How to Grow Bonsai Fruit Trees

06.06.2023 - 20:06 / gardenerspath.com / Kristine Lofgren

Once you’ve tackled growing a beginner bonsai, you might be looking for more of a challenge.

Maybe one that is not only a beautiful demonstration of your skills, but a way to produce full-sized fruits that you can actually eat, is up your alley?

Many people don’t realize that the art of growing bonsai trees isn’t about nurturing dwarf specimens.

It’s the process of confining a full-sized species into a very restricted space. Nearly any type of tree can be grown as a bonsai, and that includes trees that grow totally normal-sized fruits.

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There’s something incredibly impressive about a full-sized lemon or pomegranate growing on a tree that you can carry in one hand.

If you’re up for the challenge – and the glory – here’s what it takes, and what we’ll go over in this guide:

Ready to snack on your very first fruit from a bonsai tree? Then let’s start our journey.

Technically, you can grow any tree species as a bonsai. That includes fruit trees.

Obviously, you won’t produce the same yields to harvest that you would with a full-sized plant.

A 40-foot persimmon has ample room to produce fruit, but a foot-tall tree might only produce two or three full-sized fruits. That’s okay, the point of bonsai isn’t to feed your family.

Genetically, a bonsai fruit species is the same as that 40-foot fruit tree that’s growing in an orchard, which is why it grows full-sized fruits.

In case you were wondering if you could encourage your bonsai to grow smaller fruits so you can produce more of them, or to look more proportional to the tree, the answer is no.

There is no way