If you live in an area with a relatively mild winter, you can plant fruit trees in late Summer and Fall in addition to Spring. The rules are more strict if you’re planting in the ground (it seems) but in my experience, you can plant fruit trees in containers any time they aren’t flowering or busy putting out fruit. And obviously those of you whose balcony is covered in snow in the winter, that wouldn’t be a good time either.
Check out these dwarf fruit and shrub varieties perfect for growing out on your balcony:
Columnar (or “Pole”) Apples
These apples don’t have horizontal branches, they grow fruit in clusters along their trunks. ‘North Pole’ has McIntosh-type apples, while ‘Golden Sentinel’ has yellow apples. The trees stay under 4 feet tall. Plant at least two trees as they need to cross pollinate. Check out this post with more info on growing apples in pots.
Blueberries
‘Sunshine Blue’ makes a great privacy screen because it’s evergreen and grows to 4 feet tall. In the Spring it’s covered with hot-pink flowers and in August and September, light-blue berries. ‘Top Hat’ is a tiny blueberry plant, growing only 18 inches tall and wide. But size doesn’t stop it from churning out tons of berries in summer. Again, plant more than one plant for pollination.
Kumquats
Kumquats look like grape-sized oranges. You eat both the skin and the fruit. You can also candy them or make kumquat marmalade. Grown in the ground, kumquats would grow slowly to 12 feet tall. But if you grow them in a pot you can easily keep them under 5 feet.
