Advice
RHS Help & Advice
Fruit trees for pots and smaller gardens
With careful selection of cultivars and appropriate growing methods, even the smallest of gardens has room for a fruit tree. Restricted forms are the mainstay of fruit-tree growing in small spaces, with many specimens being successfully grown in pots as well
Growing fruit trees in small spaces
Fans, espaliers (right) and cordons may be grown against walls and fences; alternatively, trained against supports, restricted fruit trees make attractive screens. Train cordons to 45 degrees to reduce apical dominance (the tendency to grow from the tip), promoting growth along the entire length of the cordon. Stepover cordons are trained parallel to the ground above a short trunk and are useful edging for beds and paths.
Making a selection
Cultivar choice depends on use (culinary versus dessert), fruit taste, soil, site, and the need for pollination partners.
Compact cultivars are essential in small gardens. For reliable cross-pollination and subsequent fruit-set, cultivars must flower at similar times. To help gardeners choose suitable combinations, the RHS divides apple, pear, plum and cherry cultivars into numbered pollination groups with similar flowering times.
Some cultivars are incompatible; for example apples ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ and ‘Suntan’. Pears are also placed into two incompatibility groups, cultivars of each failing to pollinate any other pear in the same group. Tables of flowering and incompatibility groups may readily be found in fruit catalogues and books.
Self-fertile cultivars pollinate themselves to some extent, but fruit best with a cross-pollinator. Triploid cultivars such as apple ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ are vigorous but have infertile pollen, so there is a requirement for two cross-pollinators – one for the triploid cultivar and another for this pollinator. Spur-bearers like ‘Jonagold’ or ‘Suntan’ (which fruit on older wood) are better choices than tip-bearers like ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ (which fruit at the ends of one-year old branches). Where there is space for only one tree, a family tree has two or three cultivars grafted on to one dwarfing rootstock; careful pruning is needed to prevent one cultivar taking over.
Rootstock recommendations
Fruit-tree rootstocks determine the overall size and vigour of a tree. The following are recommended for small gardens, graded from most dwarfing to vigorous:
Apple: M27, M9, M26, MM106 (avoid MM111, M2 and M25*)
Pear: Quince C, Quince A or EMH (avoid Pyrus*)
Plum, damson, peach, nectarine: Pixy or St Julien A (avoid Brompton*)
Apricot: St Julien A or Torinel (pot only) (avoid Brompton*)
Cherry: Colt or Gisela 5 (Avoid F12/1*)
Medlar: Quince A or Crataegus (avoid Pyrus*)
Quince: Quince C or Quince A (avoid Pyrus*)
* too vigorous for small gardens or pots
Factors affecting rootstock choice
Extremely dwarfing rootstocks (M27, M9, Pixy and Quince C) are only suitable for fertile, loamy soils. On light, nutrient-poor soils, less-dwarfing rootstocks are preferable (M26, MM106, St Julien A, or Quince A).
Trees on the most dwarfing rootstocks require permanent staking. Those on semi-dwarfing rootstocks (M26, Colt, Gisela 5, MM106 and Pixy), need staking for the first five years of life.
Stepover apples and dwarf pyramids are easier to manage on highly dwarfing rootstocks such as M27 and M9. Upright cordons, fans and espaliers need more vigorous rootstocks (M26 or MM106).
Vigorous cultivars may not be restrained by dwarfing rootstocks - containerisation is a better way to dwarf them.
Growing fruit trees in pots
Many fruit trees and bushes can be grown in pots (for example, pears and blueberries). Clay pots are heavy and stable, but are prone to drying out; plastic is durable, light and easier to manage. For most fruit, choose pots 30-38cm (12-15in) in diameter. Cherries may need 40-45cm (16-18in) pots.
When planting, place plenty of crocks over the base to ensure good drainage. Use a good-quality compost (John Innes No 3 is ideal), or multi-purpose compost mixed with one-third grit or perlite. Incorporate controlled-release fertiliser pellets, or feed fortnightly with a high-potassium liquid tomato feed.
Water generously but allow the compost’s surface to dry out before the next watering, without it becoming bone dry. To avoid potbound plants, repot every year or alternate years after leaf fall. Once in its final pot, a plant can be root-pruned every other year with 30 percent of the compost refreshed. In intervening years, replace the top layer of compost.
Position fruit plants in full sun. Leave hardy fruit outdoors over winter. Peaches and apricots can be covered with a lean-to shelter from autumn to late winter to protect them from rain-splash and potential peach leaf curl.
Soft fruit and grapes
We recommend less vigorous cultivars:
Raspberry ‘Glen Ample’, ‘Glen Prosen’, ‘Tulameen’ (almost spine-free) and ‘Autumn Bliss’; blackberry ‘Loch Ness’ and ‘Waldo’; most of the hybrid berries; all strawberries; blackcurrant ‘Ben Connan’ and ‘Ben Sarek’; any redcurrant, whitecurrant or gooseberry; blueberry ‘Toro’, and the half-high varieties like ‘Chippewa’.
In limited space, grapes can be grown as standards, rather than climbers. Suitable cultivars include ‘Black Hamburgh’, ‘Buckland Sweetwater’ and ‘Foster’s Seedling’. Standards can be moved into a heated greenhouse when fruiting to aid ripening.
Maya Albert