GROWING FRUIT TREES IN CONTAINERS

For many years I was thinking of growing my own food. Fourteen years ago I planted my first fruit trees bought at the local nursery: apple, plum and Asian pear. Only the apple is still around. What I learned in those past years is that it takes some knowledge and care to make the orchard a success. I'm still learning, but with what I learned so far, my trees have a better chance of growing and producing a crop.

Today I have eight fruit bearing trees including apples, pears, cherries and a plum. One of the apple trees is actually growing in a container. I noticed that apple trees in comparison to other trees have the root ball significantly smaller. I decided to try to grow one in the container, just in case I will move to a different place; I could then take it with me. Last year the apple tree in the container (golden delicious) had few delicious fruits. This year I wanted the tree to put the energy to growing good structure, so I didn’t pollinate it (I hand pollinate my trees… more about that soon). It still decided to give us three apples: I thinned the two smallest and left the biggest one, just to see the quality of the fruit it can produce. The apple is still on the tree in November.

I transplanted the tree to a 24” diameter container. I thought in case of the tree that has smaller root ball, it may be easier to control the soil fertility while growing the tree in the container. So far the experiment seems to be a success.