Hi all, As I said in my last blog that there was no way of securing the tree, as I had used heavy concrete pots before: I have now decided to put the tub , some onto the earth. I have made a hole in the bottom, and shall put a stake through that so it
London,
United Kingdom 
Hi all, As I said, last year I had an inundation of aphids on my 4 Minarette apple trees. These were planted by me 26 years ago, my husband cut down a very large planter for me (he is no longer with me, I am afraid) so that the apple trees would have loads of compost to feed on. These are in the front of the house, two in the ground, and two I planted in these 24" x 24" "barrels". The two in the barrels were OK until last year, when I realised one had died, the trunk was rotten. Disappointed, but wishing to replace it as I love Minarettes, I ordered a new one from my specialist tree people. It will come in November. Meantime, I knew I had to take the old compost out of the barrel which I have done over the last 2 days, and ordered new compost which will come next weekend. I shall stack this somewhere until November.
While taking out the compost, I came across a hard lump..and it turned out that 26 years ago Iwhat I had done to secure the base of the tree, was do a double pot inside the barrel, and concreted an outer pot to hold it in place - thinking the weight would hold it secure. I put a stake in, anad concreted the bottom of that. Being aware that concrete myust not touch any plant, I put loads of plastic between the concrete and the tree. Miraculously, it thrived, as I say, for 26 years. I could hardly lift the chunk of concrete out of the pot to clean it: it nearly crippled me! This was my own bright idea, but it worked.
Now, I do not really want to go to those lengths again, as I am 26 years older! But can anyone suggest a good way of securing a tree in a 24" tall pot, so that it will not loosen in a high wind given that the barrel stands on concrete, so there is no way of putting a stake through it into the earth. I puzzled this out many years ago, that's why I decided my "weight" idea was the only one. I have thought of just doing the same with just a stake, and then attaching the tree to that - maybe I went a bit over the top before. I am enclosing a picture of what I mean so that you can advise me of any modern, or different ideas as to how to deal with this.
3 Jul, 2017
Answers
Goodness it is a miracle the tree survived! Those pots are far too small to grow a fruit tree in.
3 Jul, 2017
I'd be surprised it a nice mature specimen still needed a stake. As long as the container is really stable with a good wide base it should be OK.
You don't say what compost you have ordered but John Innes no.3 would be best.
3 Jul, 2017
Well, they did survive, that's the point. They had plenty of holes in the bottom, bonemeal throughout, fed every year, and for the first few years topped up the top portion of soil by about 4 - 6", specially in spring, made sure they never ran dry. I really cared for them, I think that's why they lasted so long.
1 Aug, 2017
I'd just do what you did before, it obviously worked and you must have extremely good green fingers!
4 Aug, 2017
Thanks Lisam; 26 years ago I just went on my own imagination; I had no-one to advise me; my husband thought I had gone mad, poor man. So that is what I produced!!! ha ha. In the back garden (I had just had an op on my eye, which made me see very wide split vision and I could not read anything, it was driving me crazy) I decided to dig a pond in the back garden, so to get rid of my frustration I dug a hole which was a metre deep and about 6 and a half ' wide. Going to work , my husband came out of the back door and roared at me "what do you think you are doing, ruining the garden". I just said "you wait and see"!. Later, when he realised what I had done, he was quite happy.
9 Aug, 2017
I wouldn't use a plastic pot, they aren't heavy enough and those pots look far too small for trees. I've got two large heavy pots with Redlove apple trees planted in them. They've never so much as moved in high winds.
3 Jul, 2017