Teddy12b
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Need suggestions for a fruit producing bonsai for my office

Within the last year or two I've really caught the tree planting bug, especially when it comes to fruit trees. I'd love to get a mini little bonsai tree in my office that I could set on the corner of my desk and keep 2' or smaller. Ideally, I'd like to watch this little fruit tree grow and have it eventually produce little fruits to eat. I think I'd have to manually pollinate the tree since there wouldn't be any bugs getting to it, but otherwise I think it'd be a fun little project.

Now, I'm not expecting to grow grapefruit or anything sizeable, but if I could grow a couple cherries, a plum, or an apple I wouldn't mind giving it a shot. I'm completely new to Bonsai trees, but I'm finding them very intriguing. If anyone has any suggestions for something like I'm looking for I'd love to hear it.

tomc
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I regret this is going to sound pretty negative.

Crab apple grown in field for 8 to 10 years first may set blossom and fruit after training. Your problem is its not survivable indoors. And absolutely not survivable year round indoors. Nor any of the smaller fruited prunus. You might get fruit on citrus, but its unlikely at the size you want to train-to. Citrus too will need May to October out of doors.

Trees live where the ambient humidity is 50% and there is a breeze, people live where humidity is (less than) 20% and there is no breeze. Blending these two worlds is neither free or easy.

tomc
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Upland (the short heather sized) blueberry and pomegranite are maybe the two closest I can think of besides citrus.

Citrus might survive overwintering indoors with a fair bit of supplimental light. Only the very smallest fruited will come close to being trained back to the size you want. Outdoors in summer.

Pomegranite's winter in the middle east is the dry season, the most dwarf cultivars might make fruit if summered out of doors.

Upland blueberry will need to be overwintered outdoors. it needs the freeze. Its the closest to the size you want that will make fruit.

I don't think you will get a malus or prunus to fruit with indoors seasonal display.

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rainbowgardener
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Here's an article about bonsai fruit trees:

https://www.bonsaigardener.org/bonsai-fruit-tree.html

Note it says work with trees that grow in your area. Those will not be indoor trees, especially in Indiana. And it talks about 15 gallon pots. Not what you ordinarily think of as bonsai! In other words, if you want a tree to fruit, you are likely to have to keep it bigger than desktop.

Pomegranate, quince, apricot are all fruit trees that have been successfully maintained as bonsai.

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applestar
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My first thought was "what about kumquat?" You could also try hot peppers or dwarf tomatoes but those are not strictly called bonsai, I think, and not exactly "fruiting tree" as you asked.

You'll need to provide a dedicated light that will be kept inches above the foliage.

At one time, I worked in an office where my cubicle was also situated near double glass door fire exit through which westering sun would stream in. I was fortunate enough to talk Maintenance into replacing the cubicle panel facing the doors with an extra clear paneled one they had lying around. I also talked maintenance into giving me an extra shelf with under shelf fluorescent light and installing it on the clear panel divider. I replaced the ordinary tube with a grow light tube (vita-something) and added a timer out of pocket, and kept an ornamental greenery and flowering plants corner on a lateral file cabinet under the shelf. So my plants got some kind of sunlight in addition to the overhead shelf light (even though the light was severely diminished by passing through the doors and the clear panel (all somewhat "smokey" tinted).

Other options would be desk lamps, floor lamps, or light therapy lamps that are fitted with 6500K daylight bulbs.

tomc
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Ooo Applestar hit the ball outta the park. Bird peppers were trained by Fatalli as bonsai and it did a better than fair job of it too.

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applestar
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Yep. That's what I was thinking of. In fact I had their page open on a tab since I'm in the process of pruning some of my over wintered peppers :wink:
:arrow: https://www.fatalii.net/Bonsai_Chiles_Bonchi



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