Patio Fruit Trees

Justinjedimaster

Hello I’ve recently moved house and have a much bigger garden of which I’m thinking of now planting my patio fruit trees ( Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum)  into the soil. So I was wondering is this a good idea, what fertiliser should I use and should I wait until they are dormant? 

Many Thanks 

Justin 

JoeX

I would check that they’re not dwarfing stock first.  Patio tress are unsurprisngly designed for the patio so may not achieve your expectations in a larger setting.

pansyface

I’d definitely wait until they are dormant.

If they are in large pots, and have been in there for some time, you are going to be surprised at how reluctant they are to leave those pots, even if the pots helpfully taper outwards towards the top.  So a few days before you decide to do battle with them, I’d leave off the watering so that the compost is a bit less sticky and uncooperative. It will be a two person job to extract them, I imagine.

They will never grow to full size trees, so think of them as shrubs when you look for a new home. Maybe specimen shrubs set into individual little flower beds in maybe a lawn. Should make fruit picking easier. 

Justinjedimaster

Thank you for the replies, I’m not expecting them to grow in full size trees and are more than happy that they stay small, I’m just wanting to plant them around the perimeter of the garden. I was think of digging in some fertiliser into the soil prior to planting but not sure which would be best and whether when planted to scatter blood fish and bone on the surface? 

Plantminded

l wouldn’t use fertiliser now, the plants will be approaching winter dormancy. Feeding them now could encourage unseasonal growth which is likely to be prone to frost damage.  It would be better to wait until early spring to feed.  If you plant them in the ground now you could mulch the area around the plants with organic matter to protect the roots from extreme temperatures, it will also break down in the soil to provide extra nutrients in time for the new growing season.

pansyface

Unless your garden soil is particularly impoverished I wouldn’t worry about feeding them. Over feeding can lead to problems of its own. They will do fine in normal soil. I have twenty-year old fruit trees that have never received extra feed and they fruit perfectly well.

What I would say is, if you plan on picking fruit from them do make sure that they are accessible and not stuck at the back of a floriferous flowerbed or a muddy patch of earth when the time comes.

BobTheGardener

These days, it's considered bad practise to only fertilize the actual planting hole.  I would recommend that you improve the soil over the whole area (if necessary) instead, then plant them.  That's best achieved by mulching the area with about 3" of bagged manure from a garden centre, then let that be naturally taken down by worms etc.

If the soil is already good, then you may only need to add a general fertilizer to the whole area.

Justinjedimaster

Thank you so much for your replies , I’m much wiser now lol. I’ll wait until they are dormant first and plant then cover with mulch. An cross my fingers for next year. 

Plantminded

If they are currently in pots, you can plant them in the ground now, there's no need to wait until they are dormant.  This gives the roots a chance to grow while the soil is warm and moist, helping the shoots and foliage to develop in the spring with a stronger root base.

pansyface

I just thought that by leaving it until dormancy the trees would be less likely to have their leaves knocked off and therefore have more chance to build up the reserves for next year that the leaves provide.  Also possibly less chance of damaging twigs that might get snagged by their leaves during the move. But I’m a clumsy worker. 😕

JoeX

Yes, especially if they’re fruiting now I’d wait until they’ve cropped and probably put them in at the end of the month or whenever they are done.