Blog by Loralei Dewe
To refresh you on the subject, here are some of the important points I found:
1) Plant trees of the same species. In other words, citrus with other citrus, stone fruit with other stone fruit, etc.
2) If you are doing a backyard orchard and not a commercial orchard, you don't need a tree to bear 900 apples. Pick trees that, with judicious pruning, will produce what you need.
3) Use a low-nitrogen fertilizer to keep your trees from putting out a lot of new growth too quickly.
4) Pick combinations of trees for successive fruit ripening. For instance, an early variety that will ripen in May, one that will ripen in July, and one that will ripen in September.
5) If the intent is to put them from the pot into the ground eventually, let them mature in the pot a year or so first. They will develop a solid root system and adjust easily.
Feb 2025 report
Today, many of the small trees are starting to bud out, and one, the Calamondin, has even set fruit. They appeared to be a little cramped in their small pot, so I repotted them all together and added some acid-type fertilizer and compost. I think they'll be much happier now.
Nov. 2025 report
It's been a long summer, but thank goodness not all that hot! All the little trees have done great. I have found that the Lime is a very slow grower, while the Calamondin is a very fast grower, with the Lemon falling in between.
I had planted some Mexican green onions in the pot to help ward off any insects, and they grew fast and did their job, so I dug some of them up and used them. I'll put more into growing over the winter.
It appears that some leave drop gas occurred. Maybe too. There is a lot of water with all the recent rain. I'll cut back a bit and see how it goes.
I am going to fertilize them with an acid mix that Ed Laivo suggested was the best for container fruit trees. It's organic, so hard to over-fertilize. It's a 4-3-6, so very gentle and contains humic acid, so Ed feels like it encourages bacterial growth in the soil.
I'll keep you posted now that winter is coming. Nov. marks their first full year.
Thumbnail Image by mac231 from Pixabay
