Recommended Potted Fruit Tree Varieties and a Detailed Guide to Planting and Care

Dwarfing fruit trees to grow them as potted plants has won the favor of many people, as they are both attractive to look at and also provide edible fruit. So, which fruit trees are suitable for potting? How do you plant and care for potted fruit trees?

1. Which fruit trees are suitable for potting?

The tree species commonly grown in pots include the following:

(1) Grape: choose disease-resistant varieties such as Kyoho and Red Fuji. Grow plants from cuttings.

(2) Peach: choose varieties with strong resistance, abundant fruiting and attractive fruit shape, such as Zaoxiangyu, Shazizaosheng, Cangfangzaosheng, Shouxingtao and Hongpantao. Grow strong seedlings with many fine roots and plant them during the dormant period.

(3) Apple: use dwarfing rootstocks or dwarfing interstocks to dwarf the tree, or use spur-type varieties, apply summer pruning measures during the growing season to control growth and carry out artistic shaping, keeping the tree within a certain size so that it fruits every year and forms flower buds for the following year. Choose mid-to-late-season, red varieties with a high fruit-setting rate and easy flower formation. Suitable varieties include Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Red Delicious, Qinguan, Huashuai, Meiguihong, Starkrimson and Red Fuji.

(4) Pomegranate: choose ornamental pomegranate when the main purpose is enjoying the flowers, and fruiting pomegranate when you want to enjoy both the flowers and the fruit. Both are propagated from cuttings.

(5) Citrus: choose varieties such as four-season mandarin, sweet orange, Wenzhou mandarin and finger citron. The seedlings should be robust, dwarf, with well-filled branches and an attractive shape. In northern regions, however, they must be moved indoors or into a greenhouse in winter.

(6) Fig: you can choose red figs, yellow figs, or early- or late-ripening figs. Propagate by cuttings and plant out after leaf fall in autumn.

(7) Ginkgo: grow rootstock seedlings from seed, then graft good varieties onto them, and then grow them in pots. Besides the species above, pear, hawthorn, plum and strawberry can also be grown in pots, but they are not as popular as the species above.

2. What growing techniques are there for potted fruit trees?

1. Choosing the container

The container for a potted fruit tree must both meet the needs of the tree's growth and be attractive, sturdy and inexpensive. For a large canopy and abundant fruiting, choose a large container; for a smaller tree, a small container will do. The bottom of every container must have drainage holes so that excess water can drain away in time and waterlogging does not rot the roots.

2. Mixing the potting soil

Ordinary field soil generally cannot meet the requirements of potting soil, so the potting soil must be reasonably blended. Commonly used potting soil formulas are: 1 part garden soil, 1 part decomposed organic fertilizer, 0.5-0.8 part river sand, 0.2-0.5 part plant ash; 2 parts garden soil, 1 part decomposed organic fertilizer; 1 part garden soil, 1 part decomposed organic fertilizer, 1 part decomposed wood shavings (or furnace slag). After mixing the potting soil, blend it evenly and break up any lumps, then place it in a transparent plastic bag and sun it for a week to sterilize it, turning it often.

3. Planting the fruit seedling

First place a 1-2 cm layer of crushed furnace slag, crushed stone or sand in the bottom of the pot to aid drainage and aeration. Then add a small amount of potting soil, place the fruit seedling in the center of the pot, and spread the roots out in all directions, bending them as little as possible. Slowly add the potting soil while lifting the seedling repeatedly, cover the soil up to the root crown, press the soil gently with your hand so that the soil fits tightly around the roots, smooth the surface of the potting soil, and water thoroughly.

4. Fertilize little and often

Potted fruit trees have relatively short roots and a high density of roots per unit of soil, so they have a high demand for fertilizer. You must fertilize little and often, and apply solid fertilizer as a liquid fertilizer to prevent root burn from improper application. To make the potting soil fertile, add suitable stable manure, dung and so on to the potting soil before potting, so as to ensure a long-lasting supply of what the fruit tree needs for growth. For top-dressing, use the leachate from cake fertilizer, poultry manure and plant ash, or use chemical fertilizer diluted with water for watering. Foliar top-dressing is best done in the evening.

5. Watering and draining at the right time

Water when the surface soil in the pot turns white. Tap the side of the pot; if the sound is clear and ringing, the soil is dry and needs watering. Water thoroughly, so that water seeps out of the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot, but too much watering easily leaches away nutrients. If conditions allow, drip irrigation or micro-drip irrigation is best. Soil that is too wet easily causes root rot and needs drainage. This is especially true for fruit trees whose roots like oxygen: when the soil is too wet and does not dry out, pay even more attention to drainage.

6. Changing the potting soil

As a potted fruit tree keeps growing, its canopy volume increases and its root mass multiplies, while the original potting soil structure deteriorates and its nutrients become insufficient, so the soil must be changed or the tree moved into a larger pot. Along with changing the soil or repotting, thin out and trim the roots to rejuvenate the tree. Generally, potted fruit trees are repotted once every 2-4 years, and repotting should be done at the end of the dormant period, before growth begins in spring, or in early autumn.

7. Pruning and training

According to the growth and fruiting habits of the fruit tree and the ornamental requirements, the tree forms commonly used for potted fruit trees are single-trunk form, fan form, clump form, open-center form or weeping form. Pruning can reduce the amount of growth, control the canopy and keep the plant small, achieving the goal of early fruiting and high yield. The winter and summer pruning methods used for field-grown fruit trees can be adopted as appropriate.

8. Pollination and protection

Potted fruit trees should be paired with good pollinating varieties and placed close together during the flowering period to aid pollination. You can also collect pollen from elsewhere for hand pollination, or graft branches of a pollinating variety onto a single-variety fruit tree, so that one plant carries two or more varieties.

Note: Under cold winter conditions, the roots of potted fruit trees freeze along with the potting soil and are prone to freeze damage or even death. Before carrying out winter protection, water thoroughly once first. If you have many potted plants, bury them in soil to overwinter. That is, around leaf fall and before frost, dig trenches and bury the pots in rows in the soil, filling the pot rims with chopped straw or fallen leaves to aid aeration of the potting soil. If you have only a few potted plants, you can wrap straw or straw bags around the sides of the pots and then wrap the outside with plastic film to overwinter them.