Can Pomegranates And Macadamias Thrive In Florida?

[cgps]

interested me the thread of pomegranates, here too in a climate dry tropical produce sweet fruits, and are ornaments, which deny the fail of frost hours of some tempered fruit cultives

[fruitlovers]

A key point that Dr Castle mentioned In his presentation is that pomegranates in Florida seem to do best when there are about 400 chill hours. There was a winter where the pomegranate trees received about 200 chill hours and that winter there were hardly any flowers and therefore hardly any fruits on the trees. 

Anyway he seemed to feel that preliminary results in Florida favor the varieties Azadi and Desertnyi (as well as a couple of others) in regards to flavor, production, etc. 

He said the fungus issue can be easily controlled by copper.

Brad

There are certainly varieties that do well with zero chill. The pomegranates produce fine in Kona (dry side of the island) according to Ken Love, so i think the most limiting factor here is not lack of chill, but too much rain, especially at time of flowering.

[plantlover13]

A key point that Dr Castle mentioned In his presentation is that pomegranates in Florida seem to do best when there are about 400 chill hours. There was a winter where the pomegranate trees received about 200 chill hours and that winter there were hardly any flowers and therefore hardly any fruits on the trees. 

Anyway he seemed to feel that preliminary results in Florida favor the varieties Azadi and Desertnyi (as well as a couple of others) in regards to flavor, production, etc. 

He said the fungus issue can be easily controlled by copper.

Brad

There are certainly varieties that do well with zero chill. The pomegranates produce fine in Kona (dry side of the island) according to Ken Love, so i think the most limiting factor here is not lack of chill, but too much rain, especially at time of flowering.

kona is dry?

the one time i visited hawaii, i remember hilo and kona both being rainy with this random stretch of desert as you drove from one to the other.

[MangoMan2]

I wonder if dormex can be used on lychee trees.

Brad

It works on Blueberries.

[HMHausman]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

[fruitlovers]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

Yes Kona is very dry, especially lowland areas. Some areas of Kona above 1000 feet are a lot more rainy than lowlands. That is usually where coffee and avocados are planted.

[plantlover13]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

Yes Kona is very dry, especially lowland areas. Some areas of Kona above 1000 feet are a lot more rainy than lowlands. That is usually where coffee and avocados are planted.

Ah, yes, hat's where i went. I saw the coffee plantations.

at which height macadamia can fruit ?
I'm seeing photo and plants are big
I have in a pot ... when I will put macadamia in the ground I hope will give me early fruits

well, when i went to hawaii, i saw a macadamia tree at about 10 feet fruiting. no clue if it's any indication, but remembereing that has now made me want to try growing one in a pot 

[fruitlovers]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

I'm guessing he took southern route between Hilo and Kona and drove through Kau desert.

[plantlover13]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

I'm guessing he took southern route between Hilo and Kona and drove through Kau desert.

That sounds right.

[fruitlovers]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

I'm guessing he took southern route between Hilo and Kona and drove through Kau desert.

That sounds right.

Easy to guess as almost everyone takes that route because they visit Volcano National Park.

[plantlover13]

Kona was pretty darn dry when I was there.  I think you may be confused.  That desert stretch you were referring to was probably Kona.

I'm guessing he took southern route between Hilo and Kona and drove through Kau desert.

That sounds right.

Easy to guess as almost everyone takes that route because they visit Volcano National Park.

Yup. there you go. I visited the volcano park. perfect.

The macadamia tree i saw was on oahu, though.

[bradflorida]

Interesting to know Oscar.  Do you happen to know which varieties succeeded over there in the dry areas?

Brad

[fruitlovers]

Most of the macadamia plantations are on this island, not Oahu. There are macadamia plantations on rainy side as well as dry areas, like Kau. So the macadamia is very widely adapted. Don't know which cultivars are best in each area. There is a Hawaii macadamia association and i'm sure you can get that info from them.

[Mike T]

Macadamias probably would not be in cultivation except for an enterprising yank who stumbled across them and recognized their potential. If the dice rolled differently other Proteads like Hicksbeachii (red macadamia) including tropical ones or Athertonia that have great tasting nuts could have been developed for cultivation. They also would grow better in Florida.

[LEOOEL]

I tried to get some Pomegranate fruit from a couple of grafted cultivar trees I planted some years back, but they never really grew and never produced fruit, so they were gotten rid of.

[JF]

I tried to get some Pomegranate fruit from a couple of grafted cultivar trees I planted some years back, but they never really grew and never produced fruit, so they were gotten rid of.

Leo, I have a Granada that will grow and it's very prolific for your climate..... it's from Oaxaca Mexico, 17° latitude. It got too big and  I had to remove it. It's a large tree that will fruit in 1 year. I still get seedling poping out. Here is a pic.