Growing Fruit Trees in Containers and Transplanting Into the Ground

Q. I would like to plant some trees in containers until I can plant them in my yard in a few years. Can they stay in containers if I'm careful with them?  I'm thinking about apricot, pluot, orange and maybe a pomegranate.

A. If you have purchased these in containers you will probably not want to keep them in the same container more than perhaps that single growing season if you plan to plant them in the yard. Generally speaking, if you plan to replant them then they should be moved into progressively larger containers or the roots will be permanently damaged. Eventually, the containers you'll need will have to be large, whiskey barrel-sized or larger.

15 year old Gold Kist apricot at the orchard with minor
pruning for size control

            Once these trees start to get bigger they will transplant into the yard with more and more difficulty. This just means they are more likely to suffer from transplant shock and recover from this shock more slowly when moved. I would recommend that if you want fruit trees in containers then keep them in the container permanently. When you are ready to plant in the yard then purchase trees specifically for the yard.

             Of the group you mention, citrus is probably the best choice for a container. Try to locate a citrus on a dwarfing type of trifoliate orange rootstock. Trifoliate orange rootstock is very cold tolerant which you will need in our climate unless you can protect the plant from freezing temperatures. There are a few selections of trifoliate orange rootstock that are more dwarfing than others. Focus on these if you can find them.

            My next choice for a container might be one of the smaller pomegranates like the variety ‘Sweet’ which would be a better choice for containers as opposed to ‘Wonderful’. The fruit is excellent, as good as or better than ‘Wonderful’.

Read about Sweet pomegranate at Dave Wilson Nursery

            If you select an apricot then I would pick one of the miniatures like ‘Pixie-Cot’ or a standard sized tree like ‘Gold Kist’ which tends to stay smaller when on Nemaguard rootstock at least.

Read about Pixie cot and Gold Kist at Dave Wilson Nursery

            Among the pluots for a container I would probably pick ‘Flavor King’ which stays naturally smaller than some of the other pluots but it will need a pollenizer tree such as ‘Santa Rosa’ plum.

Read about Flavor King pluot at Dave Wilson Nursery

            Don't expect these trees to be long-lived if you keep them in containers. I hope this helps.