Most popular fruit trees will have dwarf varieties available that will grow in containers. Many other fruits can be grown in containers is you keep the plants pruned properly, which may include root pruning every few years when they become pot-bound with large roots. For all the information MeLikeEatPlants wants about different fruit trees, I would recommend one of my favorite books on the subject. You can get it used from one of Amazon's used book dealers for under $6 including shipping. If you want to raise a backyard orchard it is well worth the $6. It is a book that is straightforward and full of information. On Amazon's "Look Inside", you can see the table of contents, a few example pages, and the index. One of the best parts of the book is not shown in the preview. It has a 50 page alphabetic encyclopedia section, which gives almost everything you need to know about a variety of fruits from Apricots to Tayberries. All of the fruits are for small backyard gardens, and all but a few are great for containers. I cannot recommend this book high enough for beginners or experience gardeners who are new to growing fruit. In 160 pages, it has more information about a home orchard, than I have ever seen in one book, even ones many times longer. By Rodale Press ISBN-978-0875966380 "Backyard Fruits and Berries: Everything You Need to Know About Planting and Growing Fruits and Berries in Your Own Backyard" One shortcoming of the book is that it was printed in 1995, so when it recommends specific varieties of plants, it will not have the newest varieties listed. This is not to say that the information is not still valuable. I have a fondness for heirloom varieties that are often some of the best tasting. Many of the advancements with new varieties are not for taste, but for better shipping for commercial growers. Some traits that commercial growers want are the opposite of what a home grower would want. Commercial growers want a plant with fruit that ripens all at once, while home growers often prefer an extended fruiting period. MeLikeEatPlants, since you live in California, you should look at the University of California (Davis) Agriculture and Natural Resources Division's collection of free information for growing a home orchard. "http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/Fruits_&_Nuts/" I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the local university's agricultural extension office has a wonderful collection of PDF publications for gardeners and farmers, all of which are available for free to download. I have a huge collection of PDF files I have downloaded from them and other sites as well. The advantage of getting information from a local source is that it will be more specific to your local soil and climate, but there is still very useful information available from sources outside your local vicinity. Uni. Of Tenn. Gardening Publications "http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/homeGarden/default.asp" Cornell Guide to Growing Fruit at Home is a great resource for gardeners in New York state. "http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/fruit/index.html" These are just a few of the many sources of information on home orchards that are available from universities, coop. extension master gardeners groups, and others. I've never posted photos on this these forums before, I so don't know if mine will work or not. If so, I'm posting pictures of my dwarf Black Tartarian Cherry with Ozark Beauty Strawberries, my Scuppernong grapes, and my Apache thornless blackberry. While my fruit trees are all dwarf varieties, My tomato plants are definitely not. They have already reached 8 feet tall and are covered with green fruit. We had our first ripe ones for dinner last night. My wife and I have gotten so spoiled by the taste of home grown tomatoes during the summer, we simply do without fresh tomatoes during the winter because the things they ship around the country don't really even taste like tomatoes. I'm so proud of my tomatoes, I've included a picture of them as well. They are technically a fruit and are growing in a 6 foot snap-set kiddy pool, which is technically a 300 gallon container. Like MeLikeEatPlants, I also rent a house, but I did not want to wait to start my fruit orchard until I can afford to buy a home. In March 2010, I started my "Container Orchard". I wish that I had found Ray Newstead's website about his "EarthTainer" design before I started my little orchard. Between now and winter dormancy, I'm trying to decide how I can adapt my containers to build his design with a bottom watering reservoir, but unfortunately I have already drilled lots of drainage hole in my containers, so they may not work for his design. Replacing my 25 containers won't be cheap, so I'm still working on ideas. I've planted my dwarf fruit trees, grapes, and brambles in containers so that I can move them when I finally buy a home. If I can buy a home with a yard, I'll put them into the ground then, but if I buy a condominium, I would go stir-crazy without at least a patio for gardening, so my plants will have new home as well. My containers can all be moved with a hand truck, but I'll probably have to make an extra trip with a U-Haul truck just for the plants. When I got the plants in early April, the grapes and brambles were in 3 inch peat containers and the dwarf fruit trees were bare root. Of the 25 plants, all have done wonderfully except for one J. H. Hale dwarf peach tree that died. I'm really happy with the success I've had with them. The excitement of watching them grow and waiting will probably make them taste even better. The dwarf trees will take couple of years, but the raspberry and blackberry brambles should have a good crop next year. I'm still hoping for a fall crop from my everbearing strawberries. The plants are growing like mad, but I'm not getting any blooms. Ozark Beauty strawberries are said to not make very many runners, but I'm having to cut runners off the plants at least twice per week. Almost every single plant is putting out 4 or more runners per week. This winter I'm planning to move the strawberry plants out from the base of the fruit trees. I've got another one of the snap-set kiddie pools I bought for $5 last fall on clearance that I've been filling up with compost for them. (Others may prefer cream and sugar with their strawberries, but I've always been a bit odd.) By winter, the new bed will be ready for me to move all the strawberries to a place of their own. Here are my pictures - hopein' it works. Dwarf Black Tartarian Cherry Tree Bronze Scuppernong Grapes Apache Thornless Blackberry Tomatoes in 6' Snap Set Swimming Pool

From my experience with Southmoon it doesn't require near as many chill hours as stated. I've had great fruit set at 250 chill hours last year. If I had to start all over I would grow 5 low chill varieties. Emerald for shear volume of good fruit and it's very low chill, almost evergreen in my location. Sweetcrisp because the fruit is hands down the best overall. Snowchaser for it's out standing flavor and very early crop. Springhigh for a very early crop and high quality fruit. Jewel for volume and great flavor. I guess I would throw in Sunshine Blue as well. The only knock I can see on that variety is it's a pain to prune cause it can over produce fruit buds in a bad way and it's very twiggy. That being said, if pruned right it is a top notch flavored berry IMO but you don't get a bunch of fruit and it's usually small. As far as rooting cuttings, all of the above varieties except Sunshine Blue are patented so it's illegal to do. If you do, don't tell anyone about it!;) One way that I can think of to creat a humid micro climate for them would be a large kids pool with several inches of water. Place bricks or something in it to keep the bottoms of the pots out of the water and place them in the pool on the brickes. Sounds kinda getto but it works. The water evaporating will provide enough humidity in the leaf canopy to keep them happy along with shade for the brutal sun in your area.

Yes, very interested as well. All of mine have died (2 or 3rd year in ground) seems to be a soil issue(wetness, nutrients, nematodes). I even re-planted a second sample on a Colt(?) root-stock and on raised soil piles and they seem to be almost dead again. Nothing survives in here with exception of citrus, pineapple and muscadine grapes + tropical stuff in-ground. Before dying both trees actually did bloom with couple of fruit setting. So it looks like you will definitely have some as long as they stay alive. :) I am now trying to do the 25 gallon pots experiment, if that fails as well I will give up on cherries and move on to tropicals since it might be some regional pest/disease issue for me ( I live next to a big pine forest/preservation area so maybe some nastiness flying from there?). So-far I potted couple of plants and it looks good (knock on wood :D) What is weird however is I planted couple of apples (Dorsett and Anna I believe) in the same spot the Cherrys were and the seem to be doing great! I even got fruit off-of them the 2nd year. Hopefully you'll have good news to post!

happy_fl-gardener, Could you elaborate a bit about planting the blueberries? I'm in the Hudson area and just came across the blueberry farm you're talking about...thinking about purchasing a few from them. I've grown a couple plants in the past up in the panhandle, in my flowerbed in regular soil, and acidfied the soil only around the root areas. They grew like crazy, and the fruit was wonderful. I'm not familiar with the planting method the blueberry farm mentions on their site, and I'm assuming that you also use it. I'm not sure how many plants to plan for...have raised beds for vegies, but was going to plant the blueberries in the ground nearby. I have about a 12'X12' area which I wanted to use for them. Also, do you know if deer eat/like the bushes? Have to fence the garden beds, and also my young loquat & citrus trees...the deer love the tender new growth! :-( They don't bother the older larger fruit trees. Anyway, could you give me a better idea of how the farm instructed to grow the blueberries? In my minds eye, the plants are plopped on the ground and a 1' layer of pine bark is placed on top...doesn't seem a very stable way to plant. (for the plants that is) Would appreciate any input you would care to give. :-)