novice would appreciate some advice please

[poppysocks]

HI, I know very little about fruit trees I bought some small trees a couple of yrs ago and temporarily planted them in pots. I planted the apple early this year but it's not doing well, I think it's too shaded and would like to move it, do you thin it would be ok to move it and when would be the best time of year. I also have 2 plums and one cherry, when would be the best time to plant them out? I have a young but established cherry plum with 3 fruit on it, are these edible? Am grateful for any and all advice, thanks

[FB.]

Container grown plants can be planted at any time of year as their roots aren't snapped off which is the case for bare-root plants.
If planted in autumn, they are likely to do slightly better due to the typical warm and damp soil in autumn which allows easy root growth when the plant transfers the nutrients down from the leaves to the roots for winter storage. The roots tend therefore to show a large burst of growth in autumn - and that's why summer pruning seriously de-vigorates trees because there is no leaf energy or nutrients to fuel the autumn root growth, therefore less roots to power the tree the following year.

In hot dry summers, containerised plants can struggle if planted out unless they are kept well-watered. This year doesn't seem to be a problem for soil moisture though.

Other possibilties for poor establishment are that the compost in the container is so much richer than the the normal soil that the roots refuse to leave the rootball. This is especially the case with infertile or dry soil.
If the soil in which a containerised tree is to be planted is poor, it is often best to shake off as much compost as possible when planting, so the roots have no choice but to grow in the poorer soil. Just don't shake off the soil until the tree can be planted within a few minutes otherwise the roots will dry and may die - along with many of the leaves falling off.

It is also possible that the wet weather has allowed diseases to attack your apple tree. Many people try to grow the shop types (Cox, Gala etc) in their gardens, but the commercial shop-type varieties tend to be very unhealthy in organic or no-spray situations; commercial orchards keep them on constant life support with dozens of antifungal, insecticide and other sprays and constant drip-irrigation liquid feed.

Finally, you say your apple is not doing well, but its ability to thrive will depend on what kind of soil you have, where you've planted it, the variety and the rootstock.
Dwarf rootstocks are popular, but I consider anything less than M26 to be a waste of time if planted out in gardens and against competition from nearby plants, pests and disease attacks.
The dwarf M27 and M9 rootstocks, if not grown in pots, tend to require deep, fertile, moisture-retentive soil (but not waterlogged), with no plants in the root zone - i.e. no plants in a zone about as far as the branches spread.

[FB.]

Here's a picture from a couple of years ago of a couple of young apple trees which I bare-rooted while they still had leaves on.
They were both fine and showed no "transplant shock", although they were not bare-rooted for more than about 15-20 minutes.

[poppysocks]

Many thanks for all your advice, it's very helpful and very much appreciated thank you.