Fruit in the room: how to grow a rich harvest?

It turns out that you can grow fruits even indoors, even if you live outside the tropics, containers are perfect for this.

You don't need to live in the tropics to grow fruits like lemons, oranges, grapefruits, passionfruit, and figs. By growing fruit indoors in containers, you have the opportunity to move the plants to a sheltered location for the winter and bypass problems such as poor soil.

You can grow fruit in a greenhouse, in a cool basement, or on a sunny windowsill. Many of these plants need more care and effort than a common houseplant.

Fruit in containers

Before choosing a fruit container, think about your needs. Think about size, durability, and weight. Small plants can grow for several years in a traditional fruit container twenty centimeters wide; larger varieties may have to be moved into ever larger containers until they are in pots one to one hundred and twenty centimeters wide. Keep in mind that the larger the fruit container, the more difficult it is to move.

There are many varieties of fruit containers, as well as some advantages and disadvantages for each option. Terracotta, stone and ceramic fruit containers are durable but heavy. Wooden fruit containers are attractive and generally lightweight, but can rot over time. Fruit containers are also available in synthetic materials such as plastic, polystyrene and other modern materials. They are lightweight, durable, and can be found in many other materials. Make sure the container you choose has drain holes.

Choosing a soil for indoor fruits

Fruit containers allow you to provide perfect soil - a combination of optimal aeration and drainage with good moisture retention and nutrient retention capacity. Garden soils will not adversely affect the plant in the container. But there are many pot mixes specially designed for growing fruit in containers. Many of them do not contain any real soil. Consider using a moisture control corrected mixture with already applied controlled release fertilizers to reduce the frequency of watering and fertilizing.

You can also make your own potting soil. To do this, take in equal proportions: peat moss or compost or pine bark and mix in perlite, moistening the mixture along the way. Add a slow-release fertilizer to the mix if desired. Combine by scooping the ingredients into a cone-shaped pile, allowing each shovel to slide down the cone. To get a thoroughly mixed product, repeat the assembly of the cones three to five times.

Watering and fertilizing

Subtropical fruits grown in containers require more frequent watering than those grown in the ground. Make sure to use enough water to soak the entire root system. Be careful when watering crops that are outside of the container. If everything seems to be leaking out of the drainage holes at once, your plant has probably been running out of water for too long, and the potting mix is ​​losing moisture rather than absorbing it. Slowly add a small amount of water to absorb the moisture in the pot.

To compensate for the loss of nutrients during watering, feed the plants at least once a month with a complete liquid fertilizer containing micronutrients. Many gardeners water and feed weekly, as well as in the hot summer area where watering is a constant routine. Start feeding in early spring and stop in late summer or early fall to avoid encouraging late growth in frost-prone seasons.

Granular fertilizers can also be used on potted plants, but they take time to dissolve before the nutrients are available to the roots. The slow-release fertilizer provides nutrients over time, from weeks to months, depending on the product. This can be helpful in maintaining a stable supply, but you may need to add liquid fertilizers during peak growth.

Root pruning

As your indoor fruit plants grow, they will sooner or later run out of root space - even those that are well adapted to containers. Without root space, it becomes more difficult for a dense root system to absorb water, resulting in stunted growth and delayed fruit emergence. While it may sound harsh, root pruning is not as difficult as it sounds.

Start by trimming the top of the plant by at least a third to compensate for the roots you intend to trim. Then remove the plant from the container and use a sharp knife to cut from one quarter to one third (no more than five to seven centimeters, depending on the size of the pot) of the outside of the root system. Then place the plant back in the pot with fresh soil and water. Done correctly, this may be the easiest way to grow a root-tied indoor fruit plant.

Moving from inner to outer

If you keep your subtropical fruit plants and trees outside during the warmer months and inside during the winter, you will need to adapt your plants to the changing growing conditions. If you are planting plants indoors after a long winter, do it gradually. Place them in a shady area first, and then slowly expose the plants to the sun for several weeks to prevent burning the foliage.

Moving fruit plants from the street to a closed room also needs to be slow. Start providing them with less and less sun until they are ready to enter a dormant state. Before bringing the fruit plant indoors, wipe down the foliage to remove dust and dirt from the street. If necessary, spray a pest control product that can multiply when you move into the building.

Fruit in the room: quality care

Once the fruit plants and fruit trees are indoors, they won't need constant watering, but don't let them dry out completely. They also don't need a lot of light if you want to keep them dormant and dormant until spring. But if you want their fruits to ripen, the more light the better. Consider supplemental lighting with artificial lighting. Adjust the feed according to how you want the plant to grow, but in general it should be done in moderation.

The dry heat that circulates in most homes during the colder months can shock fruit crops when they have been outdoors all summer and can cause them to lose their leaves. Do your best to increase moisture around fruit plants: place water containers in a container with them; group indoor fruit plants away from heat sources.