[666]

I keep seeing lovely fruit trees/bushes/canes and I would love some, however I have nowhere to plant.  Is there a fruit that I could grow in a pot?  I did try strawbs last year but not too impressed.  My fav is raspberries, but I don't holdout much hope for these!

[Trillium]

Personally I don't see raspberries surviving long in pots, not long enough to give you a crop before they're too crowded. They love to 'travel' by root runners so you'd have problems there. You could try either red or black currant bushes if the pot is deep enough. The bushes themselves are shallow rooted but deeper soil would hold moisture for them. Gooseberry would work well too, possibly really dwarf apple or pears - I've seen some in pots that are espaliered.

[Jaye]

ooooh I bought a goosebury bush at woolies - not planted it yet - i was thinking of a pot but hubby didn't think it would be ok - but i'd prefer a pot at the minute so i can keep it out of the way of the kids as they are so prickly.....


Jaye

[666]

I love gooseberries!  Yay!

I now have the prefect excuse to go and buy one.

[Tinbasher]

I keep seeing lovely fruit trees/bushes/canes and I would love some, however I have nowhere to plant.  Is there a fruit that I could grow in a pot?  I did try strawbs last year but not too impressed.  My fav is raspberries, but I don't holdout much hope for these!

I've got gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants in tubs on a large rooftop patio.  Those big plastic ones with rope handles, called 'Muck Buckets' I think, where I got them from.  All mine are a nice olive green colour, though I have seen gaudier colours available since.  The bushes mentioned above, 2 of each, were planted in the winter of 98/99 and are still going strong.  The gooseberries are the best, each yielding 5 or 6lbs of fruit each summer.  The blackcurrants are none too bad either.

If you go this way, make up the tubs in roughly the place you want them to stay.  They are darned heavy when complete and can only then be moved by careful dragging with one of the rope handles.  I drilled holes in the bottom first with a cordless (12mm holes in 3 rings), then put in 2 inches of gravel and then a good planting mixture with some added bonemeal.  Every Autumn/early winter I carefully take away what I can of the top 2 or 3 inches of soil and replace with a No 3 type.  A granular fertiliser top-dressed in March with a mulch of very-well rotted manure on top.  A couple of light liquid feeds (tomato food) in the growing season as the fruit matures.

Make sure you get the larger version of these buckets, which are 19 inches diameter at the top and 16 inches deep.  I think the actual marked capacity is 70 litres.  There are smaller versions I have had for M27 rooted Apples, maybe about 50 litre tubs, and in the same style with rope handles, but the grade of plastic for these smaller ones was nowhere near as good.  After a season, two at the most, the plastic went very brittle indeed and they started falling apart with the slightest contact.  Strangely, all the red ones decayed first, rather than the blue.  They did look a bit too gaudy but there were no other colours available at the time.  I'm glad they're gone now.

The original Muck Buckets though in olive green.  Coming up for 10 years old and still as strong as ever, despite soil, manure, fertiliser and all the elements.

Dwarf Apples will cope well in smaller tubs than this. I have six in varying containers, one an old milk churn.

[londongardener]

I keep seeing lovely fruit trees/bushes/canes and I would love some, however I have nowhere to plant.  Is there a fruit that I could grow in a pot?  I did try strawbs last year but not too impressed.  My fav is raspberries, but I don't holdout much hope for these!

I've got gooseberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants in tubs on a large rooftop patio.  Those big plastic ones with rope handles, called 'Muck Buckets' I think, where I got them from.  All mine are a nice olive green colour, though I have seen gaudier colours available since.  The bushes mentioned above, 2 of each, were planted in the winter of 98/99 and are still going strong.  The gooseberries are the best, each yielding 5 or 6lbs of fruit each summer.  The blackcurrants are none too bad either.

If you go this way, make up the tubs in roughly the place you want them to stay.  They are darned heavy when complete and can only then be moved by careful dragging with one of the rope handles.  I drilled holes in the bottom first with a cordless (12mm holes in 3 rings), then put in 2 inches of gravel and then a good planting mixture with some added bonemeal.  Every Autumn/early winter I carefully take away what I can of the top 2 or 3 inches of soil and replace with a No 3 type.  A granular fertiliser top-dressed in March with a mulch of very-well rotted manure on top.  A couple of light liquid feeds (tomato food) in the growing season as the fruit matures.

Make sure you get the larger version of these buckets, which are 19 inches diameter at the top and 16 inches deep.  I think the actual marked capacity is 70 litres.  There are smaller versions I have had for M27 rooted Apples, maybe about 50 litre tubs, and in the same style with rope handles, but the grade of plastic for these smaller ones was nowhere near as good.  After a season, two at the most, the plastic went very brittle indeed and they started falling apart with the slightest contact.  Strangely, all the red ones decayed first, rather than the blue.  They did look a bit too gaudy but there were no other colours available at the time.  I'm glad they're gone now.

The original Muck Buckets though in olive green.  Coming up for 10 years old and still as strong as ever, despite soil, manure, fertiliser and all the elements.

Dwarf Apples will cope well in smaller tubs than this. I have six in varying containers, one an old milk churn.

That is very interesting.  I planted apple trees last year in containers and my parents think it is a stupid idea.  Although they think only people who have big gardens should have apple tree (i.e not me).

Where did you get the muck buckets from ?

[Tinbasher]

I keep seeing lovely fruit trees/bushes/canes and I would love some, however I have nowhere to plant.  Is there a fruit that I could grow in a pot?  I did try strawbs last year but not too impressed.  My fav is raspberries, but I don't holdout much hope for these!

That is very interesting.  I planted apple trees last year in containers and my parents think it is a stupid idea.  Although they think only people who have big gardens should have apple tree (i.e not me).

Where did you get the muck buckets from ?

I got mine from a trade warehouse called Stax.  I do believe there is a branch, if not two, in London but you have to have a trade pass to get in.  All sorts of trades - building, decorating, joinery, gardening, etc, etc. You may know someone or qualify yourself.  I have seen them since elsewhere though, but can't remember where - B & Q rings a bell as good as anywhere.

I got the smaller ones from Focus a few years ago, and might be right in saying that they had the bigger versions as well, but I thought the smaller ones were right for what I needed at the time - the apples.  But they fell apart within 2 years, and I had to repot them all into alternatives.  But those originals are still strong and flexible - they were about a fiver each when I got them, trade price and ten years ago, but I think they eventually reduced to about 3 quid, and the ones Ive seen since have been much less than a tenner.

Don't go for bright colours, apart from aesthetics.  Something about the colour pigment in plastics also has an effect on decay, particularly sunlight.  The red ones faded and went near transparent within a summer and you could tell the plastic had degraded.  The blue ones lasted 2 summers but eventually faded and went brittle.

Other good makeshift containers I've resorted to in emergency are large plastic buckets that feature in trade supplies of all sorts of things.  Ten gallon ones are good.  Obviously paint buckets might not be a good idea unless emulsion and you get them 'fresh' and washable.  Swarfega and other hand cleaners come in bulk in large plastic drums and are useful washed out.  Any plastic buckets can be scuffed on the outside with rough sandpaper and painted with Red Oxide metal primer.  It dries to a terracotta colour and makes an industrial bucket half presentable, though it tends to start peeling after about a year.

If you can afford it, proper long term and nice-looking containers are the way to go.  Barrels and half-barrels and the range of stone, or resin or even concrete containers available.

[littleorchard]

i grew blueberrys in pots last year - fab, loads of fruit.

Also tried redcurrents - not so fab, went very leggy and very week, although did grow very well, although i fear too well hence the straggly look. Planting those two out in the garden this year.

[gobs]

Maybe you want to prune it a bit, or is it a year old one stick? I mean rc.

Will fruit more when it gets older.

[Trillium]

Was going to suggest pruning as well. They need yearly pruning just as fruit trees do to get rid of old, no longer fruiting canes and encourage new canes. And feeding. All the currants are heavy feeders if you want good crops.