Greetings Fellow Tropical Fruit Nuts,
Have been growing bananas and tropical fruit here in Port St Lucie, Florida for 7 years with some success. The plant obsession began 40 years ago back in New Jersey with orchids, tomatoes and bananas. They followed me to Charlotte, NC and growing stuff was much easier . Then came the figs, bunch grapes, full blown vegetable garden and more bananas, but the cold always brought a halt in Oct.
Came to south Florida to take care of family in 2005 and the darn things found me again. Also thought I’d finally be free of the cold but it still bites me a bit. This is the first year most bananas made it thru winter with fruit hanging.
Current plant list:
Bananas in ground ---- FHIA1 Golfinger, 2 Ae Ae, Pisang Klotek, Dwarf Brazilian, Belle, SH 3640, Raja Puri, Datil la Lima, Dwarf Namwah, Dwarf Puerto Rican Super plantain, Grand Nain x Sumatrana, Manzano (the real deal variety)
Bananas potted – Kru, Pitogo. Red Iholene, Baloy, Chini Champa, Grand Nain, Dwarf Orinoco, Logee’s ladyfinger, Maricongo plantain, ensette Maurelii, Saba, Hua Moa
Fruit trees -- -Minnie Royal and Royal Lee low chill cherries, Lula avocado, Eureka lemon, unknown Florida low chill peach, Tropic Beauty peach, Key Lime, Guanabana, Fuyu Persimmon, Spanish lime (genip) m/f grafted, Carrie, Nam Doc Mai and Duncan mangos, Jaboticaba
Muscadine grapes --- Black Noble, Black Southland, Southern Dixie, Blanc du Bois
Veggies --- Imperial Star artichoke, grafted heirloom tomatoes, Cachucha peppers (PR and Venezolano), Bih Jolokia peppers, Black Jungle butter beans, Blue Lake pole beans, Culantro, Italian parsley, basil, rosemary, onions, dozen pineapples unknown
Orchids --- Shomburkia, Cattleya, Phalenopsis, Blc’s – a dozen unknowns
New this year --- Vanilla planifolia, Cattleya Dowiana alba, Passifloras incense and incarnata , Monstera, Concord grape seeded and seedless, Emerald, Windsor, Primadonna, Sharps Blue blueberries, Lemon grass (for the bugs)
Anyone interested in a banana sucker let me know. Have some rare --- hard to get --- cold tolerant varieties.