Can I keep semi-dwarf apple trees in containers?

[ninjapoodles]

I just got a pair of apple trees from Stark Bros. One Arkansas Black, one Granny Smith. Both are semi-dwarf varieties, as I planned to put them in my yard.

Things have come up here, and I am unable to get them into the ground in the yard, but I don't want to get rid of them. Is it possible to just pot them in large containers in the yard, even though they're not "dwarf" trees?

 

[vfem]

Semi dwarf apple still get to 20' tall. If you are just potting them until fall and trying to plant them in the yard then... they should be fine. Just not as a permanent situation!

 

[GardeNerd]

I have 2 espalliered semi dwarf apples, Anna and Dorset Golden. They are about 12" from my garage wall and I keep them pretty flat. They aren't in pots, but with pruning twice a year they stay around 6 feet tall x 8 feet wide and I still get a huge crop in the summer and a light crop in January or February. There is a pic of of the Anna on my page:

http://www.theeasygarden.com/web/viewblog.php?id=6220

If they are in pots, you will need pretty big ones and you will have to water regularly. I kept a "Beverly Hills" apple in a pot for a couple of years because I didn't have a good spot for it, but I got a great deal on it and couldn't resist. I eventually sold it at one of my plant yard sales. It was never as vigorous and it was not very productive in comparison to the ones in the ground. Good luck.

 

[patandchickens]

Wait, do you mean permanently (answer: not very well, although it is not totally impossible in a sufficiently mild climate) or just temporarily til later this year or next year (answer: yes).

Planting them now would be *best*, but if you absolutely can't, then certainly pot them up and take Very Very Good Care Of Them over the summer, and plant in late summer (with lotsa watering into the fall) or winter somewhere protected, where the pots won't freeze too awful hard, and plant early next spring before they leaf out. I haven't done this with apples specifically but I've done it with other trees, including ornamental cherries, and it's worked ok. They don't do as well or as reliably as if the original bareroot plant was put in its permanent site right away, but it sure beats losing the trees entirely.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[ninjapoodles]

I have 2 espalliered semi dwarf apples, Anna and Dorset Golden. They are about 12" from my garage wall and I keep them pretty flat. They aren't in pots, but with pruning twice a year they stay around 6 feet tall x 8 feet wide and I still get a huge crop in the summer and a light crop in January or February. There is a pic of of the Anna on my page:

http://www.theeasygarden.com/web/viewblog.php?id=6220

If they are in pots, you will need pretty big ones and you will have to water regularly. I kept a "Beverly Hills" apple in a pot for a couple of years because I didn't have a good spot for it, but I got a great deal on it and couldn't resist. I eventually sold it at one of my plant yard sales. It was never as vigorous and it was not very productive in comparison to the ones in the ground. Good luck.

Do you think they would make it all the way until next spring?

On a related note, I want your entire garden, please.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Wait, do you mean permanently (answer: not very well, although it is not totally impossible in a sufficiently mild climate) or just temporarily til later this year or next year (answer: yes).

Planting them now would be *best*, but if you absolutely can't, then certainly pot them up and take Very Very Good Care Of Them over the summer, and plant in late summer (with lotsa watering into the fall) or winter somewhere protected, where the pots won't freeze too awful hard, and plant early next spring before they leaf out. I haven't done this with apples specifically but I've done it with other trees, including ornamental cherries, and it's worked ok. They don't do as well or as reliably as if the original bareroot plant was put in its permanent site right away, but it sure beats losing the trees entirely.

Good luck,

Pat

Hmmm...I wonder how much time I can buy myself before getting them into the ground if I try to do it now?

 

[GardeNerd]

ninjapoodles wrote: Do you think they would make it all the way until next spring?

I would say with regular, probably daily watering, large pot, and a good soil, they could be fine. However, I garden in a mild summer climate.

On a related note, I want your entire garden, please. big_smile

I want it too, but on an acre instead! I ran out of room to grow years ago. Now I plant in my neighbors' yards. Whenever I run across something new, cool, or an edible I don't have, I get one of my neighbors to plant it in their yard instead.

 

[patandchickens]

It depends SO much on what size containers, taken care of how (and how reliably), in what conditions, and what next winter's weather turns out to be like for you.

Certainly I've carried potted-up-bareroot trees over til fall planting with zero problem (except for ones I've forgotten about at strategic moments during dry weather ). And I have 3 Amur cherries (admittedly extremely hardy) and a small beautybush that have just come thru this past winter in pots in *fine* shape, surrounded by mulch and against the very protected E side of my house, will plant as soon as I can if it ever dries out enough around here grrrr.

The biggest risk is your forgetting to water them -- it only needs to happen once to kill or severely-permanently injure them. Lesser risk is frost injury to roots (aboveground containers freeze sooner and colder than things growing in the ground).... tho if you dig a hole and sink the pot in late autumn that will help a lot.

WITH UNINTERRUPTED GOOD CARE, I think it's a decent bet for them to make it to next spring planting in good shape. If you *must*.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[GardeNerd]

patandchickens wrote: It depends SO much on what size containers, taken care of how (and how reliably), in what conditions, and what next winter's weather turns out to be like for you.

The biggest risk is your forgetting to water them -- it only needs to happen once to kill or severely-permanently injure them. Lesser risk is frost injury to roots (aboveground containers freeze sooner and colder than things growing in the ground).... tho if you dig a hole and sink the pot in late autumn that will help a lot.

WITH UNINTERRUPTED GOOD CARE, I think it's a decent bet for them to make it to next spring planting in good shape. If you *must*.

I totally Agree!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Well, as it turns out, we got them into the ground. It was kind of a touchy situation, and my husband wanted to help and felt like it briefly, so I just got the trees and plunked them in. I hope they'll be OK. I did not have a chance to soak the roots beforehand, so it's a gamble, I know. The ground is very hard, and you can only dig down so far--the holes are not really deep enough, I don't think, but there are so many other trees around that I'm just hoping against hope that the little apple trees can make it.

What can I do to increase their chances? I filled in the holes with a mixture of 50/50 the dirt that was already there and a mulched organic garden soil, and soaked everything down. We've got thunderstorms coming through later today.