Specifying maiden whip trees vs feathered maidens

Hi Adam. This is quite a common question. In practice it is not possible to specify feathered maidens vs maiden whips - although some books on growing fruit trees may imply there is a choice.

Whether a tree produces feathers in its first year or not is largely varietal. To give you two of the more extreme examples, a maiden Bramley apple tree will never have feathers, whereas a maiden Cox apple tree will invariably have many feathers.