Anyone have experience with them? Easy? Hard? Been looking up stuff, but can't seem to find any info on about how long they will fruit for. Do they just have one year in them or do they continue to fruit indefinitely as long as you prune them (like regular trees)? I'm looking at Pomegranate Olive, Lemon, Banana, Apple and (possibly) Mango. I'm in zone 5, so they'll be inside with me for a good part of the year.
Semi-Dwarf Apple trees: Can be planted outside in USDA Zones 4 or warmer locations, produce about five bushels of full-size apples per year and have a life expectancy of about 20 – 25 years. They do not require staking. Dwarf Apple trees: Will be less hardy than full-sized or semi-dwarf trees, because their roots tend to be rather shallow and not very strong, so they will need to be tied to a sturdy stake. Dwarf trees will live for about 15 to 20 years and will begin bearing fruit in two or three years. They also should be fine planted outside in zone 5. I no particular experience with the others, but in general dwarf & semi-dwarf fruit trees live & produce for many years. Peace, poor_old_dad
i got a catalogue recently with some really cool small apple branch like things lemme go find it.... check out millernurseries.com they have afew neat dwarf things like sweet cherries, many semi dwarf aplles trees... but the Miller Triple S Apple trees, Sturdy and Single Stem they say.... they look really cool... but they also have a garden beuty nectarine, and garden gold peaches which live in big planters... they got some dwarfed plumms too...and a dwarf orange Quince and dwarf pears(im gonna gonna put them on my list).... ...but the miller nurseries are located in NY so you can probably pick them up.... i think i even went there afew times for evergreens while i was working landscaping over the summer up there.... its near exit 44 on the thruway.... and as for the fruiting? i actually dont know.... but call a nursery like them, if they sell 'em they hafta know.... ....Good luck....and be excellent....json
I grow dwarf citrus and avocado. I have found them to be very easy as long as you give them something good to eat and don't over-water them. I grow outdoors in Southern California. My Mom grows dwarf citrus in Virginia and keeps it indoors for a good part of the year. The problem she has with this is that the trees throw much less fruit. I suspect they are simply not getting enough sun, but the foliage is still nice. If you're looking at citrus, check out ultra-dwarfs too. Sometimes the "dwarf" version is still huge.
my favorite subject - Dwarf Fruit Trees one very good trick if we are in colder zones - if we want to try an experiment (always recommended to gain our own firsthand knowledge) - is to use heat bleed and shelter from the house to help the fruit tree make it through the cold. this works well if you house stays a constant temperature and you want to try not bringing the tree inside. If we pick a sunny side of the house with a nice big window and get started with an evergreen dwarf fruit tree such as a lemon, is a pot or container so it can be moved - then the tree will be sheltered by being moved next to the house from wind (hopefully - sometimes wind can be tricksy), the house walls will reflect heat from the sunny exposure back to the tree during the day, and all day and night the house will give up heat to the tree. this turns the bummer of heat loss around into an advantage! best of all you get a fine view of a nice evergreen tree framed in that window. may not always work but it's worth considering and taking advantage of the flexibility of evergreen dwarf fruit trees in pots - it's amazing how much heat buildings will bleed. all over the world there are diesel (heating oil) tanks up against the walls of houses for just this one reason - the house bleeds heat to the tank and keeps it above the "gel" point where diesel (heating oil) stops flowing. on the sunny side of the house this trick can support your fruit trees as well. it's a take off on the old espalier method of spreading a warm loving fruit tree out on a sunny brick wall in cooler climbs to maximize heat to all the limbs of the tree. only in this case you are obtaining the heat bleed from the house's internal heat as well as the sun's heat.
Dwarf fruit trees are chosen for the reasons of restricted space and ease in harvest. Certainly they are going to provide less fruit than their larger relatives, they are smaller. Most dwarf stock is derived by grafting regular fruit stock to dwarving root stock, so a concern when you use them is to protect the graft union when young. Longevity may be effected, but experience in my part of California is that they are as long lived as normal fruiting trees. Dwarf citrus is extremely popular in my area because of their small size they can be situated near buildings to shelter them from the winter frosts, or covered during our winters, whereas the full size citrus require placement outside these parameters.
Thanks for the info, all. I almost forgot about this thread! Lack of fundage has put this on the back burner a bit, but now I'm all interested again... Especially since my first real garden is in full swing. I'm enjoying walking out into the front yard and coming back with an armful of veggies. Would be awesome if I could do that with fruit as well. We do have a pear tree and a pile of black raspberry bushes, but I want pomegranates, dammit! Also a banana tree would be the shit, but I think I would need a greenhouse...
A normal pomegranate can be pruned and maintained as a medium sized shrub. A lot of the dwarf promegrantes sold are actually ornamentals, and the fruit is so small it's worthless as far as a fruit crop. I have a ten year old poemgrante that is only five foot tall and bears heavy most of the time with very little care. They don't seem to be bothered by frost and are very drought tolerant. A banana is going to be difficult if you don't live in the tropics. But I do know of some people that raise them indoors. Most have opted for the smaller ornamental varieties.
Oooh, goody! Pomegranate info! Thanks a lot. I'll watch out for "worthless fruit", lol. Yeah, we've about given up on bananas... How about olives? Are they good from the tree or do they take heavy processing to taste that good? Any suggestions on a variety? Anyone? Anyone?
Lack of funds is never a problem in obtaining fruit trees if your goal is fruit and foliage over perfection. Just plant stones from fruit you eat right in your pot - over winter - and in spring you will have trees growing out of the soil. You won't get grafted trees but any fruit tree grown in a pot will be kept smaller than ground planted. See my photos and commentary about "dwarfed by pots" dwarf fruit trees grown from fruit eaten, pits put in seed raising mix or potting soil, and nature doing the rest at my blog Mod note: no outside links. Buy an ad space cheapskates!
and did you know you can grow up to 6 fruits on the same tree the name of em is (Dwarf Fruit Salad Trees http://www.fruitsaladtrees.com/
Now THAT'S one of the coolest things I've ever seen. And Joshua, that's good to know. I might try that.
