Lidl potted fruit trees, impulse buy, now what?

[banksy]

Popped into Lidl last night for a few groceries and couldnt resist an elstar apple and a Comice pear,  now this was a pure impulse buy as at the moment I actually have nowhere to put them!  ???

My question is this, I have a couple of those very large plastic tubs that large shrubs and trees are sold in, probably 18-24" diameter and 24" tall.  Can I plant them up in these pots for this season, until I find a home for them?

Thanks in advance.

[banksy]

[Robert_Brenchley]

Keep them well watered and you should be OK, but don't leave them long enough to get pot bound.

[banksy]

Keep them well watered and you should be OK, but don't leave them long enough to get pot bound.

Great! Back to Lidl to pick up some of their great value compost to help fill those big tubs.  ;D

[ajb]

use a top-soil based compost if you can as it makes the pot heavier and less likely to blow over when the tree is in full leaf.

Can't resist a tree bargain myself and bought an end-of-bare-root-season cherry Regina. I definitely need another cherry tree  ::)

[winecap]

I got a couple of trees from Lidl 2 years ago and I kept one in the pot and put one in the ground. I was a bit surprised to find the one I put in the ground had no roots on when I took it out of its pot, and all the compost immediately fell away. Not surprisingly it didn't last long. The one that stayed in the pot also sprouted a few leaves in spring and then died. No roots to speak of on that either. Not much chance of your trees getting pot bound if they are anything like mine. I would have got my money back if I'd kept any evidence of having bought them. Now I get my trees from Aldi or Morrisons, but I hope your story will have a happier ending. Do let us know what you find when you re-pot them!

[Slugcrusher]

Don't want to rain on your parade, but when I bought my Elstar from the nursery they advised us to plant a polinator nearby as Elstar are self sterile - they need another apple tree for polination. We settled on a Braeburn, which has proved fine had no problems.
I would look around where you intend to plant your tree and see if there are any other apple trees around if not then get some advice.

[Russell]

In my part of the UK you can usually rely on some neighbours apple tree being near enough, flowering at the right time, and of the right type to pollinate successfully. In the Domesday Book we are under the heading of "Appletree Hundred", and only the Anglo Saxons really know why but I can guess.
The pear tree is more difficult. Unless you are very lucky in your neighbours you will have to look after your own pollination. Of the common pear trees only Conference is self fertile and its pollen is useless for pollinating anything else. I planted a Buerre Hardy pear next each of my Comice pears. They do the job, and taste pretty good themselves.

[sunloving]

And if space is limited you might consider espaliering them against a fence or wall. This makes them very slim.

Good luck hope that both of yours are good healthy trees , Id have no trouble sticking them in a pot until i was ready to use them in fact i foolishly bought two trees from b and m last month that had bearly any root on them theyve been in pots int he greeenhouse to give them a chance to root before I send them outside.

x Sunloving

[banksy]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I have planted them in the big tubs today, so they should be happy for a while in a soil and compost mix.

One thing to note is that the elstar is labelled as self fertile  ???