The best potted fruit plant options for small space gardens | Gardening 101 | Gardening Australia

Jane profiles some of the most productive fruit plants for container growing. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
Dwarf fruit varieties are grown specifically for courtyards or for patios and they’ll only reach about 2 metres in height. They have the added benefit that when it comes to picking fruit and maintaining your tree, you don’t have to get up on a ladder! Jane takes a look at some varieties of fruit trees that are made for growing in pots!

Grapefruit and Lemon:
A normal grapefruit tree can grow 8 or 9 or more metres high so it’s too big for a pot. So when you’re looking for a dwarfed one, check the label that it does say dwarfed.

Grapefruit ‘Marsh’ will only grow about 4 metres and they’d be terrific in a large pot. You can even keep them pruned if you want.

A good dwarf variety lemon is the Lisbon lemon. Lisbon are popular because they are a true lemon that gives you that ‘fish and chippy’ sort of taste!

Cumquat:
Cumquat Nagami has a little tear-drop shaped fruit. Cumquat can tolerate a cold climate and the Nagami variety is a great choice because it’s a hybrid of a lime and a cumquat. It’s called a limequat and the lime gives the wonderful flavour, and the cumquat element gives it its cold tolerance. It’s perfect for growing in a pot.

Finger Limes:
Finger limes are a little bit thorny but they’re terrific and ideal to grow in a pot. They can grow to up to 5 metres high but can be pruned to keep them manageable.

Avocado:
Can you grow an avocado in a container? Yes, you can – especially if you look for a variety called Wurtz. Wurtz is a good sub-tropical plant but will also take a little bit of the southern climate’s cold. It’ll grow to be 3 to 4 metres high.

Avocado will need a large pot. Something like a wine barrel is ideal. They will take about 4 years to develop fruit, but with plenty of fertiliser and plenty of sun, you will be eating the most magnificent avocados from your own backyard.

Planting Potted Fruit:
Potting a fruit plant is really quite easy but there are few simple things that will really help your plant along. Your pot should always have drainage holes. There is a myth that you should put broken crock or bits of gravel down the bottom to cover that hole, but with the quality potting mixes that we have these days, there is no need to do that. In fact, covering the hole raises the water level of the plant and so you’re going to get the plant roots sitting in saturated soil which can cause them to rot. Use a premium quality potting mix, as these contain plenty of fertiliser and will feed the plant for at least 6 months.

Featured Plants:
GRAPEFRUIT ‘MARSH’ – Citrus cv.
LEMON ‘LISBON’ – Citrus cv.
CUMQUAT ‘NAGAMI’ – Citrus japonica cv.
LIMEQUAT – Citrus japonica x aurantiifolia cv.
FINGER LIME – Citrus australasica cv.
AVOCADO ‘WURTZ’ – Persea americana cv.

Filmed on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country | Bulleen, Vic
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