Feeding an apple tree

[hamesy]

I've got an apple tree in a pot and was wondering when is the best time to start feeding it, and what should I use?

Cheers

[orangepippin]

How long has it been in the pot? If you have just bought it, and it was supplied as a pot-grown tree, it probably won't need any feeding (but check with the supplier just in case).

[FB.]

And the feeding, if required, will depend on what you want it to do.
Using any old fertiliser indiscriminately can make the situation worse, if the tree doesn't need it.

Too much nitrogen will cause most apple varieties to suffer from bitter pit, even though the books only accuse a handful of varieties as being prone to it.
Additionally, too much nitrogen will encourage lots of new shoot growth but discourage fruiting.

So if you want your tree to get bigger, give it nitrogen (and accept that while it is growing more branches it might not fruit well).
If your tree is established and at the size you want, be sparing with the nitrogen and give it more potassium.

Winter pruning combined with too much nitrogen feeding will also cause serious problems with poor fruiting and/or poor fruit quality over the following few years.

[boundtothesoil]

I've got an apple tree in a pot and was wondering when is the best time to start feeding it, and what should I use?

Cheers

There's quite a lot of detailed advice/experience on this question in the thread below from 2012, including the use of growmore (7:7:7), fish, blood & bone, 'controlled release' fertilisers and animal manures:-

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...es-pots-2.html

[hamesy]

It's about the size I'm aiming for. Any bigger and it will look silly and out of place.

I bought it around September time last year and been in the pot ever since (I did remove it from the pot it was supplied with and planted it into a bigger one). Was planted with garden compost and I haven't pruned it because it's about the size I'm looking for.