I had one in a 12 gallon pot for yrs. With hand pollination it produced every yr. Potted also allowed moving it as close as possible to a pollinator which helps if you can't hand pollinate.

Last yr I planted it in the soil and had the best fruit ever. Thinned off about 200 fruit after hand pollination and left 80 or so. I've got about 4 new trees started some on dwarfing root.

For me Supreme and King have usually bloomed close to the same time. Move them right next to each other and if bees fail to visit Supreme get out the small brush. Flavor King isn't a heavy setter either but the fruit can be very big, nearly 1/2 lb.

fruitnut,

What type of mix were you using in the pot? Did you use any fertilizer, or just water? I'm thinking nutrients plays a key role in taste (along with the water deficit and ability for the roots to spread). Was it a hard side pot, or soft? When you planted in ground how did the roots look?

Any pics, or more specific would greatly be appreciated. If you haven't seen pics of my Spice Zee let me know. its first year in a pot and I think it should set pretty nicely. A lot of people were telling me it wouldn't work, or there might be issues.. but none so far.

I used a mix similar to the 5-1-1. It needs to drain well and not breakdown too soon. Waterlogging is the concern. You'll need to fertilize regularly and repot every 3-4 yrs. My pots were hard round black plastic, the worst for circling roots. When I replanted the FS the outer circling roots were cut off. It took well and won't need any extra water after a yr in ground.

The people who say it won't work haven't tried or lack proper growing techniques. I've had few failures in pots and lots of good fruit. The fruit will be small and must be thinned hard. It's very tempting to leave too much fruit. Thin as much as you think is needed and then remove another half.

Awesome. I had thought about using the 1-1-1 mix... but I did a test a few years back and during summer months I was having to water twice a day as the first 2 inches of soil would become bone dry and the tree was really stressing with wilted shoots and some of the leaves were getting crispy. Glad to know the 5-1-1 will work out in the long run.

Now what %'s did you end up using? I know its recommended to use foliage pro and thats a 9-3-6, but isn't a higher P needed for flowering/fruiting plants? So on top of that and the Osmocote Plus I added bat guano (0-5-0) last year to the Spice Zee along with the FP and from the looks of it it seemed to have added a lot of flowering wood (being as this is my first time with flowering peaches I'm not 100% that what I'm looking at is flowering buds and not vegetative buds). I also added in Azomite and Kelp Meal...

I'm hoping that with the Smart Pot 15ga that I shouldn't have to worry much about circling roots. I know scratching the top 1-2 inches of the pot I have a ton of feeder roots, though I haven't seen any roots exiting so without ripping the pot apart I don't know if its actually "air pruning" like its claimed to do.

Thats the same mind set I had going in. those that always tell you it won't work, or its not going to work probably had one bad experience and called it quits or started off wrong from the get-go and never got on the right foot which led to their downfall in the end. Did you have these in your greenhouse? I know we are 2 zones apart, but without me having a greenhouse do you think I'll have an issue with the FS or FK (or any of my trees for that matter) hitting the season wall and running out of time? If so can you think of any way to "extend" the season so i don't run into that? I'm thinking that when the temps hit 50's during the day I'll bring the trees outside and then back in at night. I'm not sure if that would work or not. If you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

Get the growth and fruit will follow. I'm not a believer in P being essential for flowering. I've used only a little P in my operation and have trees budded last June that will flower this spring. Moderate growth is the primary requirement for early flowering. Excessively rapid growth may delay flowering especially peach/nectarine.

I'll say part of that in more explicit terms. Planted Krymsk 1 rootstocks in Febr 2014. Budded them with apricot, plum, pluot, and nectarine in June 2014. Many will bloom in about a month. I did apply a little complete Miracle Grow water soluable fertilizer but very little.

Flavor King is a long season fruit. It ripens for me in August but that means Sept or Oct for short season areas. Flavor Supreme is much earlier, you shouldn't have any issue with it. I don't know where you live so can't comment further.

Push early growth as much as you can while avoiding spring freezes. The fruit will only be good if it ripens during warm weather.

Mine have all been in the greenhouse because even the latest blooming fruits get hit often here by spring freezes.

I'm living in Zone 5, Iowa. We get about 161 growing days here.. so I'm thinking that if I can get about 15-20 days on the start that SHOULD help.

Do you think my idea of avoiding the cold late winter/early Spring nights will help? Or will the trees just laugh in my face knowing "it ain't time yet!!" I'm thinking that if I can get 50's during the day, and 50's-60's at night in the garage should make it believe its later in the season that what it is.... Yes/no??

Absolutely warm days and warm nights will speed blooming. Go for it all you can manage. You are 100 days short of CA and 120 short of my greenhouse, maybe more. But don't let that deter you because it's not quit as bad as that sounds. I don't get 50-60 at night until May. Sun warms things for about 8-10 hrs daytime but at night I only heat to avoid freezes. Half the yr my greenhouse is 30s or low 40s at night. Warm nights greatly speed blooming.

Awesome fruitnut!! Makes me feel a tad better about my situation. I was thinking I'd have to supplement with grow lights, heat, etc....

In your opinion do you see any trees I should add to my container list? Any "Must Haves" in your eyes? Right now I'm thinking of Spice Zee, Cot n Candy, FS, FK.

Cot N Candy can be good but isn't on my top fruits list. It matures half green and falls off the tree. Has very short storage. The tree seems to quickly drop the lower fruiting spurs so you end up chasing good wood up the tree. There are lots of better apricots and they might produce outdoors: Tomcot, Robada, and Orangered come to mind.

My two earliest top 10 fruits are FS and Arctic Star nectarine. They mature about the same time. Then it seems to be 4-6 weeks until something equal or better shows up.

Sean,

I recomend to get Nadia, a 50/50 plum x sweet cherry hybrid. This is the first time that is been released in the USA. Raintree Nursery is selling them.

Fruitnut,

I ordered a Orangered a few weeks back. Should be here in early March. Being that we have wild springs sometime you still think I should ground it? Our should i pot it to have an almost guaranteed fruit set? I also ordered a Leah cot around the same time. Thoughts on those two?

Weatherman,

Had there been any independent taste tests anywhere?

What I've read is that they have only tested them in Australia and in Europe.

Cherry-plum makes gains in Europe, Washington
http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/Cherry-plum-hybrid-advances-in-Europe-Washington-199931741.html

Cherry-plum hybrid ready for marketing in E.U., Turkey
http://desa.freshfruitportal.com/2013/03/22/cherry-plum-hybrid-ready-for-marketing-in-e-u-turkey/?country=united%20states

Sean:

Orangered is as good as it gets in an apricot for me. Only Robada tastes about as good and has bigger fruit. You might try outdoors and graft onto another potted apricot. Orangered is a late bloomer for a cot and very high chill requirement. If you pot make sure on chilling.

My thought is if you can get a crop outdoors one yr in 2-3 it's a plus. You won't get much off a potted tree. Maybe 30-40 fruit on the size pots you're talking.

Leah Cot looks interesting but is a new release and those are always a crap shoot. Just like Nadia which I ordered. Both are untested and never a sure bet.

PS: What I recommend is never a sure bet anywhere else either. Location and personal preference can override anything else. In fruit it's always a crap shoot IMO.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 9:54

Orangered is as good as it gets in an apricot for me.
What I recommend is never a sure bet anywhere else either

Grandpa's nursery in Michigan sells orangered, so it is probably fine for zone 5 and 6. Grandpa's has a number of interesting Apricots. Not sure I would like them? I never had a good one!
Grandpa's has this one that looks interesting
Afghanistan Apricot
Botanical Name: Prunus armeniaca 'Afghanistan'

Afghanistan is a self-fertile, white fleshed apricot that has performed well in some colder, eastern climates. It is medium sized and many describe it as one of the best flavored, sweetest apricots. The fruit is very tender.

Also Grandpa's choices are Harcot and Goldcot, which mean they are probably the best to grow in this area (zone 5 and 6).
The nursery choices in general for all fruits is pretty good. But more is put on growth, and disease resistance than taste. I consider them proven for our area. Taste will vary.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 11:24

fruitnut,

Oh for sure.. I know what you mean.. its nature so nothing is really guaranteed. I'm looking at it more along the lines of in Z5 for some of these fruit trees I may get something once every 3-4 years, where as with a potted tree I'd have a better chance getting something each and every year as it wouldn't be so weather dependent (hail, frost, etc).

Yeah, this is the first year I'm going after fruit that is a 'New Release". Before my recent success with my Spice Zee I only wanted trees that had a good shot of surviving. Now that I see how my Zee is performing this winter (alive flower buds, no real branch die-back) I'd figure I'd give some of these newer varieties a shot.... Who knows....

I don't look at this as a job, or a MUST HAVE type of hobby... I look at it as more of a challenge. I have never been one to back away and have a very hard head when it comes to stuff like this. You tell me it isn't going to work... Damnit I'll make it work :)

weatherman/Drew,

What are you two trying to do to me? Make me go broke?!?!? You've seen my list already for in-ground and potted!! I have a feeling that my garage woodshop is going to have to get a little smaller :)

Sean,
A couple years down the road we can trade scion! So don't buy anymore, graft unto what you have. But if you want Apricot you may have to buy it. I have no plans to add any just yet...(never say never).

Can you graft Apricot unto another Prunus species?
I suppose pluot would be fine, hmmm, maybe scion is the way to go for me.

Well all that I can say is thankfully Grandpa's is out of that Apricot for this season :)

Can't say the same for Raintree and the Nadia :(

That Nadia looks so good, I hope it is all they are saying. I ordered one too! Yeah so many cool trees, it's tough.

you going to ground it, or pot it? I wonder what it needs for a pollenizer? I can't find info anywhere.

"âÂÂSome other cherry-plum hybrids weâÂÂve seen in the past have had very pale flesh and no cherry flavor at all, but Nadia definitely delivers on appearance and taste,â Isaacs said in the release."

I hope he ain't lying :)

Quoting sean,

"weatherman/Drew,
What are you two trying to do to me? Make me go broke?!?!? You've seen my list already for in-ground and potted!! I have a feeling that my garage woodshop is going to have to get a little smaller :)"

Blame fruitnut, he was the one who tempted me to grow trees in pots.LOL.

Oh, Dave Wilson is releasing another pluerry for 2016, it's called Candy heart pluerry. I saw it on a Dave Wilson Nursery facebook post titled "Watch Dave Wilson Nursery's Phil Pursel talk about hybrid fruit at the..."

" Candy Heart will be ready for 2016, and it's awesome....it's a little larger fruit than Sweet Treat Pluerry is. We've been evaluating it since 2011, and it's great every year. It will most likely be on Myro 29C rootstock."
.

The parent plum for Nadia can be pollinated by Santa Rosa, so I'm going with that. I have a weeping Santa Rosa. Also adding Satsuma and grafting a bunch of other plums unto my trees, so not worried. I'm going in ground with the tree. I also have a White Gold cherry tree, which is an excellent pollinator itself.