In central Yukon I have been growing apples, pears, sour cherries and grapes in pots and wood boxes since the 1980s. The technique allows me to grow a bunch of trees while being able to move them into insulated cold frames in the winter so the trees do not face the -50C temps we often get. Most of the containerized apples are on Siberian crab or Columbia. The biggest trees in boxes, 8 feet tall with trunks 4" diameter, grow into the ground during the summer as the boxes have heavy wire fencing for the bottoms which allow easy root growth. In the spring, we dig a depression, fill it with rich compost, bonemeal and hen manure then drag the tree box over that and let the roots feed all summer. Once the fruit and leaves are off in the fall we slip a sharp spade under the box and knife off most of the summers roots…then drag the trees back into the shelter for the winter. Watering the soil well before freeze-up in October. We do loose trees some years so I always have new ones coming along. Dwarf apple rootstocks cannot take the colder , winter soil temps of boxes. I use Cottoneaster and Saskatoon roots for the pears, grow the cherries on their own roots and the grapes spend winters in a root cellar and summers in cold frames.
I am considering g890. What do you think?
Thats awesome. Im considering g890 but im not sure. Maybe i should go with b118
Thats what im going to do with potted fig trees.
Do you root prune ever?
So, pears graft to cottoneaster ok?
Make for a small tree?
(Or you use something like cottoneaster bullatus?) (Hollyberry cottoneaster).
The only root pruning I do is if I move a container and it has roots into the ground…I cut 'em, and perhaps move plant to a larger pot if it looks like it’s required.
My guess is 890 would be good. I once left 10 plain 890 rootstocks in a 3 gallon pot for 2 years and most of them survived.
No–but it’s a good idea. Also, large sized ‘Rootmaker’ pots might be a great option.
I really enjoyed reading about your approach and that it works well up in the Yukon. I have some fond memories of going up to whitehorse and climbing up in Kluane national park… stunning, remote country up there.
I would be very curious to know how big these boxes are… 4" trunk is pretty good size. I’d like to try something similar on some earlier fruiting varieties here in CO, where it’s the early and late season frosts that get us and some fruits are more like a 1-in-6 year event.
The photo is a 20 plus yr old Norland that has been box grown. It’s allowed to root into an annual mix of compost set in a hollow in the ground, I move it outside after bloom to avoid spring frost. Anchoring the tree to a post or fence to prevent wind throw is a good idea. Drip irrigation is nearly a must. A wider box is needed now for this tree…presently the box is about14x20 inside and 18 in deep. The new roots in the compost are cut off in the fall at leaf drop when the tree is returned to winter storage.
It sounded like you dug it up in the fall and replanted the tree back to ground every spring to keep the main roots system small. Does the tree produce apples every year?
Not digging up so much as just cutting it loose from below the wooden box. I don’t plant it, but encourage it to root into shallow compost each season. As the trees size is maintained to be manageable (as manageable as a ten foot high six feet wide tree is) and so long as I do not over-crop it, yes it and 20 others like it produce annually. I will try and include a photo of a real beauty from last year.
This is an unreleased selection from the Can. U of Sask. This tree stays in a coldframe year round.
John, how big is the container on the picture, 7 gallon, 10 gallon? It is a very nice tree, BTW. It is something I am trying to do.
Is this an indication that the root stock is over dwarfing the scion? I have a peach on St.Julien showing low vigor and swollen graft union.
Chill man, the dwarf rootstocks most often grow at a different rate than the trunk of the fruiting selection. Rather than thinking it unsightly, adapt your train of thought to thinking that its amazing that two such different trees can work together to create what is to come, something unique! The real problem is when the rootstock grows at half the rate of the scion and the top overgrowth can break off from the too-thin rootstock.
Looks like a ten, into which it had been moved this spring. Also note the ramial mulch. Look that up if yer not familiar with the term, its one you’ll want t know about. A good trick to employ if you are going to grow containerized trees is to plant a small annual flower in the same pot. You can’t see it but this has a very healthy dianthus in it and a chickweed too it appears. Plant something tender like a pansy or viola, or a dianthus, nothing that gets too big like a zinnia (which is also very drought tolerant). The idea here is to watch the growth of the flower carefully for wilting (needs water), or slow pale growth, needs fertilizer. Since the annual should grow quickly, its a great visual cue to what the tree is soon going to do! The flower not growing? Guess who else won’t be happy. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing - that’s both awesome and in a much smaller container than I imagined, which is great. It’s giving me some ideas for managing our late and early frosts and cold weather here. That said, once it starts to get warmed up there, you’re doing double-time on the sunlight 
Do you ever end up severing the roots before fruit is harvested? If so, how does it go with the plant and fruit? And how much fruit do you get off a tree that size?
I’ll look into the mulch, and truly love the idea of the annual flower as a canary. That is brilliant! Love the tips on containerizing fruit in challenging weather environments. I’m all ears if any others come to mind