Any tips or recommendations when growing fruit trees in containers? Last Sunday, I purchased three bare root trees and planted them in 20 gallon nursery containers: Pluerry sweet treat, plum (beauty, satsuma, elephant heart, shiro), and apple (cosmic crisp, honeycrisp, gravenstein, chehalis, sunrise magic). The goal is keep them in containers long term. Would love to hear about your experiences! I’m in Puyallup, WA (8b).
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I grow all my fruit trees in containers, so feel free to tag me if you have any questions!
Depending on your climate, with containers you’re going to need to be on top of:
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Moisture control: good free draining mix, good layer of mulch/chipping, drip irrigation if needed in dry spells
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Nutrients: winter compost, top dressing, and regular feeds through the growing season
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Growth: containers will limit this a lot, but my advice is to do what I do and avoid winter pruning (which stimulates vigorous growth) in lieu of summer pruning and, whenever possible, training rather than pruning
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Pests: pretty easy with containers as you can move them apart, or even replace the soil, if needed, but pests can take a heavier toll so need a more assertive approach than in-ground trees
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Support: honestly, I live in what’s basically a wind tunnel on the coast and I don’t stake my containers; that’s me, and that might not be you, but I find careful positioning of the trees matters more, and avoiding cropping too early, but you’ll get a feel for things
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Thinning: extra important in the first 2 years to let those roots get established
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Exposure: again this’ll depend on your climate, but since container trees’ roots get colder and hotter than those in the ground, you’ll just want to keep an eye on how your trees are growing, if they seem happy, etc, otherwise they may need swaddling (around the containers only, really, I’d think) for anything acting more sensitive, in the winter, and possibly sun protection in super hot spells (again, only if they’re being really reactive)
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Pollination: plant plenty of native pollinator-friendly plants to encourage bees and such, and don’t be afraid of hand pollinating as reassurance too
I think that’s a good roundup as far as I can think, do let me know if you have any particular concerns. 
All the best,
Ari
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Im going to try some of these. I saw a post on fb of a guy growing in them… probably figs and some brambles for me.
$10 each (made in USA ?)
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Love this wooden planters, where did you get them from?
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Thank you for the very insightful advice! How large are your containers and do you repot them after a period of time? Or continually prune?
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Thanks! I made them from leftover fence board.
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They’re pretty small pots - I think my largest is 22" or 24".
This photo is from a month ago when I did some field grafting and before I topdressed and remulched, but gives you a rough idea.
I use dwarfing and semidwarfing rootstock and go heavy on top dressing to compensate. I’ll probably repot at least my biggest tree this upcoming winter (it’ll be its third year in that pot) and go up a couple inches in diameter. That tree is just under 6’ from the soil surface and happy in that pot, and since it’s on semidwarfing stock, keeping it a bit compressed helps to restrict growth too. I’m likely to cut back the leader in the summer too, and from here focus maintaining that size.
I use the patio trees partly for sun shade for our otherwise scorched living room windows in the summer, hence keeping them a bit taller than your usual patio tree, so how you grow them depends a lot on how you want them to look, how big you want to keep them, etc.
If I had a nice big patio like yours, I’d probably have some fun making a mixed partial fence of espalier or trellis, or a border of stopover trees with the bigger ones as centerpieces
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Awesome, thank you! I’ll definitely consider those ideas 
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