Potting dwarf fruit trees.

[Jason Cartwright]

Hi,

I'd really like to have a couple of dwarf fruit trees.
What's the best size pot i can put them in?
I watched a online clip of someone planting one in a pot. It was a 30 Litre pot but doesn't give dimensions.

Thanks

J

[FB.]

A 10-Litre pot is about 10 inches (25cm) in all directions.
A 30-Litre pot would be about 15 inches (35cm) inches in all directions.

Potted fruit trees are more like pets than servants. They require regular watering in summer; dwarf roots don't cope well with water stress and fruit quality will quickly suffer if they aren't watered every couple of days in summer. Plums will split. Pears sometimes split or rot from the core. Apples are less troublesome but some can suffer bitter pit if irregular water supply.
They also require feeding and/or changing of the compost on a regular basis.

If I were growing in pots, I would choose apple rootstock "M26", pear rootstock "Quince C", cherry rootstock "Gisela 5" and plum rootstock "Pixy".

I would also recommend avoiding any of the popular shop-varieties (e.g. Cox's) because they tend to be grown for their fruit and not for their disease resistance; they are kept healthy in commercial orchards by numerous chemical sprays each season.

[Jason Cartwright]

Cheers for that.
I was going to have a go at 2 types of Apple (bramley, 4 cooking apple pies and braiburn because that's wot the kids eat), a cherry (was thinking morello) and another.

[Jason Cartwright]

Cheers for that.
I was going to have a go at 2 types of Apple (bramley, 4 cooking apple pies and braiburn because that's wot the kids eat), a cherry (was thinking morello) and another.

[FB.]

Bear in mind that Bramley has several "issues":

1.
It is probably THE most fast-growing and slow-to-fruit apple tree available in the UK. It is so vigorous that it can override dwarfing rootstocks; I have a Bramley M26 which grows as fast as most other varieties on the really big rootstocks like MM111 or M25. If you must have Bramley, consider it on the ultra-dwarf M27 to calm it down.

2.
Vigorous varieties on dwarf rootstocks sometimes don't branch very well without repeated pruning. It's to do with how far apart they like their branch junctions (called internodes). Bramley has a preference for long internodes, so is best grown as a heavy standard tree of 6metres or so.

3.
Bramley is triploid and doesn't produce much viable pollen; virtually sterile. It needs a good pollinator. There may be crab apples or apple trees nearby (in nearby gardens or adjacent streets) which can help.

4.
Bramley is a part-tip-bearer. Too much pruning will remove a lot of the next crop.

5.
Bramley is very prone to bitter pit (dead, brownish, nasty-tasting spots inside the fruit caused by water or nutrient imbalances).

6.
In some parts of the country, Bramley is so widely grown that the local pests and diseases are specialists in attacking it. In wet areas scab can be a problem (fungi cause the fruit skin to split). In dry areas (like mine) woolly aphids seem to find Bramley one of their favourites. Woolly aphids cause considerable disfigurement, splitting and weakening of branches.

.

[FB.]

Out of interest, what is your lcoation? Can you put it in your profile?

[FB.]

Ooops...just seen the Braeburn.

It's a shop-type, which prefers a hot climate that most parts of the UK can't offer. I don't regard Braeburn as having much disease resistance - especially in the drier East of the UK where powdery mildew is a serious problem.

Good, tasty, sweet-ish apples for kids, which shouldn't grow too fast, should start fruiting qute early in life and shuld be fine on M26 rootstock, would be:

Ard Cairn Russet
Egremont Russet
Laxton's Epicure (surprisingly resistant to insect damage for an early-ripening apple)
Scrumptious - very tasty (the pests love it too!)
Spartan (I find it to be very resistant to insect damage and has good resistance to fungal attack - but some others in wetter areas seem to disagree)
Worcester Pearmain (some reports of disease problems in wet areas)
Winter Gem - very tasty (ripens quite late, so most pests have gone by the time they ripen)

Good, tasty cookers which fruit early and don't grow too quickly would be:

James Grieve (dual purpose - some reports of disease problems in wet areas)
Grenadier (ripens very early in the season)
Edward VII (ripens late, cooks well, becomes an eater by the following easter if stored)


But again, certain varieties prefer certain climates to grow well or to give the best flavour fruit.
Worcester Pearmain and James Grieve prefer cool and dry.
Spartan prefers hot, sunny and dry.
Grenadier prefers higher-rainfall but will grow in most places.

[Jason Cartwright]

Cheers FB.
As a beginner gardener i don't think I'll go for the bramley apple.
I'll choose another like vic plum or nectarines.

On another note, how would i go about growing sloe berries?
Do they grow on bushes or trees?
Can they be grown in pots?

Thanks

J

[FB.]

Nectarines are prone to poor pollinatioin or leaf curl disease - and insect damage.

Victora plum is widely grown and is very prone to just about everything; canker, silverleaf and insect damage.

Softer fruits are very dependent on good soil moisture.

Sloes - I'd usually rummage around in the hedgerows for them.

[zazen999]

Jason where are you? Could you pop it into your location please.
Sloes are usually found wild, on Blackthorn bushes which are in flower now. If you see white blossom on black stems round your way - those are more than likely sloes so go back in October/November and pick the berries.

[FB.]

Jason where are you? Could you pop it into your location please.

Seconded.

Not all fruits are suitable for all parts of the UK.
If we know where you are, we can suggest what will or won't be expected to do well.

[Jason Cartwright]

Talk about putting off a potential gardener lol
Are there any trees good for beginners?

I've tried putting in location but phone is being a knob.
I'll try again now.
I'm in Crewe. South East Cheshire.

[FB.]

Putting off? No - just trying to prevent you falling into beginner's pitfalls.
The main beginner's pitfall is to grow what's seen in the shops. Everyone grows them, so the diseases and pests become experts at atacking such readily available food sources.
But by growing a more unusual lesser-known variety instead, you may well have no problems at all.

Your environment will probably be too cool, dull and wet for Braeburn and for peaches or nectarines - unless grown against a sunny wall for warmth and shelter.

You may well find that Bramley apples are split/cracked and ruined by the wet-weather disease "scab".

Pears don't generally like cool/wet/dull and cherries will not be at their best but may be OK. Canker is a big problem for pears and cherries in wet areas.

Plums used to be grown widely in and near your area (they like a good supply of soil moisture/rainfall) - but because everyone grows Victoria, all the diseases now have become experts at attacking it because there are so many Victoria's around.

.

So I would suggest plums and apples - but not the varieties that everyone is instinctively drawn to, through being familiar with the name.

The following nursery website has a search engine to shortlist fruit varieties suited to your needs:
> Keepers Nursery <

However, the database is far from the final word; many old varieties are so long forgotten that no official studies have been done on their tolerance of conditions or diseases.
My personal observations suggest that quite a lot of the ancient, rare varieties are actually very tolerant of poor growing conditions (in centuries past, with no sprays and not a complete understanding of essential nutrients, trees had to be rugged).

[FB.]

Some apple varieties to look up:

Ard Cairn Russet
Egremont Russet
Falstaff
Scrumptious
St.Edmunds Russet
Jupiter
Grenadier
Lord Derby
Annie Elizabeth
Reverend Wilks
Early Victoria
Belle de Boskoop
Newton Wonder

I can't much help with plums because they really struggle in my dry soil.

[sugar]

The main beginner's pitfall is to grow what's seen in the shops. Everyone grows them, so the diseases and pests become experts at atacking such readily available food sources.
But by growing a more unusual lesser-known variety instead, you may well have no problems at all.

There's another reason to it. The criteria set for the development of commercial varieties are not those that matter for us 'gardeners'. Main criteria for commercial brands are productivity and the possibility to transport the fruit without damage. We are more on the look-out for disease-tolerant brands that deliver tasty apples without spraying at least once a weak chemicals...

On top of that, we will be disappointed by the fruit harvested from those commercial trees compared ti the fruit found in the mall: not only do we use less (or no) chemicals, most of the apples found in the stores are 1st choice apples with a rigourous selection (for some brands up to 66% of all apples are rejected (too small, too big, wrong shape, wrong colour,..)