Growing Fruit Trees in Containers
If you love home-grown organic fruits but don’t have a huge backyard to grow what you please, there’s a way around it. Foster a patio orchard by growing your favorite fruit trees in containers!
Growing fruit trees in a patio or porch setting is easy and you don’t need much space. This makes it perfect for our gardeners in cities like New York who are restricted to smaller terrace or patio.
With proper care your container fruit tree can produce just enough to cover the family’s requirements, and maybe a little extra for homemade jams you can give out to guests and neighbors. Read on, and you’ll learn how to grow fruits in containers and the varieties that adapt well to container growing.
Top 5 Best Fruit Trees to Grow in Containers
- Arbequina Olive Tree: Elegant, classy, and super easy to grow. Pick olives from your patio!
- Chicago Hardy Fig Tree: Our most cold hardy fig tree variety, a must-have for northern gardeners.
- Celeste Fig Tree: Super sweet, sugar rich figs in a compact form.
- Rabbiteye Blueberry 3-Pack: Three rabbiteye blueberry bushes for neccesarry cross-pollination.
- Cold Hardy Pomegranate: Up to 100 pounds of pomegranate from one single tree!
There are many varieties of fruit trees that grow well in containers, so long as you choose the correct varieties to plant. If you plan on growing them in pots, search in the plant catalog to look for dwarf fruit varieties that will grow well in a restricted environment.
How to Grow Fruit Trees in Pots
Choose the Best Soil for Container Fruit Trees
When growing them in pots, your fruit trees will have limited space for the roots to look for nutrients. To make up for the lack of space, prepare the best potting soil that concentrates all the required nutrients in the restricted growing area. Save yourself much trouble and order a pack of Fruit Tree Planting Mix, which packs all the organic components that will ensure your tree’s healthy growth.
What Container Size for should I use for small fruit trees?
It all starts with the pot size your fruit tree is delivered in! Use a containerthat is roughly 2 inches wider and deeper than your tree's current container. For example, if you have a 3-gallon fig tree and you wanted to repot it into a larger container, we'd recommend shifting up one size into a 5-gallon.
How Often to Water Fruit Trees
Hot climates dry out the soil quicker, especially for potted plants so make sure you don’t leave your fruit trees thirsty. However, don’t keep the soil too watery either. Balanced watering is the key to healthy plants. Just push your finger through the soil to see if the top 2 inches are dry. If the soil is dry, water it slowly and deeply until the excess water runs out through the drainage holes.
Growing fruit trees in containers allow city dwellers to enjoy home-grown, fresh produce. It also protects your trees from pests and diseases, which are a common problem in garden beds.
Furthermore, it makes it quite easy to give your container fruits the ideal growing conditions which are often a challenge to provide when growing plants in the ground. With so many reasons to start a potted fruit garden, what are you waiting for? Pick your favorites and transform your rooftop into a beautiful orchard.
Apple Trees for Containers
Apple trees grafted onto dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstocks are ideal for container growing. Make sure you select a self-pollinating variety, like our Gala Apple Tree, if you only have room for a single potted apple tree. Fuji, Gordon, Pink Lady, and Crabapples also adapt well to pots.
Olive Trees for Containers
If you have a warm climate and plenty of sunlight all year round, tropical fruits like olives are an excellent choice for your container garden. The Arbequina Olive Tree is a great potted tree, and can even be raised as a houseplant if placed near a sunny window.
Plum Trees for Containers
Most plum trees are self-fertile and adapt well to a restricted growing space. They like to grow in soil with good drainage. Amend the potting soil with perlite to improve drainage. Golden Plum, Scarlet Beauty Plum, and Pixy are excellent dwarf varieties to grow in pots.
Fig Trees for Containers
Figs like to be root bound, which makes them an excellent candidate for being grown in pots. Instead of transplanting to a larger container as they grow, figs perform better with root pruning. Once in every few years, slide the rootball out of the pot, prune back the roots to one-third, and return it to the pot with fresh potting soil.
Blueberry Bushes for Containers
The best part about growing blueberries in containers is that you can give them the slightly acidic soil they prefer, without disturbing the soil pH of the neighboring plants. All varieties of blueberry bushes grow well in containers. Use Blueberry Soil Mix to ensure abundant sweet summer fruit each season. Do note that since blueberries are not self-sterile, you’ll need to grow at least two different varieties to ensure pollination.
