Can wax apple be grown in pots in northern China? Yes, but it needs protection from the cold

Wax apple is a tropical fruit, and its places of origin generally have hot and humid climates. Nowadays many friends in the north like growing tropical fruit in pots, so can wax apple be grown in pots in northern China? In principle, yes, but you need to pay attention to the care environment and whether the wax apple can make it through the winter smoothly.

To be honest, as things stand now, not many people grow wax apple in pots, especially in the north, because temperature and humidity need attention. If you want to grow wax apple well, you need heating in winter, and the lowest temperature must not drop below 10°C (depending on the variety chosen; some varieties are not cold-tolerant, while others are slightly more cold-tolerant, for example 'Feidan' and 'Black Diamond' wax apple are not cold-tolerant, while 'Daye' wax apple is cold-tolerant, with a minimum temperature of 3°C). You also need to pay attention to moisture retention. If these conditions can be met, then let's look at the following.

1. Choosing a variety

Choosing a variety is also very important for potted wax apple. Generally, we can choose the blood-red (large red) type as the potted variety, and the results are very good.

If you want potted plants to bear fruit, you must buy seedlings directly; growing from seed is suitable just for fun as a potted plant.

2. Choosing a flower pot and soil. For growing wax apple, the flower pot diameter should be 40-50cm. Wax apple is not very demanding about soil, and you can use a mix made of 70%-80% fairly fertile soil (pond mud, humus soil, old garden soil, vegetable garden soil), 10%-15% coarse sand, and 10%-15% carbonized rice husk.

3. Watering. Wax apple prefers moist soil and needs a sufficient water supply throughout the year. Wax apple growing near water is always vigorous, and it also has strong waterlogging tolerance; areas that are frequently flooded still grow, flower, and bear fruit normally. So even potted wax apple needs enough water.

4. Pruning. For trees that have already borne fruit, prune once a year after harvest, cutting out dead branches, overly dense branches, and leggy branches, and also remove sprouts emerging from the trunk and main branches at any time. In addition, pruning should be combined with adjusting the fruiting period.

5. Repotting. To ensure the growth of wax apple, we can change the potting soil once a year, generally after the fruit drop in March.