Balcony gardening

[Gardeningonmybalcony]

Unfortunately I only have a balcony to garden on, but it’s quite a big balcony. I successfully grow soft fruit and veg and this year I bought a little patio pear tree. It looks really sad in its pot and I am wondering if I should give it away to someone who can plant it out in their garden. Has anyone had success with fruit trees in pots?
I also have a lemon tree which is doing really well.

Just bumping this for you OP.
MNHQ

I'm currently reading this excellent book on container gardening, which has great advice on literally everything about growing food in pots (nutrients, pot size, aspect and so on), so may be helpful to you.

I've linked Amazon, but I'm actually reading the ebook on Borrobox via my local county library, so check your libraries for it.

Thanks for the reply. I was more looking for real experiences/ not professionals as I can follow people on instagram too (so much AI ) , but guess
it many balcony gardeners on MN😊

I’ve got a few apple patio trees in pots, with mixed success ! One had one huge apple last year but nothing this. Another had quite a few small apples but they went rotten and never matured. This year was particularly hard. But I’ve taken two out of their pots and planted out now and they do look healthier . I’m not sure the compost is good quality to sustain them in pots tbh.

This is what I expected. I am thinking about rehoming to a friend with a nice garden.

For some reason it makes me sad looking at tree in a pot.

I think autumn fruit in general didn’t do well this year regardless. It was just too hot. Unless your balcony was cool all summer, which is unlikely if lemons are doing well.

I’d say donate the pear and stuck to more med type planting - citrus, pineapple, tomatoes etc.
Your balcony sounds amazing though.

I’ve had mixed success with fruit trees in pots, I think they need, eventually, to be in very large pots, need fed, and you also need a pollinating tree as well, unless it’s self pollinating. I’ve also ended up giving them away, and then falling for the marketing again. At the moment a dwarf apple from Tesco is doing ok…

what has worked was raspberries in a big pot, think 2.5 foot across, blueberries in ericaceous soil. A cherry, but the birds always got to the, small amount, of fruit first.

I have a weeping crab apple in a pot which is fantastic. Does need a ton of water but it’s blooms are spectacular.
I also have a willow because its roots spread unless potted and a cherry tree that hates its pot and has not grown in 15 years. .

Is it pruned into a cordon or fan, and is it in a big enough pot?

Apple trees often take many years to produce fruit, and you have to prune them to keep the leaf making stems down and to encourage the flowering and fruit making stems to develop, and it really needs another tree to cross pollinate with.

Then, the nutrients do run out. So you need a way of generating fresh nutrients if you don't want to repot every couple of years. You can make a mini wormery, just by sinking a ceramic plant pot 2 inches into the surface of the soil, and adding a saucer as a lid, and putting cut up veggie trimmings in there which the worms will process and take nutrients down into the pot.

Ideally, have 2 from the same pollination group, in big pots, and in the pots, make mini wormeries.

I am happy to repot and I have mulched this year.If I don’t decide to rehome, I was going to buy another tree to help pollination, but worried I will get stuck with two sad trees in pots.

Which way is the sun and whereabouts are you OP? I have a veranda so similar..

It’s amazing what a repot with fresh compost can do. It’s worth a try ….

London. South facing balcony. Most plants love my balcony.

With lots of sun I’d go for a fig in a pot too. They’re apparently winter hardy, although I don’t imagine you have a problem with frost.
I also have large Kentia palms which love it out there, and have had a lot of success with bougainvillea. Both need extra care in winter here though.
I’ve also large aeoniums and some agave.
Be careful with weight though.. heard some real horror stories gardening on balconies.

Wind tolerant plants are key, I read once.

As a follow on from this, if you remove your pear tree from the container to plant in ground, can you tell us how you will do this? Ive tried transplanting before, with dismal results, so would love your advice and tips.

I consider myself a novice, but have spent many years growing in pots. Initially on a London roof terrace. Then in pots whilst living in a caravan and renovating and now starting to consider if I put things in the ground.

I've had great success with a fig, chillis, aubergines, raspberries and jerusalem artichokes. I had a kumquat which I moved inside in the winter. Religiously gave it citrus feed and did get repeated flushes of fruit off it. Eventually it got a woolly aphid infestation which I couldn't shift and it died.

Out London flat was also Sth facing and the outside bricks would heat during the day and dispel the warmth at night (making our flat sweltering!). This would help with a microclimate for you. Depending how much sun the walls get, I too was going to suggest training the fig into a fan against the wall. You could do the same with a fig too. You could also join gardeners corner for free which is an online forum I've found helpful.Home Page | Gardeners Corner - The Friendly Gardening Forum

I’m a total amateur so please take my advice with a pinch of salt! Other people will have better ideas.

Don’t be too hard just yet. I went on an allotment course the instructor said to us plants have two choices thrive or die and you can only help them so much eg right area, right soil etc.

It was a tough summer for most plants the only ones that really thrived in our pots on our decking was the olives and the vines. We don’t have a balcony but an enclosed high decking. Regarding the pear, Is it pot bound? Did you feed and water it well? Most trees need daily water in the summer to get established. Our summer was hard.

Here are a few things to try first: water but ensure you have plenty of good drainage holes, feed with fertiliser in spring but wash it down so it doesn’t build up (the fertiliser)they need repotting every two years and in large pots - we have repotted two but have one more to do and that will be in November we repot it (when dormant), check it for diseases and treat as needed, put mulch on to protect it.
I went to a NT place yesterday and their pear tree (on a wall) had fruit but was looking sorry for itself and the gardener said they had all struggled this summer and worst year for the fruit trees so far, so don’t despair yet! Good luck

Forgive me if obvious, but a lot of trees look sorry for themselves this time of year as they start to drop leaves? I think fruit trees can take a couple of years to get going. A lot will depend on which way your balcony faces/hours of sun etc. have you followed instructions for feeding/watering your species of tree and got the correct soil type and drainage?
Then some things need their roots shading etc or a mulch on top of the soil ahead of winter.