The benefits of eating fresh fruit and vegetables are something that we are all well aware of. Eating our “five a day” has become a great benchmark for us all to adhere to as we try to stay fit and healthy.

Boost Your Fruit Intake

Eating vegetables is the easy part, as we can simply eat our greens with a tasty steak or chicken breast – but remembering to eat enough fruit is something many of us neglect.
Patio Fruit Trees
Often this will not be intentional, but will simply be because we are too busy to nip to the greengrocers or the supermarket to pick up a bag of apples or oranges. One way we can help to boost our intake of fresh fruit is to invest in a patio fruit tree. These can be placed in even the smallest of gardens or patios and produce fruit that is much fresher and better value for money than supermarket fruit.

Midget Fruit Trees

These are often referred to as dwarf or midget fruit trees and can be obtained from a number of garden centres and online suppliers. They are usually grafted on to a dwarfing rootstock – This stops them from getting too large but does not compromise the size of the fruit whatsoever.

Positioning and Care

In order to give your patio fruit tree the best potential for growth possible, it is prudent to adopt a south facing aspect. This has been known to produce the most abundant crops and should have your plant bearing fantastic fruit in no time at all. Plums, nectarines and peaches all flower at the start of spring so it is also a good idea to protect them from any lingering frost in the early months by covering them with a protective fleece or even storing them under cover. That said, pollinating insects should also be able to roam freely so allow access to your patio fruit trees from the garden.

Maintenance

If growing your patio fruit trees in garden pots, it is a good idea to use a good quality fertiliser during the spring and summer months.  This will ensure that any nutrients used up are replaced and that your tree will maintain its foliage and fruit. Also keep an eye on the compost during hot weather and make sure this does not completely dry out, as this could be detrimental to the amount of fruit that your midget fruit tree will produce.

Written by Alan Hamilton on behalf of Mirror Reader offers – the Daily & Sunday Mirror’s reader offers shop. Alan is a keen gardener who finds it hard to stay indoors, even in the harshest of winter weather.