Made to dig up fruit trees from community garden, I reach 10-12 ft tall

Hello All,

So I have a predicament, before I plant my fruit trees in the community plot I was renting I asked if I could( In other plots around the city people had placed fruit trees as well) I was told that it wouldn't be a problem by a parks and recs associate over the phone. So I did and they were growing there almost 2 years. They started off as 4-5 ft cuttings and got huge quickly, they were thriving! Just recently I had to dig them up because the decided that since the plots were doing so well that they wanted to expand them and told all the gardeners that they had to remove all of their belongings.

Anywho, I successfully removed the trees with as little root damage as I could and placed them above ground in huge bags that used to hold sand (for free from a nursery) and they are currently in my backyard. I read online that I had to the canopy back halfway if I wanted my trees to wake up and survive in the spring, so I did. I'm just wondering if I did the right thing or are my trees done for? I took and kept lots of cuttings from them just incase. There are 4 trees: Georgia Peach, Red Haven Peach, Damson Plum and a Golden Apple variety.

As of right now they are heavily mulched for the winter, so I'm not worried about that part. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks in advance!

Hi Alexis, I'm hoping for the best here for you. What a nuisance!
You don't say what climate zone you are in. This will make a big difference in how you care for the trees and whether they will survive well or not. Frost will be the issue in some climates and drought in others. Transplanting in the dormant season is perfectly normal for small trees (bare root) and as long as the roots are prevented from drying and kept frost free they should be fine, at least for a few weeks. If longer than that, it might be worth 'heeling them in' somewhere where the soil will look after the roots for you. This risks breaking some new roots when you dig them up, but at least the tree will be alive.
Planting them out and getting them to survive may be more tricky (again climate dependent). I think that cutting the top growth back was probably wise - there will be less for the new roots to support.