apple trees in pots

am waiting to take delivery of 2 apple trees - Encore & Catshead. Planted the same in the garden last November but, despite blossom on them in the Spring, they died. Nursery involved said we shouldn't have used stone chippings for drainage and we used wrong compost - should have been John Innes No.3. However, we are trying again but this time would like to put them in pots. We'd appreciate any advice before we do this, don't want to lose them again!
Thanks.

 

I think the compost would have to be very bad indeed for that to be the cause of such a rapid death.

What was drainage like? You said that you'd used stone chippings for drainage, does that imply that the ground was prone to waterlogging and the stone chippings were used in an attempt to counter that?

As for the point that the compost should have been John innes No3, I doubt that the trees would have been that fussy. Apple trees have been around longer than John Innes No3.

 

Totally agree with Clueless. There fobbin you off.. I have, 2 apple 1pear and a plum tree in Big pots.. The Cooking Apple gave loads of fruit also the eating apple (didnt taste so great) according to hub, and the Plum gave us about 20 juicy Delicious Plums, the pear blossomed but gave no fruit but I dont think its too bad for the second year.. However we are giving all but the Plum Tree away as they keep blowing over in the wind :dh: and we dont have room to plant them in the garden...

A couple of pics..

Plum Tree..




Close up


Eating Apple.. Sorry can't remember which one!



Cooking Apple..

 

The wife had this problem with sunflowers in pots. I solved it for her by putting a couple of inches of sand in the bottom of the pot, so that the base is much heavier. I don't know if you'd get away with that with fruit trees though as obviously they are bigger, heavier and and catch the wind more being bushier.

 

Good idea with the sand Clueless ill do that when im next potting up.. I repotted the Trees this spring and i put big "Pebbles" in the bottom, i think they blow over because the top of the trees are taller than the Greenhouse so the wind hits them first, they will damage something soon (my head lol) and i have nowhere else to put them... im going for the really minature one's next year, any thoughts

 

A few years ago I saw an ad in a magazine for some super compact apple trees. They had two different varieties on one tree (obviously grafts), and were said to only grow a few feet tall but with a high yield. Unfortunately despite searching loads of online suppliers, I haven't seen them since. They'd be great for standing on the patio just outside the back door. There are other patio ones though, but nothing as compact as the ones I saw in the ad years ago.

 

There the one's im wanting Clueless. ive seen them advertised in mags and i think in the Thompson brochure, there not cheap £24 99, i think, but ive seen them for bogof somewhere.. But where

 

Interested in the choice of Catshead as a pot apple tree. We have it ,admittedly on a large stock and now a 25 foot tall tree, and the individual fruits weigh in at about 3/4 of a pound each.


Sunset on the left and Catshead on the right.

 

thanks for info. We had the apple trees given to us as a gift so type chosen for us. Rather clay-ee soil (on IofW) so chippings were for drainage, compost was just general type from B&Q. Apparently trees were 3yr old and grow max 5ft so hope that we can get away with pots this time. Take your point about stability and will do something about that. Any advice on size of pot? Loved all the pictures - we should be so lucky!!