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maryhawkins99

Fruitnut--growing in pots & sunroom

maryhawkins99
9 years ago

Hi Fruitnut! I'm thinking of growing some fruit in pots. The bugs/squirrels always get my in ground peaches & plums, & late frosts get my apricots. I'm thinking of using 15 gal pots on wheels, which I can move in and out of a sunroom or small 10x12' greenhouse in order to get enough chill & escape the bugs & squirrels. I see lots of advice online, but thought I'd get the opinion of the master! I have about 750 chill hours here.

If you could choose 1 variety, what would be your choice for a

Peach (maybe 2)
Plum
Apricot
Bluberry
Lime
Lemon

Thanks,

Bob

This post was edited by bhawkins on Tue, Nov 25, 14 at 14:32

Comments (11)

  • Fascist_Nation
    9 years ago

    My only thoughts with regard to limes and lemons is how many do you consume in a year? Are they not available year round from your supermarket---they taste the same IMHO whether store bought or fresh off the tree unlike most fruit. Just something to consider.

  • RedSun (Zone 6, NJ)
    9 years ago

    I think the best candidates for fruit trees indoors are the ones with low chilling requirement and small size.

    I do not have experience growing any of them indoors. But folks grow a lot of citrus indoors or in greenhouse. Same with fig and pomegranate.

    Apricot and cherry are known to be very unreliable, even outdoors. Peach may do well, but it can grow large.

  • maryhawkins99
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I plan on only keeping trees in the sunroom/greenhouse for a couple months and will roll them in and out to get chill hours and to avoid bugs and squirrels

    Yes limes and lemons will be a novelty, I expect you're right the taste will be the same. Kinda like persimmons, the ones from the korean hmart taste great

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    Well the Mejer lemon is really a orange-lemon hybrid that tastes like a mild lemon. And you can't get those around here, maybe others can, we cannot. Plus it's a pretty tree. And they do well in pots. What other fruit needs no chill hours?
    As far as the other trees, I would buy cultivars that interest you. And would have to be chilled no doubt.
    Fruitnut must be away for the holiday, he has grown just about everything in pots.
    Any blueberry can be grown in pots. The smaller ones are easier, you would want Southern Highbush so Sweetcrisp, Springhigh, Springwide, Scintilla, Snowchaser and others are good.
    Plums depend on what you like, and with just one would have to be self fertile. That eliminates some.
    Peaches again depends, sub acid, or acid/sugar, white or yellow fleshed.

    As far as what plums apricots, or peaches do well in pots, they pretty much all do well if taken care of.

  • alan haigh
    9 years ago

    I hope Fruitnut is OK and just doing more important things than sitting in front of his computer.

  • Tony
    9 years ago

    H-man

    He is probably out of town for Thanksgiving. Cheers!

    Tony

  • garybeaumont_gw
    9 years ago

    Sounds like a great idea. My two suggestions would be getting varieties that would extend harvest. You would not want all your stone fruits coming off in the same 4 week period.

    For the citrus, if you could find it in your area I would plant Ujukitsu orange/lemon. It is a lemon/orange cross that is a true sweet lemon flavor. Kishu Mandarin is a sweet good tasting citrus. They are both available in Texas but may not be available in Dallas area.

    I would also be curious what type of potting mix Fruitnut uses and how long it typically last. There is alot of information on potting mixes on the forum but most come from northern growers and tend to be labor intensive.

  • itheweatherman
    9 years ago

    Bhawkins,

    I would recomend flavor delight aprium on marianna 2624 and sweet treat pluerry on myro29c, both of them grow very well in pots.

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    I would also be curious what type of potting mix Fruitnut uses and how long it typically last.

    He has his own methods, and I know one blueberry it was 7 years without a change.

  • bear_with_me
    9 years ago

    I'm curious about this too. I already placed an order for a genetic dwarf apricot. Apricots always die here. I am hoping I can keep it in a sheltered, cool place out of the rain on the North side of my house, so it won't bloom so early. Then in May move it into a sunny place on the deck, where I can water often and take good care of it.

    I have some figs in containers, that I keep in the garage or a shed during the winter. They have done well and given me some figs, but the in ground ones usually do better. The container ones are temporary or backup for bad winter.

    I also ordered an olive tree for the same novelty.

    And last, I dug up a genetic dwarf peach that is always devastated with peach leaf curl. I want to keep it in a pot, same as the apricot, so it doesn't get rained on during the winter. It lost some good roots when I dug it up, so it might not survive. I hope it does.

    I do grow Meyer lemons. Mine is not very productive, but I don't take good care of it. I keep it in a sunny, unheated room for the winter. I've had it 10 years, and get a few lemons each year. Two years ago I added a kumquat, but so far no fruits.

  • Bradybb WA-Zone8
    9 years ago

    I remember in a previous posting,fruitnut wrote that he gets the wood chips(Pine bark?)from a place that deals with rats and comes from their bedding material,complete with droppings.To this,I think some Peat moss is added.A photo was shown and the mix looked fairly coarse. Brady