When do apple trees need to be planted into their pots?

[tenar]

Hi All,

I decided the only way to figure out whether I can grow apples on my balcony terrace was to try it... So I bought two apple trees. The look like this:

At the moment it's (relatively) cold here: maximums around 12-15 degrees C. It'll be colder than that for the next couple of months, before Spring.

How urgent is it to plant these out into larger pots? I don't want to prevent them growing, but my understanding is that they don't grow in winter anyway, and the pots I want to put them into aren't empty yet...

Also can anyone suggest a pot size that would do for the first year before I put them into something larger?

Thanks!

 

[Meadowlark]

Just looking at the picture, I'd say they need to be re-potted now if its dormancy period which it appears to be. They grow in the roots during dormancy and yours don't have room to grow. I'd go for the largest pot practical.

 

[tenar]

Thanks for the advice. I've planted them into the largest thing I had available: some 45L bags. I'm hoping they won't mind being in bags for a while. From the size of them, it looks to me like the bags would last at least a year, though I might plant them out into their larger pots before then: got to move the bamboo out of the pots first (there's a whole queue of things waiting to be repotted in my garden).

One of the apples was not pot bound, but the other was starting to be so, so I'm glad of the advice as not a good idea to leave that one any longer in the teeny pot.