Topic: Growing fruit trees in planters

[trogg]

Might be a stupid question but, I'm looking to buy a few fruit trees, IE,  plum,apple,pear and gooseberry.
My question is, can I grow them in a large planter.
I want to be able to move them from my garden to my allotment (haven't got one yet), then to a larger allotment in future.
My local garden centre has fruit trees (with fruit already growing on them) in 18" + planters, was thinking of making some 3 foot square wooden planters to grow them in  :-\

What do you think ?

[PurpleHeather]

We planted most of our trees straight in to the ground, planting too many apples so we could not eat them all and three got given away.  This last couple of years we have bought two more and put them in huge planters first because the designated spot was not ready.

Then when we had the place was ready we moved them into position.

The biggest snag was the weight and size of these trees.

You may not believe that a four foot peach tree in a six inch celophane pack would become ten feet tall and five foot wide in two years. Hard to handle too.

A lot depends on the sort of tree you buy standard, a cordon or dwarf. When you do get your plot you may find that the what you have bought would have been better if it had been a different type.

I know when you are keen to get started but do you know how long it will be before you get that plot?

It may be as well to wait.

[Ishard]

Go ahead Trogg mine are all in planters and they are doing ok as long as you remember to water and feed them well

[trogg]

Thanks both for your replies,
The fruit trees I've been looking at at 6-8 foot high, but only about 2 foot wide.
I could trim them back when I come to move them, but it was the root system I was worried about.

I'm going to look at a quarter plot this morning (wish me luck) but I think it might be too small to start growing trees in it, probably some time before I get a half/full size plot.

Hoping to put a large greenhouse and small shed on the plot as well as growing veg.

Depending on the size of the plot I might just get one of each, plum/apple/pear and if I run out of room I'll take them home and grow them in my garden.  ;D

What size planters are yours in Ishard ?

Cheers