Kitchen Garden Forum

We have a balcony and I was thinking of growing apple trees as cordons or espaliers on the side fencing,it's 6ft tall.The balcony is south facing.Could apple trees like this be grown in big pots?Also was wondering about growing pyracantha up the fencing,again,would it work in tubs?
Wendy

Dear Wendy, you can grow absolutely anything you want to in pots, infact some things do better as you can have more control over the growing medium.
You do have to make sure the container is large enough for what you are growing though.
I would have thought you would be looking at about the one hundred and twenty litre size, and try not to buy one that is a lot narrower at the bottom, as they tend to blow over.
But there are a few drawbacks too.
The first one you need to bear in mind is the strength of your balcony, as a big container that is full can be very heavy.
The other points are, they will take a lot more watering in the summer, and also a bit more feeding.
You could install a watering system which would save a lot of time.

One more point make sure you don't get a too vigorous apple tree.
Hope this helps a little.

Wendy

To add to OH's good advice.

Balcony is S facing - insulate your container well from the sun or the roots will get cooked/dry very quickly.

Use John Innes No 3 soil based compost, plus add swell-gel or similar to buffer moisture.

A plastic container will reduce weight - use the black type used by growers (LBS can supply) - the sort in garden centres usually go brittle afte a while. you can disguise it with timber or other material.

Apples - Use M27 or M9 0r M26 rootstock (NOT MM106 or M25). Try to buy a partially trained tree - it could be quite challenging providing the vigour needed for formative training from scratch.

Pyracantha can be a bit tricky to keep looking good in a pot - what about a cotoneaster - there are small leaved evergreen types, but C. horizontalis although deciduous has good autumn colour, C.'Coral Beauty' is a trailer, but can be trained up and tied in - it's often evergreen down here, but can be semi evergreen with a hard winter.

The advantage of deciduous plants in pots is that if they do get limited water stress in late summer, the next spring they will look good as new. Some evergreens can look tatty.

Spray/water regularly with seaweed extract liquid (maxicrop or sm3)

Top Dress appropriately each year with slow release fertiliser - also replacing top layer of compost with fresh. Water with rainwater/filtered if possible.

Hope this helps

Mole

Hi Old Herbaceous and
Mole,

Thanks for your information.I'll put that all to good use.Just wish I could get out and start!

Wendy