Quote:
Originally Posted by sageib
Bower,
I buy my seeds on line from either Johnnys or Burpee, and try to choose varieties as close to 60 DTM that give me my chosen size. Last year, I planted Burpees Early Pick VF Hybrid (62 days), and Johnnys Pink Beauty F1 (74 days) Even with the 12 day difference, some of the Pink Beauties bore fruit earlier than some of the Early Pick plants. Go figure. Do you think a 2 gallon pot would be big enough to give the root ball room to run?
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I don't have the experience to advise about that, you may have to experiment.
I usually plant mine from beer cups right into 5 gallon or larger containers - but I'm growing in containers anyway with no plan to transplant into the ground. I have grown a few in 1 gal for transplant and a few I kept in 1 gal just for the sake of trying a fruit or two (which is about all they produced). I would imagine it gets harder and harder to transplant when you move up from a gallon to two or larger, because the plant will be larger as well, but it may be worth a try.
If I was in your position and wanted some steady fruit from June onward, I would probably plant one or two into 5 gallon pots and let them stay in the pot and provide the early maters while the others are getting on the go.
The other possibility is to experiment with different varieties that meet your size and earliness criteria, as well as trying different size containers. That is one thing I have noticed definitely, from growing the same variety several years, that some varieties just need that root space much more than others, and will be cranky and late if there's any delay in the root space.
Cherries can do a lot in small containers, more than others, but that is not the size you wanted!
If you do decide to experiment, I hope you will take some pics and post your outcomes, so we can all learn from it.
