sweet chestnut

[organic vic]

Hi I have just got a sweet chestnut tree at 4ft tall and plan to grow it in a large pot
Does anyone have any advice on growing this?
Also have a lemon and lime tree which are new also and a kaffir lime tree any advice on any of these would be much appreciated. I have been told to keep the kaffir lime indoors as it doesn't like too much heat or cold. Also when feeding the kaffir lime do I use citrus feed?

[rustylady]

Where did you get your sweet chestnut from? If you look in the local parks you will see them, they grow huge!!! Doubt it would do well in a pot.

[organic vic]

Hi i got it from Dobies and it will only reach 5m in 10 years. Are the ones in the park not just chestnuts which are non edible?

[bluemoon]

Even sweet chestnuts are massive too and are difficult to tell from horse chestnuts. I've seen these in the Dobies catalogue and been tempted, but 5m is actually quite tall, way too big for a pot, and if you look at chestnut trees the spread is at least as big as the height. I doubt very much that your tree will survive to maturity in a pot, don't forget that roots spread as far as the branches too, this is why I haven't bought one, I simply don't have space, even on the lottie. Plus when you plant a tree you really intend it to live longer than 10 years, and it will just keep getting bigger. This '5m in 10 years' is a sneaky way of selling something, I've often thought, as it implies that at this point it stops, which is not the case.
Perhaps you could train it as a large outdoor bonsai? It would still fruit. There's a forum called Bonsai chat where you could gain advice about it, the best type of pot, pruning etc.

[starloc]

The citrus trees should be ok outside at this time of year, but watch they dont get too wet, the amount of rain were getting, tie a bag around the pots to stop water entering the pots if its raining a lot, only water them once it drys out a few inches down, then soak the pot in the water and citrus feed, use the same citrus feed for lime, lemon or kaffir lime,
keeping them outside they will grow better than inside, and you will get no spidermite problems, but they will need to go in the house/conservatory/greenhouse from about october till the middle of june
The main thing with citrus is to only water when they are very dry, they die if you give a bit of water here and there they like to get soaked fully and then dry fullly

[rustylady]

Even sweet chestnuts are massive too and are difficult to tell from horse chestnuts. I've seen these in the Dobies catalogue and been tempted, but 5m is actually quite tall, way too big for a pot

This '5m in 10 years' is a sneaky way of selling something, I've often thought, as it implies that at this point it stops, which is not the case.

Anyone remember the "dwarf" conifers which were in vogue many years ago? They were sold with a similar description and some of them got HUGE

[organic vic]

Hi all thanks Starlac for that info very useful!
I spoke to Dobies and they said it would be fine in a pot. Would it not just grow to the size that the pot can accomadate due to root restriction or am I best to just stick it in the ground?