Dwarf fruit trees -Anyone grown them

w50nky

Hi all,

I am looking at a couple of spaces in the garden which can be used for a couple of these dwarf trees in pots. I am thinking of a dwarf Victoria plum and maybe a cherry. Has anyone got or grown these? Any tips welcome. Thanks in advance.

Rummer

We have a dwarf tree orchard and I love them! We have got our from a variety of sources too.

w50nky

Which types are you growing, and which perform well?

LittleVermin

w50nky wrote: »

Which types are you growing, and which perform well?

They won't grow so well in pots as in the ground, I guess. You'll need to repot after a few years.

If you're frost-free, have you thought of oranges or lemons? Fantastic scent from the flowers, and lemons have scented leaves too. I don't reckon the yield from mini-fruit trees in pots will really be too great (more a case of "fruit from MY trees"!), despite the catalogue pictures. You can grow citrus (slowly!) from pips, and Lidl, etc sometimes sell them at Lidl prices.

Or even a fig? They need their roots constricting to fruit, so pots are good. Beautiful large leaves - and you can use these for fancy dress! (Just take care you don't put them on wonky, w50nky, if you're going as Adam and Eve!)
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ukbill69

Im thinking of getting a few for my allotment plot as we cannot go over 6ft tall.

DaftyDuck

Yes, I've got a few dwarfing types in pots, cherry, apple, apricot and... memory fails me... probably another cherry... that one's not fruited yet.

Main tip I'd give is that, more than any other size tree, the shape you buy it in is all-important. Well-spaced branches, none hanging down or looking frail. Check the graft points well - all looking sound is vital. (One graft on the apricot has failed, leaving it a funny shape).
One of mine came from Homebase, and is fine. The other 3 came from the garden centre, cost loads more, and are no better.

Aldi & Lidl both do trees, but on MM106 and M26 for apple. Quince A for pear, and St Julien for plums, so they aren't dwarfing enough. They both do Lemons, oranges (Calamondin I believe), Kumquats and the like. Great if you can bring them in over winter. I get 15 -20 lemons a year from mine, and that's enough for G&T.

Pot trees in slightly undersize pots, and repot up after a year. Gives better root density (and you can "bury" the initial small plastic pot in your larger pretty pot, so only you will know).
Plum is more difficult to grow on rooting stock... the rootstock is less dwarfing, so you may end up with a midi tree.

w50nky

LittleVermin wrote: »

They won't grow so well in pots as in the ground, I guess. You'll need to repot after a few years.

If you're frost-free, have you thought of oranges or lemons? Fantastic scent from the flowers, and lemons have scented leaves too. I don't reckon the yield from mini-fruit trees in pots will really be too great (more a case of "fruit from MY trees"!), despite the catalogue pictures. You can grow citrus (slowly!) from pips, and Lidl, etc sometimes sell them at Lidl prices.

Or even a fig? They need their roots constricting to fruit, so pots are good. Beautiful large leaves - and you can use these for fancy dress! (Just take care you don't put them on wonky, w50nky, if you're going as Adam and Eve!)
..

Thanks for the replies all. I live near Scotch Corner. Don`t know if the citrus stock would survive this far north.
I did grow a lemon "tree" from a pip when I was a sprog. It managed to survive quite well indoors for approx 5 years at a guess. Never produced any flowers though.

w50nky

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Yes, I've got a few dwarfing types in pots, cherry, apple, apricot and... memory fails me... probably another cherry... that one's not fruited yet.

Main tip I'd give is that, more than any other size tree, the shape you buy it in is all-important. Well-spaced branches, none hanging down or looking frail. Check the graft points well - all looking sound is vital. (One graft on the apricot has failed, leaving it a funny shape).
One of mine came from Homebase, and is fine. The other 3 came from the garden centre, cost loads more, and are no better.

Aldi & Lidl both do trees, but on MM106 and M26 for apple. Quince A for pear, and St Julien for plums, so they aren't dwarfing enough. They both do Lemons, oranges (Calamondin I believe), Kumquats and the like. Great if you can bring them in over winter. I get 15 -20 lemons a year from mine, and that's enough for G&T.

Pot trees in slightly undersize pots, and repot up after a year. Gives better root density (and you can "bury" the initial small plastic pot in your larger pretty pot, so only you will know).
Plum is more difficult to grow on rooting stock... the rootstock is less dwarfing, so you may end up with a midi tree.

Thanks for the reply. I could live with Midi trees! Mother-in-law had a "real" victoria plum which could provide enough fruit for a small town! Sadly she had a stroke last year and has since moved house so we no longer obtain plums for pudds and wine.

DaftyDuck

Citrus fruit are often hybrids, so the seed will not give you a tree of what you started with as a fruit. They'll also readily cross-pollinate (an orange may fertilise a satsuma, etc), so that pretty much destroys the likelihood of getting the right plant from seed.

Wilko are selling little lemon trees at the moment @£4:00. Not bad, but 6" high. Aldi lemon trees were a good 2'6", many lemons on, and were around the £12 - 14 mark. They'll tolerate cold well, even freezing, but cold and damp is more than they can manage. Luckily, I'm in Kent, and have a big conservatory, firstly to grow the lemons in, then to drink the G&Ts in !

Aldi "ordinary" fruit trees won't be small enough for pots... well, they will for a year or two, but then they'll need to be set free.

freezspirit

Sorry to butt in but before I look stupid at the plant centre is there such a thing as a dwarf damson tree?

Neighbour has two varieties of apple on the boundary nomore than 3.5 ft high. I believe one is Cox's Pippin the other I can't remember but fruit are a deep red.

I have a victoria plum against a wall at about 5.5ft high.

LittleVermin

freezspirit wrote: »

Sorry to butt in but before I look stupid at the plant centre is there such a thing as a dwarf damson tree? <snip>

Welcome! w50nky started the thread but it's not private (I hope nothing on MSE is!).

This link may help: http://www.pots2plots.com/Fruit/Growing%20Damsons.htm so, yes, you can grow damsons, on dwarf root-stocks, in pots. Sounds a problem as damsons are naturally vigorous! T&M has one that only gets to 8 ft - that's a 'semi-dwarf' apparently! - see here.

Maybe someone will have direct experience.

PS If the garden centre makes you feel stupid I wouldn't go there again - they deserve to lose all their customers!
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