Thanks for the link, but I'm looking for a recipe to cut down on price.
We have two right now one is on its second year from a 1 foot bare root to 6 foot, cut back to 4 foot and at present 5ish. The other is on its 4th season and was left to grow to 8 foot and cut back to 6 and at present 7 foot. Both are potted for landscape as to interfere with water lines. We have Pears, Cherry, Apricot and other fruits growing well too.
For all of them I use 1/3 each - Fafard Premium topsoil (jet black compost 5.99USD), Small Pine Bark mulch(3 CU foot 4.99 USD), and Course sand with silica(4.99 USD). Inexpensive for large planting and drains very good. They are in 12 and 15 gallon planters and grow nicely. My goal is to have 6 foot tall trees with about a 4 foot bush top along our short walkway and front of the driveway.
If you want to grow them out I would suggest doing similar, cutting them down to half height after leaf drop in Fall. At that point leave the lowest branch on and trim every other off half way up the trunk. In Spring they will wake up and grow very quickly. If you repeat the process for 3 seasons you will two short but stout trees and at that point you can take off 1/3rd to 1/2 of the root mass(you will need a saw) and repot into something smaller if your goal is Bonsai.
Those look dry to me, I keep mine in Full East West sun and they need a daily heavy watering. During the "hot" spell never less then 2 waterings a day. Welcome to the growing part of Bonsai
Grimmy