What tropical plants do you have between your fruit trees?

[Das Bhut]

I don't want to leave the ground between my fruit trees bare so I want to put something there so it's not just a mix of sand and weeds wherever a tree's not growing. What do you guys use to make your yard better?

[TREESNMORE]

Pineapple , Roselle and we plant cucumbers , watermelons, canalope on the hills.

[Finca La Isla]

You need some supports but we also plant passion fruit and plukentia.  Bananas.

[Galka]

Guys, would you share some pictures?

[fruitlovers]

I don't want to leave the ground between my fruit trees bare so I want to put something there so it's not just a mix of sand and weeds wherever a tree's not growing. What do you guys use to make your yard better?

Around the base of the trees i like to plant nitrogen fixing groundcovers to enrich the soil, like perennial peanut, desmodium, clovers, etc. In between trees you can plant the fast "cash crops" like pineapples, papaya, bananas, tree tomatoes, naranjilla, poha. These can be removed after big trees fill in. Or you can go with annual plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. depending on what you have room for, like to eat, and enjoy growing.

[Waterfall]

This is my front yard, its a new project so all the fruit trees are still small. For ground covers I have the following:

White Clover
Red Clover
Lucerne Sequel
Barrel Medic
Mung Beans
Buckwheat
Cowpea
Nasturtium Jewel Mix
Marigold Gem Mix
Cosmos
Dill
Woolly Pod Vetch
Oats
Wynn's Cassia

Plus I also grow snake beans, angled luffa, tomatoes, pumpkin and chillies amongst it all and a variety of herbs for cooking.

[From the sea]

Stupid deer keep me from planting anything between my trees.

[Tropheus76]

That looks awesome, and I think my wife would kill me. I settled for turning my apple and persimmon orchard section into a butterfly garden with various flowering bushes and shrubs. Seems to work really well. I have African Basil(I think) that flowers year round and always have dozens of various bees and wasps on it, I have never seen the amount of variety in these different species until I got these plants, and it makes the area smell nice. I also grow comfrey around the apple trees that does well until the deer eat it.

[Bush2Beach]

Stupid deer keep me from planting anything between my trees.

No fencing allowed on BPK right? The deer get a vote in the election and a seat at the table. Can you even own a dog down there, that seems like a conflict of interest too.

I grow berries, peppers , squash, cape gooseberry , aloe vera , zinnia's, Mullen between the trees.

[davidgarcia899]

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

[fruitlovers]

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

Perennial peanut does very well here, and looks very nice with it's yellow flowers. You need a clean slate to plant it into as it doesn't compete well, especially with grasses. Once established some people here complain it grows all too well. But i don't have that problem as i mow my whole orchard. They are very easy to start and spread from cuttings.
I also have some native desmodiums and clovers that grow wild here. I encourage them and they've taken over very well certain areas of the orchard. If you mow regularly and low to the ground these types of plants tend to take over as they're not phased by the mowing, and grasses can't reseed themselves.

[From the sea]

Stupid deer keep me from planting anything between my trees.

No fencing allowed on BPK right? The deer get a vote in the election and a seat at the table. Can you even own a dog down there, that seems like a conflict of interest too.

I grow berries, peppers , squash, cape gooseberry , aloe vera , zinnia's, Mullen between the trees.

No new fences, but you can have a dog. the dogs and deer play witch can be funny. I have to use pruning and temporary fencing to keep the deer out.

[Das Bhut]

I don't want to leave the ground between my fruit trees bare so I want to put something there so it's not just a mix of sand and weeds wherever a tree's not growing. What do you guys use to make your yard better?

Around the base of the trees i like to plant nitrogen fixing groundcovers to enrich the soil, like perennial peanut, desmodium, clovers, etc. In between trees you can plant the fast "cash crops" like pineapples, papaya, bananas, tree tomatoes, naranjilla, poha. These can be removed after big trees fill in. Or you can go with annual plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. depending on what you have room for, like to eat, and enjoy growing.

I've been looking into ground covers that are nitrogen fixing and drought tolerant and found out perennial peanut does really well here in south Florida. Another one that's a nitrogen fixing plant that's used more for mulch than covering the ground is Crotaleria Juncea Tropic Sunn Hemp, its roots also kill nematodes which is a plus. I've tried clover before, but unless you have them in the shade it'll just die in south Florida. I've also tried just planting a bunch of low maintenance flowers around like tithonia or cosmos, but when they die they look terrible and they don't do much for the sand around here although they do attract a lot of wasps, bees, and butterflies.

I think I'll go with perennial peanut, sunn hemp, and throw some perennial milkweed around since I have a lot of seed pods from volunteers.

[gnappi]

Stupid deer keep me from planting anything between my trees.

My Dad used dried blood in the Catskills (N.Y.) around his plants and it worked well until it rained and it had to be re-applied. Have you tried it?

[greenman62]

Roselle hibiscus, sweet potato
sweet potato and other vines are great, you can plant them a few feet away and let the vines cover the ground.
My roselle gave me a micro-climate and protected my low-bearing papaya during the winter
(it just died though)
just be careful and dont plant mustard, horseradish, comfrey
next to them. they have deep massive roots.

i grow lots of herbs that flower to attract insects but most are not right under the tree.
i just bought a box of seeds from the dollar store that said
4,500 flowering seeds
LOL... sounds like i will have lots of insects in a few months

[zands]

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

Like Oscar says....Perennial peanut. I have some that came from Bill Whitman. I would have it growing lot more extensively but my HOA was giving me static. (Anyone can PM me for cuttings for local pick-up)

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropical/msg1112001717918.html
A wonderful ground cover plant. Bill Whitman has this covering his entire estate! Helps choke out weeds and it is an attractive plant as well. I'm wondering if I could plant it in my greenhouse and let it spread.

[Saltcayman]

burr medic does well on high PH soil with low rainfall.  Chokes out other weeds, creates biomass, nitro fixer and reseeds.

[jcaldeira]

I don't have much of interest between my fruit trees, but some interesting things under them.

Some of the plants that enjoy the structure of my trees to climb on are black pepper, passionfruit, vanilla and dragon fruit.

The partial shade under and between some of my trees is being used for coffee and miracle fruit.

I have a few native trees, and banana, that are being used to provide shade to young fruit trees, with the intention of cutting down those native trees in a few years as the young fruit trees mature.  Mangosteen, cocoa, marang and some others seem to enjoy their first years as an understory plant, and they do much better in the ground than in nursery bags (at least with my care  ) 

[greenman62]

basil reseeded itself well this year.
i had tons of the stuff, and 20 bees on each plant. (about 2 dozen plants)
someone in the area must have a huge hive
knowingly, or not...

We get so much sun and rain here, everything wants to grow.
at some point, i stop fighting, and just let it.

[LivingParadise]

I don't find most fruit trees to be very attractive. So I will be planting large-foliage tropical plants like various colors of bird of paradise, lobster claw, bananas, passionflowers, zigzag plants, hibiscus, and lots of beautiful flowering plants I don't know all the names for yet. I don't have pictures because I have only planted some of them as yet, given that this year was supposed to be concentrated on installing the 100+ fruit trees. Next year was earmarked for researching plants based purely on their visual appeal - assuming I have any money left by that time! (Reading this forum doesn't exactly help me to save up!) I am revamping the entire yard because I found it very ugly, poorly planned, and full of plants without any use when I first bought it.

I just did some more work today removing the old plants to make room for new, and I am covered in noseeum bites, mosquito bites, fire ant bites, and a patch of brazillian pepper rash.    My hands are also ripped to shreds. There are moments when this really does not feel worth it...  I have been working almost daily in the yard for a year, and still it is such a long way from looking like I think it should look!

[KarenRei]

Space is a premium in my grow room so I position all shade-tolerant plants in the shadow of the more sun-tolerant ones. If you want something very pretty that can fruit also and loves shade, may I recommend monstera?

[fruitlovers]

I don't find most fruit trees to be very attractive. So I will be planting large-foliage tropical plants like various colors of bird of paradise, lobster claw, bananas, passionflowers, zigzag plants, hibiscus, and lots of beautiful flowering plants I don't know all the names for yet. I don't have pictures because I have only planted some of them as yet, given that this year was supposed to be concentrated on installing the 100+ fruit trees. Next year was earmarked for researching plants based purely on their visual appeal - assuming I have any money left by that time! (Reading this forum doesn't exactly help me to save up!) I am revamping the entire yard because I found it very ugly, poorly planned, and full of plants without any use when I first bought it.

I just did some more work today removing the old plants to make room for new, and I am covered in noseeum bites, mosquito bites, fire ant bites, and a patch of brazillian pepper rash.    My hands are also ripped to shreds. There are moments when this really does not feel worth it...  I have been working almost daily in the yard for a year, and still it is such a long way from looking like I think it should look!

There are some fruit trees that are very attractive. Some i can think of off hand are: loquat, chico sapodilla, canistel, mamey sapote, rollinia, breadfruit. Ofcourse you can beautify even more by planting flowers around the trees or between the trees. Here we also like to tie up orchids and bromeliads in the trees to spruce them up.

[Samu]

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

Perennial peanut does very well here, and looks very nice with it's yellow flowers. You need a clean slate to plant it into as it doesn't compete well, especially with grasses. Once established some people here complain it grows all too well. But i don't have that problem as i mow my whole orchard. They are very easy to start and spread from cuttings.
I also have some native desmodiums and clovers that grow wild here. I encourage them and they've taken over very well certain areas of the orchard. If you mow regularly and low to the ground these types of plants tend to take over as they're not phased by the mowing, and grasses can't reseed themselves.

Oscar,
I like the idea of replacing our water hogging lawn with drought resistant ground cover (once established) that still look decent all year long; so your idea of Perrenial peanut is very intriguing to me. I notice through googling that they are readily available mostly in Florida and some of the Southern States but have not been able to find the nursery who carry this in SoCalifornia. Where did you get yours if I may ask? Thanks!

[fruitlovers]

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

@oscar I've wanted to plant nitrogen fixers around my trees but idk what does well in my tropical climate, what do you recommend

Perennial peanut does very well here, and looks very nice with it's yellow flowers. You need a clean slate to plant it into as it doesn't compete well, especially with grasses. Once established some people here complain it grows all too well. But i don't have that problem as i mow my whole orchard. They are very easy to start and spread from cuttings.
I also have some native desmodiums and clovers that grow wild here. I encourage them and they've taken over very well certain areas of the orchard. If you mow regularly and low to the ground these types of plants tend to take over as they're not phased by the mowing, and grasses can't reseed themselves.

Oscar,
I like the idea of replacing our water hogging lawn with drought resistant ground cover (once established) that still look decent all year long; so your idea of Perrenial peanut is very intriguing to me. I notice through googling that they are readily available mostly in Florida and some of the Southern States but have not been able to find the nursery who carry this in SoCalifornia. Where did you get yours if I may ask? Thanks!

There's lots of places here that sell perennial peanut in starter trays. Also you can take cuttings from a friend and start your own, as very easy to start from cuttings. It is possible, but harder, to buy seeds online, if you can't find any nursery in California that has them. I would try checking some of the southern California nurseries, like Exotica, Ben Poirier, Roger Myers, etc.

[Samu]

There's lots of places here that sell perennial peanut in starter trays. Also you can take cuttings from a friend and start your own, as very easy to start from cuttings. It is possible, but harder, to buy seeds online, if you can't find any nursery in California that has them. I would try checking some of the southern California nurseries, like Exotica, Ben Poirier, Roger Myers, etc.
[/quote]

Ok, thanks again Oscar, I'll keep on searching...