Is it your plan to grow your trees till they bear fruit to see if you like it, before planting the tree in the ground? If so if you don't like the fruit, do you discard the tree? If that is your plan you may as well plant them in the ground, you can still dig them up, if need be. In your zone apples should be OK with the climate, but I would not expect much from peaches. Starting with rootstock and grafting it will take more than a couple of years for most apples. Al

Yes, that is my plan :) Unfortunately we only have space for 2-3 trees, but as you mentioned, especially with peaches, not many produce well. I wanted to trial about 10-15.

I was reading on this forum (maybe fruitnut?) that peaches may perform even better in pots. As for apples, a local person mentioned that because we don't have lots of chill and trees go dormant late (Dec-Jan), vegetative buds turn into fruit spurs, and they are more precocius.

I lived in Santa Cruz county zone 17, for 40 years, and never heard that. Call your local county farm adviser and ask for his comment. Al

pylot:

Pots are a good way to try fruits to see what you like. But growing that way requires a lot of attention. Daily watering unless you use very large pots. It's also possible that the fruit won't taste the same from pots as inground. Sometimes mine is better sometimes worse but mostly better in pots.

As to the apple question, low chilling will cause less growth and the trees may seem more precocious. But I really don't think lack of chilling will cause vegetative buds to turn to fruit buds. Lack of chilling does delay flowering as much as 3 months for me. That's not a good thing IMO. Applenut likes M111 in his low chill environment.

Fruitnut,

I've been thinking about doing something similar. I remember a while ago you said you wouldn't use any container larger than 5 gallons. How large of a tree should we expect to see from a 5 gallon bucket? I've been using the HomeDepot ones with holes drilled near the bottom.

Also, would this apply to pomegranates? I've read online that you need at least 15 gal, but one would think if peach or apple could grow there that a generally smaller tree like a pomegranate could...

Bob

I'd go bigger then 5 gallon. I moved to 15 gallon and they seem about perfect. They'll keep your trees dwarf. The biggest issue of course is water. They require a lot of water. A ton of water (when its hot). I almost need to hook up a watering system so then I don't need to go out every day with a hose.

Most of my trees in the past have been in 15 gallon. This is a Flavor Finale pluot after 3-4 years and two huge crops. This is the biggest a tree will get in my greenhouse in a 15 gal pot watered once a day.

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This is a Star blueberry in 15 gal since 2004 without repotting. It made 18 lbs fruit last year and should next year.

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An apple in 5 gal.

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A Flavor King pluot in 5 gal. This should get 2-3 times bigger, 1/3 the size of the first tree. It hasn't fruited but should next year.

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Whether 5 or 15 gal mine need water once a day in summer. The tree size grows proportional to the pot size and so far, all have bore fruit.

Great pics, fruitnut, thanks for sharing. I've been unsure what to expect from my container trees.

Thanks for the pics, I am in a similar situation as the OP.

I want some fruit trees, but are renting a house right now. Until we buy a home trees would have to stay in pots.

Fruitnut: just curious, have you ever used pots that were shorter and larger diameter, say a 15 gal pot that is 2' dia. x 2' tall vs 1.5' dia. x 3' tall? I realize the math is not correct but the idea is to go with a more squat pot to increase the water holding capacity of the soil once the irrigation is shut off. Looking at your pots and reading what you wrote about irrigation frequency just made me curious if you had tried different pots and if they worked to decrease the required irrigation intervals.

Back when I was in school and very involved in the greenhouse potted plant business we used very specific dimension pot growing media combination for a given potted flowering plant due to their specific needs for root space, wet vs dry feet, etc.. I remember the hydrangea pots were very short and relatively wide when compared to most any other pot we used and they definitely held water throughout the root ball for some time after the irrigation was turned off.

Our teacher demonstrated the water holding phenomenon of tall and skinny pots vs short and wide by soaking a sponge and holding it parallel to the ground, a few drops dripped off here and there; next, he held the soaked sponge vertical and the water poured out of it. I've never forgotten that simple, eloquent demonstration.

I'm guessing you've tried lots of different stuff to get to where you are today.

michael:

I haven't tried different pot proportions. But have mostly went with fairly tall pots to reduce the perched water table. Most fruits don't like wet feet so a tall pot would be better. I've also been careful to try to use media that drains pretty well. There is lots of info on the container forum about all this. My complaint there is that they make pot culture sound more difficult than it is. It's not easy but doable.

The pots I've called 5 gal above actually hold 8-10 quarts media depending on how full they are. So they are really 2.5 to 3 gallon pots. Wet and with plants they weigh 10-16 lbs. The Flavor Finale in 15 gal, the top picture, weights ~115 lbs. The Star blueberry 105 lbs.

The Flavor King in about 2 gal of actual media, 16 lbs, compared to a 5 gal pail, 1 gal milk jug, and a 2.5 gal pail.

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Thanks Fruitnut. That picture is very helpful. If a 2.5-3 gallon pot works, then the 5 gallon bucket (with holes drilled) should be plenty large and still not weight more than ~30 lbs. My deck will be full next summer with Sweetcrisp blueberries, peaches, and pomegranate.

This year I tried corn (produced nothing, 4-5 per bucket is too many), sunflower (1 worked reasonably well, 2 were smaller but still grew), watermelon (fail- I got 2 tiny melons), and blueberries (they sized up pretty well).

I'll need to adjust what I use, as I mixed leaf compost (50%), garden soil (25%), and peat moss (25%) for all but the blueberries (100% peat), and I think they were a bit too thick/water retentive. I've just picked up some perlite, so that should help a lot. I've had trouble finding pine bark fines, but I do have a mix of pine needles and wood chips. Could I substitute this for the PBF? Or maybe mix it with peat?

bob:

My experience is that you will be better off with something that drains too well than with a water retentive mix. 25% garden soil is way too much unless it's nearly pure sand and sand is too heavy for me.

You need something stable, won't decompose too fast, and well draining. I can't find pine bark fines either and probably need to figure out how to grind and sieve my own from bigger stuff that is available.

Another trick I use that may help with a perched water table is to water only in the morning just before a period of high water use. This way the plant may dry out any excess water before it can hurt anything. I should also experiment with a wick out the bottom to allow perched water to drain.