My farm is in Va, and I have bears and a ton of deer. Deer love to eat young apple trees, so protection is a must. What I’m about to say will not stop a bear, but works great for deer. Buy a roll of concrete reenforcing wire...the stuff that is typically imbedded in concrete. Using bolt cutters cut off the bottom horizontal wire so u have spikes sticking straight down. Figure out how big of a circle you want to make to go around the tree, mine are probably 6 feet in diameter and cut the roll vertically, in the middle of the section that gets u to the diameter u have decided on. Go around the tree, sticking the bottoms spikes in the dirt and when you close the loop use the vertical spikes (where u cut the roll off) to bend them and close the circle. These things last for years, if u avoid hitting them with your tractor mower that is... I have over 40 fruit trees, many of which are apples with pears, peaches and plums mixed in. These wire rings have protected all of them from deer. A bear will tear through just about anything other than an electric fence, but I’ve not had that problem.

As for Apple trees, it’s essential you make sure your trees cross pollinate each other. Just because two trees are different (advice u might get at a Home Depot or Lowe’s) does not mean they are good for cross pollination. There are genetic reasons behind this, as well as blossom timing. So before you buy make sure u purchase trees that pollinate each other. Another thing that’s worth doing is looking into crab apple trees and mixing them into your orchard. I believe they are all (biggest word in the dictionary...) self pollinating and many are great pollinators for regular apple trees. Dolgo, Transcendent and American crab apples fit this category. A mix is nice because they fruit at different times, as well.

I’ve purchased my trees from Century Farm in Reidsville NC. The guy who runs it is great and he will give you great advice on trees to plant together so pollination isn’t a problem. They are mostly old southern type apples and the trees I’ve purchased from him have done really well. In fact, I haven’t lost one and after 4 years I got my first apple crop this year (I knocked apples off last year so the trees focused on growth vs. fruit production).

I hope this helps.