66 Things You Can Grow At Home: In Containers!

[oddlyoddish]

Okay, so say you're really limited on space outside as far as yards go and you're a beginning gardener with no idea whatsoever and really would like to grow something tasty of your own. Well,  here ya go! As the title of this entry says.

My boyfriend doesn't believe me about the apples growing in a fair-sized pot, but I'm horrid with measurements

Comments

[ayse]

I have some fruit trees in containers (mostly 22" diameter pots). They work fine, but you need to choose a dwarf rootstock to graft onto (or buy a tree grafted onto dwarf rootstock), and you need to do regular pruning, both of branches and of roots. I prune the branches every year and the roots (with fresh potting soil) every other year.

I also start my trees off small in small pots, so they develop a nice tight root system, potting them up only when they have definitely outgrown the smaller pot, and mixing root pruning with branch pruning all along. Once they get to the size I want, I stop potting up and just prune for size.

And yes, I have an apple in a pot. And three figs, a lemon, and a couple of mandarin orange trees.

[oddlyoddish]

Wow :o Definitely a lot of work! How do you prune the roots though when they're balled up? Just trim a little here and there without going too nuts?

[ayse]

I don't know what you mean by balled up -- that has a very specific meaning in horticulture and it would be a very bad idea to ball your trees before putting them in a container. The process of root pruning is very simple. You pull the tree from the pot, knock the soil off the roots on the sides, trim back the roots, and repot, adding more soil. It's very simple, though with larger trees it requires two people to do the lifting and shoving bits.

[oddlyoddish]

Well, you said "when they have definitely outgrown the smaller pot". To me that says when the roots either are balled or are nearly balled.

But how do you know when you've pruned enough? o.o I almost think I'd wind up either underpruning or overpruning x_x

[dogwoodblossom]

I don't really know much about container gardening (or any gardening really except what I learn here and what my mom tells me) but I've seen apple tree bonsai that bore fruit so large I was shocked they didn't snap the tiny branches.

Actually if you're doing trees in pots it's probably a good idea to read up on bonsai anyway even if you're not planning on keeping the trees small or particularly artful.

[oddlyoddish]

x3 Bonsais are always interesting. I want to say I've seen a picture like what you described, but if I did it was a long time ago, lol.

That is true... Since it has a lot to do with pruning. *Nods.*

[oddlyoddish]

Also, I absolutely ADORE that icon ♥

[cous_cous]

I have many fruit trees in pots (apples, pears, plums, nectarines, quince, figs, 20 kinds of citrus, pomegranates, and a lot of exotics fruits). They do OK in pots, but the thing to remember is that the yield will not be as high, and they need to be watered more frequently.

But, if you have limited space, and a fondness for fruit, you can really expand your selection.

[ioanna_ioannina]

I had a willow in a roughly 30 cm diameter pot for years, until it freezed during one winter; now I´m having two clematises in 75 l and 100 l pots and they are doing well.

[rhiannon_s]

If you can access the BBC iPlayer then the most recent episode of Gardener's World actually has a segment on care of containerised citrus trees.

[oddlyoddish]

Cool! :o Thanks for sharing :D ♥

[rhodielady_47]

Show that stubborn boyfriend this website:
http://www.midfex.org/yale/intro.html
This website tells about Gene Yale and how he grows 97 apple trees on a city lot that's about 2500 square feet.
Hope this helps.
:)

[oddlyoddish]

:o Awesome! Thanks for the link! ♥

[rhodielady_47]

Glad to help!
I started out a few years ago just as you are now to learn as much as I could about growing extremely dwarfed fruit trees and although I kept on finding lots of general material on how to "get started with growing fruit", I didn't find much of anything on how to continue learning.
Then I found the NAFEX group "North American Fruit Explorers" and I started reading through their archives and I made lots and lots of notes on the fruit producing plants I was interested in: Blueberries, apples, pears, quince, etc.
You'd be surprised how many gold nuggets of fruit growing information I've found reading through those archives (I've shared a lot of it here on LJ too).
The really nice thing about the NAFEX folks is that they let you post fruit-growing questions and they answer fairly in-depth.
Good luck!
:D

[edensgrief]

What an absolutely fascinating read. Thanks so much for sharing this