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sammers510

potted fruit tree care

10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago

Hello all, I've spent months pouring over this forum and reading similar posts trying to find the answers I am looking for before posting a new thread asking the same questions that may have been answered before as I've seen some people get irritated when that happens, perhaps due to my own lack of understanding I haven't been able to find a clear set of recommendations that help me with my recent decent into container gardening. So I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I'm grateful for any input you can give me.

First off I went a bit overboard as I tend to do when I decide to do something new and March-now I have managed to purchased 3 columnar apple trees (scarlet sentinel, golden sentinel, North Pole) a fig tree (lattarulla) a peach tree (bonanza) and for my birthday this week I was given a new semi dwarf improved Meyer lemon. They are all still in their nursery pots. I also purchased EB stones organic citrus and fruit tree food at the recommendation of the nursery which I've now come to learn on here organic fertilizer doesn't work for container plants? I've also ordered some foliage pro 9-3-6 that will arrive today since so many of you swear by it.

My question is what is the best overall care for these trees? I know it will differ for each kind of tree. From should I repot, if so in what kind of soil mix? To how often/how much should I water? At what rate/consentration should I feed? I live in Portland Oregon zone 8a and the are growing on a west facing deck with strong air circulation, this week it's been in the 80's but will be raining and low 60's this weekend.

The Meyer and the peach seem to be doing great, I have blossoms on the Meyer and 3-4 peaches on the bonanza, I thinned it down as it had more and I didn't want it to work so hard to produce fruit at such a small size tree. The apples were sticks in the pot when I got them the scarlet and the northpole are doing fine besides some wind damage from being blown over but the golden looks sick. It's has a thickened yellow patch in the center and hasn't leafed out at all since I got it in March. The fig seems to be doing well though it has some black spots on a few of the leaves. I watered them daily (aside from the lemon because I read they like to dry out a bit first) this week with the hot weather letting the water run through the pots. I'd love to feed them but I'm concerned I'll do it wrong. Again I'm happy for any suggestions and I can get more pictures if needed.

Thank you

Samantha