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Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

Fruit-bearing trees often require more maintenance than other container plants, but they add yet another level of texture, color, aroma and taste to your garden.

Of all the trees suited to container gardening, fruit-bearing species are the most appealing – yet the most difficult to maintain. Of course, their payoff – delicious fresh citrus, berries, figs, peaches, apples and plums (and more) – makes the extra care well-worth the effort.

As with all container gardening, planting a fruit tree or vine in a container has its advantages. One of the biggest: It allows you to better protect the plant from frost or other climatic changes since you can move your container under cover or insulate it when necessary. Containerized fruit trees are also beautiful, making a wonderful vertical accent to a patio, deck or other area of a garden.

Most fruit-bearing plants are grafted and composed of two important, yet separate, plants: the rootstock (below the soil) and the scion (above the soil). The scion delivers the fruit typical of the named species, but the anonymous rootstock is the real key to the plant’s vigor. In large part, the rootstock determines the size of the plant, its hardiness and its ability to adapt to soil conditions. For container plantings, look for dwarf-variety rootstock (grafted to scions bred to bear a full yield of fruit and either full-sized branches and stems) or dual genetic dwarfs (trees in which both the scion and the rootstock are naturally smaller than those of other varieties). They’re adapted by nature to growing in small spaces – like containers.

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Photo Credit: Carol Cloud Bailey

Dwarf lemon selections can be container-grown outdoors or in a sunny conservatory. (In conservatories lemons will bloom and produce fruit year-round.)

If you want to grow edibles for fruit production – whether in the ground or in containers – you have to keep pollination in mind. Some fruits, such as the peach, are self-pollinating: Just one plant is needed. Species that rely on cross-pollination, however, require the same or a closely related species blooming at the same time to yield a crop of edible fruit. In container gardening, putting two plants in the same pot or adjacent to one another facilitates cross-pollination. Some nurseries also offer grafted specimens with two or more cross-fertilizing species on the same rootstock. Check with your local garden center or nursery to be sure you have all you need to yield a successful containerized fruit crop.