First i'll say i'm jealous! Quite the selection there. Your plan sounds good to me...

How long do you think they need to spend outside to get properly pollinated? Pollinating by hand doesn't work?

Do you try different varieties that ripen at different times so you can extend the season?

In a 15 gallon pot, what do you shoot for, in regards to MAX production (how many fruits)?

franktank:

I've tried pollinating by hand. It is very tedius and I probably get about one or two fruit per hour spent pollinating. The trees will have to spend at least two wks outside probably in Febr. I'll move them inside on cold nights. One other angle: I can probably alter the maturity by a couple weeks compared to the inside fruits. That would be nice even though my system has ripe fruit year around.

I've also seen differences in fruit quality between potted and in ground. Often potted is better quality although the fruit is smaller.

A salesman at Dave Wilson once told me that someone in WI ordered 200 of their trees to put in a greenhouse. That would be a big greenhouse. But he had no info on outcome. I grew up near Rockford IL. So have thought a little about what system of protected culure might work there. A year around system including citrus, like I have, would be very expensive. But a system of stone fruit could be fairly low on heating cost if you shortened the growing season to about 8-9 months. In the cold half of the year heat only to critical temperature which would be near zero in mid winter increasing as the plants progressed toward bloom. It just takes the right structure and plan.

The Fruitnut

My potted trees probably averaged 40-50 fruit per tree last yr. I thin pretty hard since I have no use for a large quanity of inferior fruit. Just remember the fruit are smaller on potted trees. Still that's quite a bit of fruit for a small tree, no more than 4ft tall by 3ft wide. The trees occupy no more than 10 sq ft of greenhouse space. For a small greenhouse, potted is the way to go, maybe for any greenhouse. But I've learned a lot having both potted and in ground. I do have more potted every yr.

The Fruitnut

Do your trees loose all their leaves during the winter?

Other then stone fruit, what other crops are you growing in there?

I think i could easily keep a few trees (5?) in pots in the garage and above 0F for the winter...i have a pretty good size attached garage.

I have several peaches in pots right now, but they need to be put in bigger sized container.

Yes, the stone fruit loss all their leaves. I devote about 7 weeks to chill cycle where temp is between 37-54F as much as possible. Other fruit are citrus, grapes, blueberries, apricots, sweet cherries, nectarines, and peaches. Surprisingly peaches have been the hardest crop to grow. Citrus may be the easiest.

My favorite stone fruit for pots would be low acid nectarines, pluots, and apricots. The pluots would be a four in one Zee Sweet Nuggets from Bay Laurel. Don't know where you could get a four in one low acid nectarine or apricot. But a good start for nectarines would be a Honey Kist or Artic Jay. For cots start with a Tomcot. Then graft on other varieties as avaliable. Use Citation rootstock.

With pots inside during winter and a poly shelter in summer, you would be in business to grow the best fruit I know of. The poly shelter can be open on the sides or ends. Just keep off the rain and raise the temp about 10F.

The Fruitnut

Got plums? The DW site mentions this bit of info:
Plant Flavor King with Flavor Grenade, Beauty Plum and Burgundy Plum for good cross pollination...

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom's Picks

When looking for pots for your trees, do you shoot for something that is DEEP or something that is WIDE or just somewhere in the middle?

I'm guessing somewhere in the middle would be best...

I have 15 gal pots that are roughly 18 tall by 14 wide and also 16x16. If I had to chose it would be the taller ones because they should drain a little better. But I doubt you will see any practical difference. The squater ones will be less likely to blow over. But they need wind protection outdoors or the fruit will be blown off the tree.

I put aluminum window screen in the bottom and fill them with a well draining mix of finely ground pine bark and premium potting soil. Don't put any stones or whatever in the bottom. That doesn't help drainage. The taller the soil column, the better the drainage. I'm not an expert on container growing. There is a forum on that I believe. Only trouble there is they will lead you to believe that no mix is good enough and trouble lurks around every corner. I haven't found that to be the case.....so far.

The Fruitnut

Hello,
I also have a few q's for fruitnut. 1) what rootstocks are your pluots in pots on? 2) this may sound crazy but do critters (birds, squirells, coons) get inside your greenhouse? 3) on the pollination stuff have you ever tried placing your potted trees so close together that the branches of seperate varieties litterally overlap each other during bloom? For instance, maybe you could take a fl. supreme and jam it up next to a burgundy or santa rosa plum so that they branches were kissing each other, then when the fruit sets you could seperate the trees to a proper spacing. Just a thought. P.S. you are spot on with this crazy weather.

Thanks as always,
Scaper

Scaper:

My prefered rootstock for all stone fruit is Citation. It is highly compatible and gives large sweet fruit. Only problem I've had is crown gall, which can be serious. Have heard that it doesn't do well in Texas stone fruit plantings.

No critter problems in my greenhouse. Outside birds and coons are severe.

I've tried cramming things together and inter grafting to improve pollination. It helps some if the overlap is very tight. A couple ft apart is no help. It is easier with trees in pots. And I'll have 18 varieties on nine small trees with at least 3-4 varieties on each tree. For pollination I'll put the nine potted trees in one small cluster.

The Fruitnut

I agree with Fruitnut, the pluots he mentioned are extremely good. I find the "second generation" varities have even more intense flavor. I grow mine outdoors, and have had excellent production of F King and F Grenade. Emerald Drop is less productive (so far), and my others (Splash, GeoPride, Dapple Dandy) are too young to comment on. F Grenade is the most popular pluot with friends that try things from my orchard, although they like F King as well.

For the record, I find Inca plum to be just about as sweet as the pluots, especially if left on the tree a long time.

Plastic, metal or wood pots?

I think i'm going to take the dive and order one if i can find anything (not much left this late). I'll make sure i get something on Citation. Just one for now, see how next winter treats it!

My pots are all the UV stablize black plastic. They last a long time. I've had no problems with the roots over heating, at least not that I know about.

franktank, Fruitnut has a ten month growing season. You only got five. If you grow four foot tall pluots in a pot it will be even more of a challenge to fruit. Pluots appear to be tough trees and will grow planted in your yard. The problem is they are hyper bred and need long hot dry summers to sweeten the fruit without cracking.

theace does have a good point. The only early pluot is the Flavor Supreme. You don't want that. Plus most if not all pluots need a pollinator. If you remember we earlier discussed the Honey series of nectarines. Honey Blaze and Honey Kist mature earlier and are self fertile. I'm sure you could mature them. They are ripe in my greenhouse in late May. And for what little it's worth, I like them even better than the pluots.

Whichever you chose, this won't be easy. But if it were easy, everyone would do it.

The Fruitnut

One more question. Is insect pressure greater or lighter in the hothouse? On a seperate note I planted one pluot last season, a rather good sized flavor queen ( because I could get one) and it seemed to do well for its first season. It actually bloomed and even appeared to set a pluot. A late spring hail and wind storm knocked it off however. I am considering building a very simple hoop house over the thing after it blooms if it sets fruit and keeping it under plastic until harvest. I would build simple doors on either side for ventilation. I would keep them open until a storm is predicted and would then close them up for wind protection. Does this seem like a good stragedy?

Nectarine for sure.

Concerning fruit set on Flavor Supreme: we have a big tree (relative to my other fruit trees) that blooms heavily, but have never had a heavy fruit set. I also see very few bees in the tree, even when the nearby apricots have bees. I do see some houseflies and other insects on the blossoms. I put vases of more attractive blossoms (Burgundy, Santa Rosa, etc.) in or behind the tree. Bees seem to be somewhat more interested in the blossoms in the vases when they start to wilt, for some reason. Sometimes they are also attracted to the water/lemon-lime soda in the vases.

Flavor Supreme is great when picked at the right time. I seldom thin much, and the fruit are huge due to light fruit set. The fruit loses quality for me when left on the tree too long once it gives to the touch. Sometimes I get some fruit drop, too. Dropped fruit cracks, but it's still so good that I cut out the cracked part and eat the rest.

Hand-pollination of apricots is easier than hand-pollination of plums and Pluots.

scaper:

My only concern would be that it might get too hot. Austin can get blazing hot. If your Flavor Queen hasn't bloomed yet, you are a long ways behind me. In my gh it blooms very early and the fruit are now about 3/4 inch diameter. Still it won't get ripe until July maybe some fruit hanging even into Aug last yr.

If you can keep out the rain, wind, and birds without baking the fruit, then it's a great idea. But unlike Frank you don't need more heat. Cover just the top with IR, light diffusing poly, and cover all sides with bird netting/hail screen that will slow the wind a bit, keep out the birds, and allow good ventillation.

The Fruitnut

Thanks fruitnut,
I think I have a design in mind that would work. I just keep wrestling with myself as to if I want to go to all the trouble. I think I will because if it works I will probably build a bigger version for some potted trees I would like to try. Also I am pretty sure I am crazy. If I try this and it works I will try and post some pics. The thing is the design for what I have in mind could be built for very little cost so its kind of a why not thing. We'll see.

Scape

Fruit-

Do you do any apricots in containers? Do you have any other rootstocks you recommend other then Citation? Finding a nectarine on that rootstock at this time of year is almost impossible!

frank:

Yes I have apricots mostly on Krymsk 1, or what supposed to be Krymsk 1. My Krymsk 1 is only really compatible with plums. On nectarines and apricot there is a large overgrowth of scion. But I got this from a supplier in OR that I've since lost faith in.

I just ordered a Fantasia and Artic Glo on Citation from Bay Laurel. I didn't particularly want those varieties, but they are new to my collection, and I want to put my favorites on Citation in pots. I think today may be the last day to order from Bay Laurel.

I do have a few trees in pots on Lovell and Marianna 26-24. The trees are doing fine. So cann't say that won't work. It may be worth a try. Adam's County Nursery sells Honey Blaze on Lovell but are sold out. They also sell Honey Royale, which I love, on Lovell but they show it as 40 days later.

The Fruitnut

I saw that Honey Royale... I might go for it.. i'll check Bay Laurel and decide by tonite so i don't miss out.

Its too bad these things weren't more widely available. The Gurneys/etc of the world keep pumping out the same stuff year after year it seems.

Have you seen this from Raintree:
15 MA 522 Miniature Apricot/Nemaguard

A new and exciting breakthrough for the backyard grower. This new Zaiger introduction has a delicious flavor. It is a miniature, easily maintained at only eight feet tall. The abundant fruit is medium size with a bright orange skin. It has yet to be tested around the nation but is expected to be very cold hardy and should do well where ve apricots thrive. On Nemaguard rootstock, the tree needs a well drained soil. Patent pending.

I'm tempted to order one.

Ok, Ok,
One last question. So citation would be a suitable rootstock for a container specimen in Texas?

Scape

scape: I think Citation is a good choice. Nemaguard would be a poor choice just because it is very sensitive to wet feet.

The Fruitnut

Fruit-

Ordered a Redgold dwarf nectarine, although its on a Pumi-select rootstock. I did some searching and it seems to be German and dwarfing, with full size fruit... We'll see what happens. Its not a Zaiger...i'll have to wait until fall and order for next year if i want something on Citation. I needed to order from Raintree, because shipping kills you on small orders (I ordered pears, apricots, etc). My yard is going to be a forest when i'm done.

FruitNut !
You are the moses of homegardeners ! I know that you have everything and need little for trade but Im desperate for a Pear scion trade ! Pineapple, Honeysweet (both?)..something other than what I have .
What can I do to get in your good graces (or someone in your network)

I NEED

Williams Pride apple
Honey Sweet Pear
Flordahome pear
Pineapple pear
Sweetheart Apricot
Midpride peach or August pride peach

CAN GIVE

Flordaking peach
Blienhiem apricot
Eim Shemer apple
Snow Queen necterine
Satin Spring Plumcot
Hood Pear
various Pluots and plumtrees (variety names forgotten)