Minature Fruit Trees

I recently bought a trio of minature fruit trees (Gala apple, Golden Delicious apple & Pear Doyenne) on line from Van Meuwen and find the care information to be a little sparse (like my knowledge in this area of gardening).
I've planted them in (1ft high, 1ft diameter) ceramic pots on the patio in farmyard manure rich compost.
Could anyone advise re staking please - e.g. type of stake & how high on the metre high stems to tie the support?
Many thanks

 

First things first - I'd suggest your pots are far too small. They need to be in something at least 18" in diameter, this may seem a bit big for what are currently your 'baby' trees but their eventual height depends whether they're true dwarf trees or just minature ones and that in turn depends on the rootstock.

Do you happen to know which rootstock your trees are grafted onto? They may be M27, Bud. 9, G16, M9 or M26

The tecchie bit ....
Trees grafted onto M27, Bud. 9, or G16 usually result a tree of around 5ft high at maturity:
M9 (probably the best known 'dwarfing' rootstock) grows to about 8-9ft tall at maturity (in ideal conditions) and
M26 can grow to 8-10ft if not correctly pruned.

Since they can all be grown in pots they are all frequently sold as 'minature fruit trees', so it's helpful to know which rootstock your trees are grafted on to.

Tecchie bit over!

Ideally, your stakes should have gone in before the trees were planted - putting them in now will inevitably result in root damage - hence another need for larger pots than you're currently using.

That said, all stakes really need to go about 2' into the ground and be roughly as thick as the stem/trunk of whatever you're supporting.

For M27s and the other truly dwarf varieties - it's probably best to 'double stake'. Put two or three stakes opposite each other, or spaced equally around the outside of the root ball, and secure them to the trunk by long ties.

M9s - the stake should be one-third of the height of the tree, roughly as thick as the stem/trunk and there should be a gap of at least 1" between the stem and the stake (this anchors the roots but allows the stem to sway and thicken).

M26, although sold as minature trees, this is a relative term in relation to 'normal' trees and whilst they can be grown in containers (as opposed to 'pots'), you'd need a pretty large container for them to do really well.