I have many potted plants of varying species and sizes in containrs. Some have been in the same container for over a decade…this includes pawpaw and blueberry. Sitting outside in a wooded area under trees…and not in any greenhouse and not mulched or covered except for a few leaves from the trees they reside under.
Always lose a few things…but not as much as some would probably expect.
Last year, about everything made it through the winter, until March. A very warm February and a March colder than February led to plants budding and many actually leafing out.
And that breaking of dormancy and appearance of green leaves led to the demise of several apple trees in March when temps dipped repeatedly into the 20 degree range. But…all the dead ones were on M-111 rootstock. Didn’t have losses on any other rootstock. I think the M111 broke dormancy before some of the others is the likely explanation, for all are hardy to at least 20 below zero during mid winter and still grow the next year.
I have a potted pomegranate indoors by my staircase with very minimal sun, more like a bright living room.
The temps fluctuate between 65-70 and the tree did not go dormant. It would be a better option to keep it in an open bright space since it will likely not go dormant.
I would make sure to prune it well and the pomegranate tree will likely regrow new leaves to acclimate to light conditions. Below is the 17 year old tree I’ve kept in very poor light conditions in the winter.
My potted stonefruit are still outside. I’ll move them into garage in the next week. I need to move them out earlier in the spring…last year i think they spent too long in garage and really dried out (killing a few).
I just checked on my plants in the garage and some type of vermin has been digging everywhere. They dug up and seem to have eaten 4 pots of different types of strawberries I had received from the USDA and had just put in the garage for a few days over Thanksgiving when it was getting very cold … ugh! I didn’t have time to get a good look at most of the plants since everything is jammed in tight, but I’m a bit worried they’ve started eating bark on figs, etc. Last year something ate ever single bud off 2 peach trees I had in there.
I’m thinking of putting some “just one bite” in there on the floor, but a bit worried if they drag any into the pots what it might do to anyone eating fruit from the trees. Any suggestions?
I use bucket traps for mice in storage areas. There are lots of different ways to make them, lots of youtube videos. https://youtu.be/6SIlYiiCGLI
I tried not killing them with the water, using a 6 gallon bucket that is tall enough they can’t jump out of but they still died from panic. I read that relocating mice is a death sentence anyway, they rely on their stored food and nests, but I figure if I can release them at least a fox, owl, hawk etc. might get a meal.
Yeah these work! I have a cottage and it is closed from November till April. I use these else mice destroy everything! To preserve the mice I use anti-freeze in the bucket. Just remember to keep your dog away. It works, no stink or bucket of gooey organic slush in the spring. Just nicely preserved embalmed mice! Plus using just water, it will freeze and they will just walk off the ice!
Depending on the size of your pot, mine is roughly the size of a 5 gallon placed inside a large ceramic pot. If you have a good, well draining soil, I would highly recommend doing one deep watering once every 7-10 days. Also I would recommend you place a saucer drip tray underneath the pot, add an inch of pebbles and fill with water halfway up for added humidity. Pomegranate can handle drought like conditions quite well, so I would preferably underwater than overwatered, and extra humidity will keep the tree from drying out.
I would also place some sticky yellow paper to get rid of any fungus gnats if you have them. I have not experience any pest issues besides them for pomegranate.
This is the only comment here that is genuinely informative in a way that provides information on the temps potted plants can survive, but it received only one like- makes me wonder how people evaluate the free information they get here.
I have a customer in Z6 who wants to keep an apple tree alive in a pot on her porch without moving it. It is amazing to me the dearth of genuine information available on what a mature apple tree can survive in a large pot when a pot isn’t buried in the soil. I had assumed there were heating systems used on estates where folks keep unprotected plants over winter very often and I haven’t searched for that yet, but it would be nice to have a better idea what apple trees can survive in the first place.
Of course, it depends how hardened off the plant is, but that’s always the case even with trees in the soil, but you can at least find a ball park for that.
I have grown peach and mulberries for years in fabric bags. The mulberries though have grown into the ground through the bag. One peach is on concrete so it can’t grow through the bottom. It’s fourth leaf in zone 6b. We were 5b then 6a and now 6b. I got a nice crop of peaches on 3rd leaf seedlings.
I have always been a zone pusher and have grown unusual fruit in containers. Most is not worth doing. Some like figs do fantastic. I got around 25 pomegranates this year. I found a few cultivars that do well in containers. Not all fruit well but some seem to do just fine.
At our previous home I have had many young, potted (fabric, 15-20 gallon) trees - apple, peach, euro and japanese plum, and those I just sort of pushed together to one side over winter on our concrete patio - more for ease of shoveling than anything else. No coverings or mulch, let the snow build up as it came. This was zone 6a Ohio, the lowest actual temp I can recall during that period might be 0 °F. The patio was sheltered by the garage stucco wall to the south and the house itself to the east. Northern blueberry and blackberries I’ve had sit on our asphalt driveway in 5 gallon plastic pots overwinter with no issues.
This past winter I just pushed everything under a white cedar against the east side of our garage. Our low was -4°F. No damage to the aforementioned fruit trees. If they’re small pots (#1s) or tree pots I do tuck them in between the large pots or will push them close together and dump a bunch of leaves on them.
Put some of those small Harman blueberries in 3 gal pots:
Sunshine Blue southern highbush hybrid
Rubel northern highbush
Premier rabbiteye
Patriot northern highbush
Chandler northern highbush
Lowest winter temperature was 7F. They did fine outdoors in their 3 gal pots with a few inches of leaves around them.
Here, I’ve had a neglected blueberry plant in a pot survive probably about -10F over winter. I would expect blueberries to have freeze resistant roots considering that they often grow on hillocks in marshland where roots are likely very shallow.
See, this is why this forum is so great. Most genuine pomological research is done for commercial growing but the university gurus often write about things that haven’t been properly researched, including things like what trees can survive in pots at what temps. What I found written from university sources was absolutely useless.
I only found useful information on this subject right here on this forum- From Drew and Blueberry, specifically. Anecdotal information is so much more useful than cautious guesses often made by professors who really often don’t know what they are talking about once they wonder beyond the borders of established researched info.
I’m moving some Chinese chestnuts indoor to an unheated detached garage. They are in 3 gallon pots. Should they be watered at all over winter? They are well watered now due to rain. Thanks.
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