for the soil, well draining, humus rich potting soil should do.

as far as rootstock, there is some debate here. Trees in pots do well, and pots do "naturally" dwarf trees to a point, its a matter of how long they can stay in them. The bigger the container, the better theyll be.

in regards to dwarfing rootstock, I would have to assume that they would do great, seeing as many have shallow root systems.

i use a soil less mix from the container gardening forum. i have 2 sweet cherries planted in 15-20 gallon containers. This is only my second season with them so i can't provide much long term advice. i have both on gisela 5 rootstock per the recommendations of many people here (lapins and black gold are the varieties).
below is a picture of the lapins with the black gold in the background. The crack in the container is from me trying to move the cherry when the plastic was too cold and brittle.

queenskitchen:

Great looking trees. You should get a few cherries next year. Concerning containers that size; it's my back that is brittle....;-)

Bruce:

I've used at least a dozen rootstock for potted trees. They all make about the same size tree. But the vigorous roots seem to get rootbound faster. I've had great luck with Citation and Giesla 5. But Lovell, Nemaguard, and similar have done about the same. Citation gives big sweet fruit.

fruitnut-
I took your advice and pruned a third off of each branch (if you look back at the earlier post, you can see what they looked like without leaves). I am shocked at how fast the tree has put out new branches, which you can see in the picure as the reddish brown branches. The new branches are probably 3 -4 inches long and growing. I had abut 8 flowers on the lapins but they have mostly all dropped with no fruit set. There are 6 flowers on the black gold and they are hanging on so far.

sorry to hijack for a second but wanted to thank Fruitnut, who is always willing to help.

To queenskitchen, Is your soil less mix lighter than soil? and would you mind sharing your source for those awesome pots? I love the color and can only find black or terra cotta. Thanks for a great thread!

They are cheap plastic pots from Home Depot. I was trying to avoid dark colors as well. Maybe 12 bucks each. They are 18x16. 15 gallons. I used a variation of Al's gritty mix replacing half the granite with perlite. I think a bark based mix would be much lighter but my soil should last until the roots need pruning.

Thanks for the imput.

what do you guys use for fertilizer?

My flavor delight aprium on marianna 2624 (planted early April--bareroot) is in a five gallon pot. This is a very fast growing tree, as of today, it has grown about 22 1/2 inches. For this particular tree, I used 50% Miracle gro moisture control soil and 50 % desert sand.

Here is one more picture.

Black pot-flavor delight aprium

white and green pots: Bella Gold peacotum.

Blue pot: multi-graft tree--Burgundy plum and goldkist apricot.