Balcony fruit growing in SoCal

General Fruit Growing
#1

Just wondering people’s thoughts here on container growing fruit somewhat compactly on a balcony. Sorry I double posted on another site as well, I am sure that is a faux pas, forgive me! I would like to avoid doing the indoor outdoor shuffle and just leave things on the balcony 99% of the year (can bring on on the very coldest night or two).

I’m assuming south facing balcony will be best, that figs, pomegranates, and citrus will work well. Is that correct? Actually pomegranate probably not that great since won’t really produce that well probably.

I’m wondering if anything else more tropical will do OK out year round outside in a container… like passion fruit, maybe dwarf banana (I know this exists), dwarf avocado, dwarf mango if there are such things… I also like atemoya… and Persian mulberry/nigra but I highly doubt those can be grown compactly and the latter without an insane mess…

I’m also a little concerned that these plants will be less hardy in a container.

I hope to have a real in ground garden in a few years but until then this is more for fun/I guess eventually I can put these plants into ground there as well. Thank you!

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#2

You can definitely grow a lot in containers. Figs always work well in containers, I would get a known smaller variety, but no matter what you get you can prune to fit. Dwarf bananas are available, but I do not know if they will fruit reliably in a container. Someone else can probably give you a better answer. There are smaller mango varieties, but no true dwarfs. From another forum, they mentioned smaller varieties include Honey Kiss, Fairchild, Imam Pasand, Pina Colada, Mahachanok. You would have to continually shape and prune to keep them small.

Almost all of these would do better in the ground, but container growing is possible with some work and research.

I’m not sure about the other fruits that you mentioned.

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#3

In Pasadena I don’t know why you’d need to move anything inside due to cold. Maybe on a very rare night. Try whatever you like. More things will work than you probably think. Keep the roots from getting too hot. That would be a concern for me. Shade the pot, paint white, or wrap in Aluminum foil.