Patio fruit trees?

HollowTree

I want to start growing some fruit trees in our garden. I don't want to plant into the ground (rented property) and have found container fruit trees advertised online.

So I am looking for advice really, are they worth buying? I obviously don't expect a massive yield off them but I think they could be quite nice and will get me started while I decide how we go about growing veg...

Any thoughts would be much appreciated

DaftyDuck

I've got patio cherry, apricot , nectarine & something else that's never fruited! I got about 20 cherries, no apricots, and five nectarines (yet to ripen). They are pretty, they are fun, but they don't produce much. The trees in the garden have boughs bent under the fruit, in contrast.

You could buy cheap fruit trees in Aldi in January (£4 each), and you'd get some fruit by 2013 if you are lucky... but I can't dispute the fun value of my patio trees. They were the standard type sold by Homebase, bought half -price in a sale (normally about £12, got mine four for £18)

RAS

Given how very dry this spring was, getting a decent amount of fruit off pot grown trees is a big problem.

It might be better to think about soft fruit, say blueberries, cranberries, red currants or gooseberries.

katiel

I've got nectarine, peach and cherry in large pots. They're improving by the year, but it's hard going. The cherry needs huge amounts of water but has produced some good fruit this year. The others need water too, and food if you want the fruits to swell, but give them too much and they seem to burst instead. And they need cover too in the winter to protect them from peach leaf curl. Still glad I've got them though - fun as well.

HollowTree

Thanks everyone. I am quite disappointed but I take your point about soft fruits instead. I wonder if I could get away with planting a plum tree in the front garden. I bet they'd not even notice (it's bigger than the back).

DaftyDuck

"Me? I didn't plant a tree there.... Oh, but I do spit my plum stones out... Musta grown fast":D

You'll get fruit fast from a plum tree. Even my bare-root plants produced a few in their second year in!

HollowTree

I think I'll have a good look at our front garden tonight and look for the best spot before I buy anything.

I am off to look at storage options for plums....(freezing?).

I have a strawberry planter and seeds so I could do those next year too.

DD has been eating the blackberries of the bush in the garden and was quite fascinated by a plum tree we passed at the weekend so I think she'd be quite willing to help.

RAS

Plum trees grow pretty large on most rootstocks, so you need to ensure that the tree you get is on Pixy rootstock. That is the smallest available.

Apples can be kept much smaller. You could cordon them (a / up against a fence) or someone I know has them as 30" centres round the edge of a 5 foot island bed. You could get 3 varieties as cordons into an 8 foot by 1 foot stretch next to a fence.

Farway

Plums do crop all at once, and they are not good keepers, unless of course you process them in to pies, jam etc

Apples, yes, but how about something a bit more "exotic", like a fig, or peach?

I bought both, fig from Lidl, bare root peach from Blackmoor http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/ in 2009

This year is my first real crop, both in pots, the peaches are just going reddish now [in cold greenhouse], figs swelling, outside, semi sheltered

In south Hants btw

sparrer

I bought a dwarf Victoria plum from my local garden centre last year, it's in a 30" dia tub and is bowing under the weight of fruit. I bought a pear this year, put it in the same sized pot and although no fruit yet is thriving. Apart from an espalier Cox everything in the garden is pot grown, blackberries, loganberries, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, potatoes, garlic and the above mentioned trees, and everything so far is successful .

I'm afraid I break all rules when it comes to gardening, I just see something I like, bring it home and put it in a pot in my 'orchard' which is really just a 9'x9' patio in one corner of the garden. While I respect professional gardeners and all the advice they and their books give, I find that sometimes doing it my way is just as productive.