Container Growing a Dwarf Peach Tree

Container growing a dwarf peach tree has the advantage of being able to move it around to any part of your garden or patio. Container growing also gives you the ability to bring the dwarf peach tree indoors to protect it from a late freeze in the spring or a winter freeze in the Pacific Southwestern part of the United States. Peaches are very susceptible to an early bloom of flowers that produce the fruit; so early that the frost can harm them.

You can select a dwarf peach tree from your local garden nursery, home and garden center, on-line, or a garden catalog. If your desire is to grow a peach tree in a container for its entire life, the dwarf variety is the only way to go. A full-sized peach tree probably will never reach maturity in a container. Most of the dwarf peach tree varieties will have a varying height between 5 feet and 15 feet and a little smaller breadth than its height. The dwarf Red Haven peach trees produce delectable fruit and grow to about 15 feet high. Golden Glory dwarf peach trees will only grow to about 5 feet tall and still creates mouth-watering peaches.   

When you purchase your patio peach trees make the container is large enough for the expected height of the tree. If you are going with a 5 foot tall tree such as the Golden Glory you can use a five-gallon container; if choosing a 15 foot tree such as the Red Haven you will need a larger container of 15-gallons. The container must have several drainage holes in the bottom so your peach trees have complete drainage and will not get water logged during the spring and summer months.  

You want to place the container on a drainage tray and fill it with about 2 to 3 inches of gravel or small pebbles. This will allow the water to drain easier and the peach fruit tree roots will not be sitting in standing water. Next fill your container about half-way with peach tree soil or a loamy compost soil. Place your peach tree sapling in the container and fill around and under the plant. Once that is done fill with soil a couple of inches from the top making sure the graft line is not under the soil. The graft line is where the dwarf was grafted onto the parent; if the graft line is under the soil roots will form at that point and may develop into a full sized tree.

You want to completely soak your freshly planted fruit tree with fresh water in order to remove any air pockets that have been made around the roots. It is best to add the advised amount of tree fertilizer that was provided by your nursery or home and garden center. Some nurseries will provide you warranty for a year if you use their particular brand of nutrients. Thoroughly soak the freshly planted tree with fresh water to remove any air around the roots that may have been created by the planting process.

It is better to place your dwarf fruit tree container in your garden or patio where it will receive about 6 hours of sunlight per day. These container-grown dwarf fruit trees dependent on us, the gardener, for its nutrients because it can not spread out and search the soil for them. We need to apply liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks, and water them completely when the soil gets dry. You want to give them enough water so there is standing water in the drainage tray and only water again when the tray water has evaporated. In colder climates, you will want to bring your dwarf peach tree container indoors and place near a window during December through April. A two-wheeled handcart is an excellent tool for moving these dwarf peach tree plants around.

When doing container growing you always want to keep extra potting soil on hand because some soil may get dislodged or seep out though the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.  If you want your peach trees to grow larger peaches, you can pinch off every other small peach. The peaches will be smaller the more peaches you have on the tree.