can tropical fruit trees be grown in cooler climates?

[Feistywidget]

I currently live in northern MI, the upper part of the lower peninsula.  Just to clarify I am NOT asking if the fruit varieties listed can be grown where I currently live.

Eventually I'd like to relocate to either southern Arkansas or southern North Carolina.  I found a new zone map they're coming out with, and according to it, the southern areas of the states I listed have growing zones of 8a.

The varieties I'm asking about are dwarf varieties.  They are listed below:

Banana (ones that produce fingerling bananas; found one in gardening catalog that says it can be grown in zone 8a)
Mango
Lemon (Found two, Lisbon and Eureka, which are more cold tolerant)
Oranges (supposedly mandarin oranges and Tangerines are more cold tolerant than other orange varieties)
Persimmon (oriental varieties)

I'm wondering if they can be grown outside safely.  They would most likely be grown in lg. pots since I plan to grow all dwarf fruit trees.

[MangoFang]

Feistywidget - you'll probably need to get a response from other experienced zone 8ers.....In my opinion you could make it happen outdoors if you were willing to keep the plants short enough to cover WELL every winter AND give supplemental heat and even then it's a gamble, cuz all it would take would be a record cold and you might lose it all.

Puglvr in Central Florida (who I think is a zone 9b) has had all kinds of past issues on her plants with the cold.  A big advantage would be (again in my opinion) if you happen to be close to the coast where you get the moderating effects of ocean on those huge cold fronts that sometimes dip way to the south.

Let's see if any other zone 8ers chime in - I think we have one or two in Texas.....

Fang

[samuelforest]

Hey feistywidjet! I'm growing a few tropicals in zone 5b in Canada and I have two mangoes fruiting now. One with five mangoes. If you grow tropical fruits in colder climates you might need supplement lighting in winter like metal halide grow light or some cfls. You could also put some cfls over you plants next to a window like Bobbyjo who is also in Canada. So yes it is possible!

[CoPlantNut]

It's certainly possible-- you can grow anything you want if you're willing to go to the effort (and expense) of protecting the plants for the winter.  Keeping them in pots makes that a lot easier, and in zone 8a you might be able to keep the plants outside most of the time, and bring them inside if it gets too cold.  If you want to keep the pots outside full-time, you'd need to invest in a shelter of some kind, and probably a heated one for zone 8a. 

There are other options besides a shelter though- I just recently invested in a set of heavy-duty shelves on wheels that let me easily move my potted plants into my garage for cold nights and back out into the sun for the warmer days:





This makes it really easy to grow potted plants in marginal areas.  Since I'm in zone 5 though, I can't do this all winter long or my plants would suffer from lack of light for the weeks at a time where temperatures don't get above freezing.  That probably wouldn't be an issue in zone 8...

   Kevin

[TriangleJohn]

I'm in zone 7b with a few microclimate spots around the house that seem to be a zone warmer. There are plenty of "tropical" fruit plants you can grow outside but in my experience the flavor is often off and fruit production is usually low. But as a hobby it can be done. There are a few citrus gardeners nearby that have backyards filled with trees, some of them do only the bare minimum for winter protection and others go all out with makeshift pvc pipe temporary structures. Everyone I know with fruiting (edible) bananas has to chop off the stalk and keep the cluster indoors in order to get it to fully ripen. Even with the most cold hardy tropicals (Loquat, Citrus, Pineapple Guavas) there will be a winter every ten years or so that will wipe out your collection. The big plus is the relative humidity, which stays on the moist side which most tropicals like. The most common container fruits I see locally are citrus, guavas, passionfruits and a few cherimoyas. The most common in the ground planted tropicals are figs, pomegranites, persimmons and pineapple guavas.

[fruitlovers]

Seems to me a lot has to do with not just temperatures, but also humidity levels. Many tropical are just not going to be happy in dessert air, even if temperatures are correct.
On historical note, it seems a lot of these endeavors started first? in France with large glasshouses (orangeries) to grow orange trees.

[Andersp90]

Hey feistywidjet! I'm growing a few tropicals in zone 5b in Canada and I have two mangoes fruiting now. One with five mangoes. If you grow tropical fruits in colder climates you might need supplement lighting in winter like metal halide grow light or some cfls. You could also put some cfls over you plants next to a window like Bobbyjo who is also in Canada. So yes it is possible!

Do you use supplement lighting for your mangos during the winter (is it needed)?

Is zone 5b the northern part of zone 5 in this map? http://www.cantra.ca/images/zonemap.jpg

I would love to keep a pickering mango here in Denmark.

[samuelforest]

No, but if you want them to fruit I strongly suggest.

Also, the northest part of Quebec is a lot lower than zone 5. Look at this map:

http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/images/articles/learn/reference/hardinesszones/ontario-east.gif

Only a really little portion of Quebec is zone 5b.