Fruit & Nut trees in buckets to start???

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and soo excited to connect with other perm-geeks!

We don't have land, yet...hopefully in the next 12-18 months.   I know that fruit & nut trees and things like berries need time to get established before they'll bear any significant yield.
We want to find a way to get a jump-start on these plants without land, thanks in advance for your help!

I'm considering as many dwarf varieties as possible, maybe start them in containers? We live in the mountains so everything would have to come inside over winter.

some protection for winter is good idea, but bringing things inside for the season usually isn't. many hardy trees can happily survive being in frozen-solid pots for the season, and do better when they have a decent dormant period - if you have a room inside that you can keep fairly cool, it might work. there are lots of mountains in the world, how cold are your lowest lows?

Welcome, Andy!  Glad to have you.  I think this is an excellent idea.  There is information around the internet about keeping your container plants outdoors in the winter (but as Greg said, it depends on your actual climate).  Some people dig a hole for a container, or a trench for a bunch of them.  Others insulate the containers with bales of hay.  I'm sure there are better ideas out there, too.

I am thinking of planting a fig tree (here in Vermont/Zone 5).  People put them in containers and store them in the garage.  Our garage gets very, very cold, but of course it's sheltered from the wind and the tree itself is wrapped

When I knew I was going to move I kept 5 fruit trees in buckets for a year, I took them out of the pots they came in and put them into 12L buckets with hole drilled in the side around 1 inch up from the base. They all survived and have now been in the ground for 18months. I do not think it helped them get ahead however, as the trees I bought and planted straight away (also pot grown) are just the same size as the held over ones. It might be an idea for berry bushes especially if you want to get some black or redcurrants big enough to take cuttings off.

Once they went dormant I put them into the barn overwinter, it's not heated or insulated but it did protect them from wind.

Thanks!

Winter low's can be -20, but generally hover around 20 at night. The elevation is approx 8,000ft, and our land will likely be at 8,000+

We rent an apartment, so space options are limited - challenging conditions indeed. Agreed that they'll need some sort of "winter" conditions, I'll look into details about what each tree might prefer. Thanks again!

Skandi Rogers wrote:When I knew I was going to move I kept 5 fruit trees in buckets for a year, I took them out of the pots they came in and put them into 12L buckets with hole drilled in the side around 1 inch up from the base. They all survived and have now been in the ground for 18months. I do not think it helped them get ahead however, as the trees I bought and planted straight away (also pot grown) are just the same size as the held over ones. It might be an idea for berry bushes especially if you want to get some black or redcurrants big enough to take cuttings off.

Once they went dormant I put them into the barn overwinter, it's not heated or insulated but it did protect them from wind.

I did approximately the same thing, and I agree, my own trees are not bigger than the one tree I managed to buy. But varieties and species for sale are extremely limited here, so I did do the bucket thing. I had a peach tree, mulberry tree, apple seedling, that I'd kept growing a year and a half, and then I also had lots of apricot seeds that I germinated in late winter in the greenhouse, and planted out the same spring when they were several inches tall.