Telling you what kind of apple tree to plant is like telling you what caliber rifle to buy. Apples to eat, apples for applesauce, apples for pie, and apples for deer may all be a bit different. Some varieties need certain other varieties for pollination. Some kinds will do better in your soil type, and some types are more disease resistant, if you're not planning to spray much. Hunters are usually looking for apples that drop during the season that they like to hunt. I like apples that are good for fresh eating, then I grab a few when I'm out hunting. For my personal preference, I think pears are the better deer attractant and easiest to grow for food plots, so I mix pears and apples. Check around, our County Conservation District has a tree sale every spring, nicer trees for the money than a nursery. Keep your trees together to make taking care of them and hunting easier, rather than scattering them all over the place. Ideally you should have an orchard site on a well drained eastern or southern slope with good wind drainage to avoid early frosts. You should get a machine to dig to plant trees so your holes aren't to small and crowd the root system of your planting stock. You should have some type of tree protector tubes to prevent mice and rabbits from girdling the trees, and keep bucks from rubbing them if your deer fence fails. Put the tubes tight down against the ground or the tube can turn into a solar chimney, and a rodent house. I put a 2" layer of 2B stone on top around the newly planted trees to discourage mice and moles. I use a little peat moss and a few handfuls of starter fertilizer when planting, this is optional. You should put a wire fence around the tree at least three feet in diameter, using steel posts to keep in place, or a flat horizontal piece of woven wire about 6'X6', raised up to about three feet high by a steel fencepost in each corner, centered on the tree to keep the deer from eating your trees. Don't wait, do this right after you plant them or you'll regret it. New trees often need to be staked and tied with rope to keep them straight, I do this by tying them to the round deer fence with baler twine, and these strings need to be adjusted from time to time. You need to study apple tree pruning online to do the necessary pruning each year, the shape of an apple tree is important to keep the limbs from breaking down under a heavy load. You should water the new trees over dry spells the first summer. You're almost going to have to spray your trees at least when they're small, or pests like the Japanese beetles will kill them.
