Our mild San Diego climate is a bit confusing for fruit trees that require a good chill to set next years fruit. I planted my 2nd generation bare root apple trees last February and if all goes well I'll get a few apples this coming fall. Normally, it takes 5 to 7 years before fruit trees start bearing but if your trees are doing well and you September prune/ shape you will get fruit buds for next year. Sure enough, in 4 to 6 weeks after pruning the new growth produced fruit buds. Shaping is very important because a young tree branch will not be able to support heavy fruit at the end of a long limb. Pruning helps the root system focus on branches you want to bear fruit and eliminating badly located branches sooner is going to make your tree healthier.
So the next step after coaxing fruit buds is to persuade dormancy. My 1st generation trees went dormant for 2 years after I sprayed them with a copper dormant spray. This year I waited until January 1st and de-leaved them manually being extra careful not to damage the new fruit buds. The leaves were showing signs of falling off, some yellow and brown in spots. The tree will struggle through the winter if it has any leaves and never achieve the critical dormancy requires to promote the fruiting cycle. I left the leaves around the base of the tree to help mulch and as long as there isn't any disease present, this works out good. If you have fruit trees and missed the September prune you are better off de-leaving now and spring pruning when new leaves appear. September pruning allows the cuts to heal before dormancy and triggers the new growth bearing fruit buds.
Dormant trees still need watering, just not as much. You want to encourage the organic material breakdown by the soil micro organisms, so come spring the soil nutrients promote new growth.
BTW Pink Lady and Ambrosia apples are good choices for our San Diego Climate and bare root trees will start showing up at Home Depot and Lowes in the Jan. Feb. time frame.