How to perk up trees in pots (1 fig, 1 conference pear & 1 golden delicious apple)

[porterlizz]

Hi.

I have three trees in pots in my sheltered back garden. They are all doing fine - particularly the pear tree. But I'm thinking that I need to give them a bit of tender loving care in terms of soil content.

Can anyone advise as to what is the best fertiliser to give each one? I'd like to go organic if possible.

Thanks.

[Kirk]

How long have they been in the pots?
Also how big are the pots.
Eventually you have to replace the soil as although you can add to the top the lower material gets fairly exhausted.

For a top dressing I usually go for a 50/50 compost manure mix.
Lazy approach is that 50/50 is easy to estimate.

[porterlizz]

Thank you. They've been in pots about 4/5 years. The pots are roughly about 24" square. I will do as you said and go for a 50/50 mix top dressing. There's not a lot of room in the pots for more soil though. Should i try and remove a few inches of soil and replace it with new?

[Kristen]

Should i try and remove a few inches of soil and replace it with new?

Yes, but I doubt you will get "a few inches" out, more like "one inch" I would expect.

[starloc]

You could do what used to be done back in Victorian times of everyone growing fruit in pots, still done with citrus
If you dont want a bigger pot, Take a big kichen knife and chop the outer inch off the rootball and the base of the rootball, get rid of all the circling roots, then repot with new compost in the gap at the bottom and sides.
Top roots are feeder roots usually , I never touch them at all

[porterlizz]

Thanks. I may just do that, as i don't have space for bigger pots.