I pretty much used the Bonker method last year, minus the added soil/moss mix (soil is good where I planted). I planted Liberty apple trees I picked up from Earl May. Libery's are supposed to be one of the most disease resistant apples, especially to cedar rust, and are a fairly late maturing apple (according to the book). I also planted a couple others, either Red Delicious or Jonathon (dont remember) as polinators because I got them real cheap.
I mulched them, watered them, used 4" field tile to keep the rabbits off, and heavy fencing to keep the deer off. So far they are still alive and growing, but no fruit yet. According to the Earl May guru, the year after next should be the proper year to allow fruit to set, any fruit prior to that should be pinched off to allow for maximum tree growth.
Red Fuji was also suggested as a very late maturing apple (mid-late Oct). The guru said that they are fairly new to IA so disease resistance is fairly unknown at this point and that IA is on the northern edge of their range.
This mouse thing has me a little nervous. Anybody had them take up residence in field tile and kill your trees? Would I be better off pulling the tile and wrapping them instead?