Since my top 20 turned out to be 17, I'll add Flavor Grenade pluot, Tasty Rich aprium, and Crimson seedless grape. The last two are season extenders, early and late.

Hey Fruitnut,

what size greenhouse do you have? and are all your trees in ground or pots? And are they all dwarf's ? Nice list.
luke

Luke:

Greenhouse is 32x54 and 16ft tall. I have both potted and in-ground. There are more trees on Citation than anything else. A few on Krymsk 1 and cherries on Gisela 5. The cherries are working well but it took me about 5 years to figure things out.

I'm having some issues with Krymsk 1. After about 3-4 years in the ground the trees are showing excessive water stress. So I've cut back the top to balance things out.

Fruitnut

Man oh man. I have a lot to learn. I'm reading your reply and am thinking maybe..just maybe..He's answering in spanish or some other languish. Well. I have homework now.

when my fruit trees go dorment will I be ok in repotting them and pruning back the roots...seems that the medium in the pots is lost when watering so the tree gets lower and lower to the ground...I plan on putting something in the 15 gal containers to stop the tree at a certain hight and then just adding more medium....any suggestions...

thanks

oorah

oorah:

Dormant is the right time to repot. Mine have lasted mostly 4-5 years before repotting. But usually by then I'm ready to move on to new varieties so I haven't actually repotted much.

My material doesn't run out the drainage holes. Some things have settled but usually after a year the roots are strong enough to keep the plant from settling. I have at times used window screen in the bottom of the pot to hold the media in.

My potting media is a coarse wood based material. After 3-4 years it becomes pretty solid with roots but the drainage and water holding capacity remain good. I have had a few pots set up and run together such that the media becomes water logged and the roots are killed. This happened to one blueberry in particular but not much else.

thanks for your response fruitnut.....if you repotted did you prune the roots......can you tell me about your fertilizing schedule and type

thanks

oorah

oorah:

In pots Osomcote slow release works well. I apply that once or twice a year.

When repotting fruit trees it is best to bare root them. Of course you'd only do that during dormancy. Otherwise cut off the bottom and sides of the rootball.

When repotting you'd also probably want to do a major topping of the tree to start new fruiting wood. I find this necessary after a few years even if you don't repot.

thanks fruitnut...I have several fruit trees in 15 gal containers...so come winter I will remove them ...prune them and repot. I will use some B1 but wont fertilize till spring....how much of the Osomcote would you put in a 15 gal container and does it matter on the amount of fertilize you put in because of the type of fruit tree

thanks

oorah

oorah:

About a tablespoon in a 15 gallon container, it tells you on the bottle. I really don't worry much about the fertilizer until the plant looks deficient. Just don't overdue it, which is hard to do in a pot. Excess nitrogen and especially water lowers sweetness of stone fruit.

really appreciate your feedback.....what is your guideline in determining when your containers need water also can you suggest a good site or book that shows in color the causes of deficiency in fruit trees....etc...yellow = lack of ......brittle = .......

oorah

Just ran across this presentation on growing figs in self watering containers, interesting.

My only deficiencies have been iron and nitrogen. Iron gives yellow leaves with green veins. Nitrogen has uniformly light green leaves that are somewhat smaller than normal.

Here is a link that might be useful: self watering figs in containers

that presentation on figs was very good....thanks for that....what about you....do you have any presentations on various fruit trees......the information you share by means of a presentation would be fantastic.

oorah