My yard space of trees for fruit trees is limited to plant them in the ground. I am planning to grow these trees in a container for 2-4 years until I can find some location to transplant them into the ground. Here is my plan for them.
Aprium bareroot tree with 3/4" trunk and 8 foot tall.
Peach is one year seedling which is 1 gallon pot and a foot tall.
Fig is still rooting and just has 2 leaves.
Plant Aprium and peach in 25 gallon air pruning pot like this one on Air pruning Pot 20"
Plant fig in a 5 gallon nursery pot.
For soil mix use 5 park fir bark mulch (pathway bark), 1 part peat moss, 1 part pumice soil mix.
For fertilizing Feed with stark bros tree prep fertilizer water soluble.
For irrigation: Put peach and Aprium on a 2 gallon /hr drip ring watered 2 times a week. Fig on 1/2 gallon drip ring watered 2 times. I will increase watering during peak heat times during August in PNW.
During winter I plan to wrap the pots in closed cell foam or thinsulate (automotive insulation) and mulch the surface with thick layer of straw.
Am I doing this right? Any feedback will greatly help.
For zone 7 I use a similar method (all of mine are in large pots). Wrap each (30+ pots) with bubble wrap + chips/straw for the winter. So far they are all doing well.
When I know we are about to get really cold I move them into the high tunnel or garage.
Apricot/Apriums for me have been extremely vigorous. 4 years in the ground and they’d be huge trees if left alone.
Since yours are in pots, you probably want them to not grow much due to limited size of soil for roots. You want to avoid situation where roots are too big for the amount of soil which could make watering a nightmare. I wouldn’t fertilize it much if you plan to keep them in pots for a long time. Trees in pots could take a lot of work compared to in ground.
In winter, it depends on how cold it gets. Probably don’t let your pots be exposed to low 20s.
I don’t have any pics at the moment. Try to get some later.
However my trees have only been in pots for one winter. They will be replanted next year in ground at a different property (hence the pots). They consume a lot of water in the hot months of the summer.
My understanding from more experienced growers is that anytime you place a tree in a pot you will dwarf it irrespective of the root-stock.
Pots I got were from HomeDepot - $20.00 - 22.44 in. Dia plastic whiskey barrels. Not many people with cows (feed tubs) in my area. Cheapest container I could find.
Apriums are bareroot tree, what would you recommend that I plant them in. I can go with a 20” spikey pot and prune the tree by heading (it’s 8ft) 20” with 4-5 branches.
Peach is in 1 gallon pot, I wonder it probably wouldn’t make much sense to move it to a huge 20 gallon, 5 gallon may be.
Sorry I don’t have experience with container trees. I just wanted to warn the trees can get very big very fast in ground and that container trees will take more work.
If I did have container trees, i would cut them short as you mentioned so the center of gravity is lower so wind doesn’t tip it over easily. We have tall seen container trees get knocked over at home depot and the like. My main concern is keeping up with watering once the root fills the container.
Trees in pots don’t get too big. Even on standard rootstock they’ll stay at 6ft tall and wide. In fact after about 4-5 yrs they lose vigor due to getting root bound. At that point it’s repot, prune the roots, and prune the top to get new fruiting wood. It’s 3-4 yrs of fruit at most and then at least one year to regrow fruiting wood.
Every stone fruit I ever planted in a pot gave fruit. Even ones in 5 gal pots. 20-25 gal works good. Four trees in a 30 gal all fruited. This includes nectarine, pluot, aprium, and sweet cherry.
Trees can get big fast in ground but will naturally dwarf in pots. My trees have come back every year in pots and I have had temperatures below 20 a bunch of times. That being said the plants I keep outside are zone 6 and below. Keep in mind I am zone 5 and have zone 6 plants coming out of dormancy now. All grown in pots mind you. I protected my fig because that is two zones higher but in zone 8 OP should not have to worry about frost on figs.
Thanks, so the spike root pruner pots 20" wide and 20" tall good choice for the Apriums? do you think the mix of pathway bark mulch, pumice and peat moss will work well. Also, should I pot up the 1 gallon peach to 20" pot right away or put it in a smaller pot for this year.
The 20x20 inch is a good size and the mix sounds similar to what I used. I’d put the peach right into the 20 inch. Just don’t keep the mix overly wet until the peach takes off. You should have fruit in 2025.
For peaches you can plant genetic dwarfs like Pix-Zee, once they are dormant you can bring them inside your garage and put them out back towards the end of winter
The pot will keep them small on any rootstock. So, I’d go with the highest quality varieties. In your zone an insulated shed would probably be sufficient in winter. If it gets too cold insulate the pot in some way. It needs to stay below 50F during the day or they may start blooming too early.
ok that sounds similar to figs but figs cant really go below ~20F. what happens when its warmer than 50F outside, if it was in ground? im sure its not a hard and fast rule but the last couple weeks were crazy cold and this week its in the 50s
With overwintering inside the idea is to select the varieties based on flavor and not necessarily cold hardiness.
Cold hardy trees planted outside can tolerate severe cold without damage to branches, shoots, buds. A few days of 50F followed by regular cold temps is not going to bring them to bloom.
