Fruitnut, I have 2 methods and I'm sharing my trade secrets here (what the hell- I'm 6 months from 60 and hope to retire in 25 years anyway). I start some plants straight in the ground, planting them way too close in a fenced off area. Planting them close makes maintenance per plant much less expensive given that it's all done by hand (don't ask). For apples in my climate it takes about 3 years to size them up to about 1.5" diameter- at least when planted this close. I carefully dig up these BR and put them in short 20 gallon pots (wide and shallow) in a mix of 1 part peat, 1 composted wood chips or stable waste ( almost pure humus with some carbo lumps) and 1 sand, plus a little wood ash. They limp the first season but I sell them the next for around $180 per. At this point they are bearing, 12' tall and well branched and the foliage is back to mormal. Other trees I transfer to Carl Whitcomb grow bags in real soil and let them grow about another 3 years and sell them for $250 per, or less to contractors. The grow bags I use are his last edition because they allow more root out of the bag and I can grow them without any irrigation at all- even through drought. Irrigation would reduce production by about a year, I'm sure, but in my operation only my potted plants get any and they are set in the soil as well. I always take some trees in the grow bags, remove the bags and put them into 25 Gallon pots with the soil intact but surrounded by my potting mix which allows me to sell some larger trees during the growing season. Surprisingly the soil surrounded by potting mix works very well and you might want to try that method for your trees as the soil gives you much more bang per square inch and costs less. Repotting would require only replacing the artificial soil on the edge of the soil ball. It makes things real heavy though, and my soil is not too fine so I don't know how it would work with a more clay soil but I bet it would work just fine. I'm sure my prices seem outrageous by your regional standards but I'm less than an hour from NYC and here it's more than competitive- it's the best deal around- because I have scores of varieties and they're actually properly shaped for fruit production. They also plug in better than the competitions BB'd trees, especially the ones I have in pots.

I purchased a three-in-one plum tree from Raintree last year. It has grown nicely and was well labelled. I weighted down the branches with rope and a stone to make the tree more open centered. Looks like it may be budded for fruit next year. I transferred some chip buds ( my first attempt at chip budding) to other plums that I have, so we'll see next spring if that was successful. I have been grafting scions onto existing apple and pear trees for a few years now. My first reaction when these grafts fruited was that flavor must be affected and in decline when a graft. (Mollie's Delicious on Jonathan had no taste; Vista Bella on same tree was o.k.) However, this year has changed that --Honeycrisp is one of four grafts on Hawkeye Delicious and is wonderful. The Grimes Golden on that tree is also great, and expecting great things from Florina in a few weeks. One thing I think I've learned is to not let the tree overbear.

Hello Folks: The amount of fruit that one can expect from a container fruit tree varies greatly on a wide range of factors. However, there are definitely some trees that are better suited for container growing than others. Here are my experiences: 1. Makok sapodilla: This is the king of my containerized bunch. It currently has over 200 fruits that will weigh around 3 ounces each, that is (3*200)/16=37.5 lbs of fruit in a 30 gallon pot. I have not taken an official count yet, but it already produced a boat load last year in a 12 gallon pot. 2. Seedling Limequat: For sure a good producer (most citrus are). My tree is in a 12 gallon pot and I've picked around 150 full size limes this year and it probably still has around 50 or so. I have not taken an official count of the Limes, but I'll probably do it next year, although is hard because this tree flowers and matures fruits throughout the year. 3. Barbados Cherries: I have two of these fruit trees and I love them. My Florida Sweet (12 gallon pot) fruited around eight times (from April to November) probably totaling 400 fruits or so. Definitely all of the vitamin C you could ever need for the year! 4. Seedling Toledo Mango: This guy is in an 18 gallon pot and he produced 27 mangos (variety very small, around three or four ounces per fruit). The tree is very large for the pot, but it has not massively flowered yet. The most it has had is five flower spikes. I'm hoping for a nice production this spring, maybe more like 100 mangos or so. 5. Pineapples: All a pineapple plant needs is a 5 gallon pot, lots of sun, some water and good fertilization and it will produce just as well as if it was in the ground. I have some potted pineapple plants sprinkled around the yard and they fruit every year with minimal care. You just have to make sure that they don't freeze in the winter and they stay growing constantly during the summer, you will get fruit. Considering the amount of care, the size of the plant, and how easy it is to get the planting material, pineapples probably give you the most fruit per quantity of effort/cost. 6. Tamarind, Avocado, Surinam cherry, no fruit yet, but some may come in the future. The tamarind had one fruit this year, but dropped it about two months ago. Bananas are too large and vigorous to properly fruit in containers that are manageable by a single person.

I mistyped. The general consensus was the tree in the above photo was a peach, not an apricot. And after looking up pictures of immature peach fruits it looks like they were right. Theres another tree fused at the bottom of it that some people thought was apricot. Here are leaves of that tree (no fruit yet) I also forgot to put my zone. its 7b/6a the online runs through my county. Where Arkansas Missouri and Oklahoma meet Is the cold why apricots rarely fruit in your area Ken? Why do you think the peach did fruit last year but did this year if it wasnt pruning away dead growth Ken? Even in fruit trees that alternate heavy and light fruiting years they fruit some in the off years dont they?