GoodDaughter
09-02-2008, 01:42 PM
Maybe this should go on the gardening board, but I thought it was also a frugal topic, too.
Small fruit trees in containers are really wonderful in terms of self sufficiency. Today I picked my first satsuma! The skin was still green but it had the slightest hint of orange on the blossom end, so I picked it. It was wonderful! *I bought it at Wal Mart, on clearance, as I did many of my potted citrus. Often when the potted citrus goes to the clearance table, all it needs is a bit of pruning to remove the broken limbs, repotting in correct soil and larger pot, a good sun exposure and thorough watering about once or twice a week. That's it. I have several potted citrus trees and each has about 12-20 fruit each, except for the Ponderosa lemon which has only one gigantic lemon on it. I will continue to buy potted citrus to add to my collection. They are usually small trees anyway, often dwarf varieties, and so if you have room for a 'pot garden' you have room for a small potted orchard of citrus trees.
Potted figs do well also, in pots that are 20" or larger. Let them get a bushy shape to increase numbers of fruit overall.
For exotic, tropical fruits, you can grow Suriname cherry, Barbados cherry, carob, and many others. Carob makes a really pretty tree in a container regardless of if it fruits or not. Olives can also be grown in pots.
If you have the room, you can turn a sunny, unused area into a pot orchard.
Last year, a bag of a dozen satsumas from Florida were over $5.00 :o
Small fruit trees in containers are really wonderful in terms of self sufficiency. Today I picked my first satsuma! The skin was still green but it had the slightest hint of orange on the blossom end, so I picked it. It was wonderful! *I bought it at Wal Mart, on clearance, as I did many of my potted citrus. Often when the potted citrus goes to the clearance table, all it needs is a bit of pruning to remove the broken limbs, repotting in correct soil and larger pot, a good sun exposure and thorough watering about once or twice a week. That's it. I have several potted citrus trees and each has about 12-20 fruit each, except for the Ponderosa lemon which has only one gigantic lemon on it. I will continue to buy potted citrus to add to my collection. They are usually small trees anyway, often dwarf varieties, and so if you have room for a 'pot garden' you have room for a small potted orchard of citrus trees.
Potted figs do well also, in pots that are 20" or larger. Let them get a bushy shape to increase numbers of fruit overall.
For exotic, tropical fruits, you can grow Suriname cherry, Barbados cherry, carob, and many others. Carob makes a really pretty tree in a container regardless of if it fruits or not. Olives can also be grown in pots.
If you have the room, you can turn a sunny, unused area into a pot orchard.
Last year, a bag of a dozen satsumas from Florida were over $5.00 :o