I have seen many bonsai trees, and always been fascinated by how small the leaves get. Can you bonsai a fruit tree? If you produce one, will the fruits produced be miniatures?
I want a bonsai fruit tree! Cute little fruit! (Not really. I don’t have the patience.) What a great question, though–as soon as I saw it, I wanted to know the answer, too. And wondered why I hadn’t wondered that before.
Yes. When you abuse a plant to the degree that its growth is stunted, that is true along most functions. And I use the word “abuse” advisedly; I’m an avid bonsai fan, with some experience in the art. I don’t suggest that plants can feel pain or anything, but it’s really the most accurate description for what it takes to dwarf a tree.
bonsai is done by stressing the plant in a careful manner for the plant to still be healthy. you creatively and carefully apply stressful situations to the plant. depending on the plant it may take daily attention, like just enough water to making it through the day without showing symptoms (other than stunted growth) of inadequate water. you want the plant to look and be healthy.
Easy there. Most bonsai are healthier than their wild counterparts; being free of diseases, pests, and parasites.
Also, Most fruit producing apple bonsai are crab apples and not sweet little food types. They also will outgrow the tree regardless if they are smaller than the usual fruit. If you do manage to get your fruit producing tree to flower and fruit, be certain to fertilize properly and frequently.
I don’t believe that you can produce either miniature flowers or miniature fruit by using Bonsai techniques. They do not alter the genetic material of the tree. When you see Bonsai with small flowers it is because cultivars with that trait have been used. Bonsai fruit trees with full size fruit are pretty common but I have never seen any with miniature normal fruit, other than crab apples.
In fact:
Flowers and fruit will always remain the same size as a naturally growing tree and cannot be reduced, so be selective when choosing species for training as bonsai, opting for trees and shrubs that produce small flowers and berries. Trees with big flowers and fruit will appear more in scale when grown as larger bonsai.
from Leaf Pruning
I just checked the two photos in the first “answer” to the OP. Surely they indicate No and No. Imagine how massive those fruits would be in a life size tree if the Bonsai versions are supposed to be in scale.
I think that the answer to the second question is no. My 10 year old is several months into an experiment in dwarfing apple trees by root containment in above ground grow bags rather than by dwarf rootstock, and it is my understanding from him that, because the tree is stressed, it may be expected to produce more fruit, not less, and that the branches need to be supported because the fruit will not be dwarfed as the size of the fruit is genetically determined. However I am not sure because the first harvest is to be this year. So far however all the things the trees have done have gone according to plan. Both trees are just under 5’ tall.
They may get up to something in bonsai which is not included in his experiment, as his is now limited to the effects of root restriction in apple trees – he wants to try some other things in other years, but is making one change at a time to see how it works.
He also is taking the opportunity to find out if the story is true about the crown of an apple tree mimicking its roots. So if all goes according to plan he will have one flat and wide crowned tree and another tall and sort of cylindrical one.
That’s not the case. While the component parts of a tree won’t scale down in perfect proportion, they will almost always be at least somewhat smaller when put through the bonsai process.