred to be %66 bi-sex.... papaya sometimes do change sex. at least from males to bi-sex... i think from female to bi-sex also. stress supposed to be what triggers it... what farmers have used in the past is to drive a nail in the trunk. too much or too little rain can spark a sex change as well. one changed for me once after i topped it. i cut the top 4 inches off... i do that on all my papaya anyway to keep them short. they will start to branch out when you do this though... i keep mine to 1 or 2 "branches" papaya like deep loose soil. it doesnt have to be very deep, but if its not, they will send roots 20ft looking for water, even if the plant is only 8ft tall. science has found that plants will share nutrients if they have the proper soil health and biology... Fungi can go from 1 tree to another several feet away. and if 1 plant has a higher need for zinc, and another has a higher need for phosphorus, they will send those minerals to where it is needed.... woody mulch is the best "highway" in which to do this... (cardboard helps too, especially since it is continuous) it may take months, or even a couple of years for a good fungal pathway to be established.... it is possible that one exists already, or parts of one here and there around tree roots which have died and rotted away years ago. you can buy mycogrow or King Stropharia to innoculate mycogrow has several species, but with King-Stoph you get edible mushrooms :) https://www.google.com/search?q=MycoGrow http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/the-garden-giant-mushroom-patch.html i actually take a shovel full of soil from 3 different sites, under old established trees from a "wild" area that was never clear-cut by humans... this ensures you get a very diverse set of organisms suited to your climate. - make sure the soil touches the roots, or, just an inch away. you can scratch it in the top 1 inch above the roots and add mulch on top. - dont let it get too dry or out in the sun too long. dont use chlorinated water on it, or to water the first couple of weeks. so, your on a good start... keep us updated.

Hey, can someone advise on this: In zone (7a) Long Island, NY Right now I have: 2 Peaches in pots, bare root(miracle grow potting mix) (freshly potted about a week) with osmocote added. 2 Pomegranates in pots, not bare root(miracle grow potting mix) (freshly potted about a week) with osmocote added. 2 Cherries in pots, bare root(miracle grow potting mix) (freshly potted about a week) with osmocote added. I have coming tomorrow: 2 apples(bare root) Originally, I was going to keep all these fruit trees in pots until spring 2018, but now I have decided to get them in the ground and I feel like I'm in a race against time. I was reading the Starksbros website where I had purchased them from and they recommend to add either pete moss, garden compost, or manure as 1/3 concentration into the soil where the roots are. My question is, when I take the trees back out of the pots to plant, can I use the miracle grow potting mix that I already have from the pots, and work it into the soil instead of the above?