Author Topic: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...  (Read 6521 times)

Adacaosky

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Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« on: August 14, 2012, 03:43:18 AM »
I unintentionally hijacked someone else's thread instead of creating my own! Shame on me and I apologize, Mike. :( :( 

Anyways, I guess you could say I'm reverse zone pushing in a way?? Located 13 N. Lattitude, 300ft. elevation and on a small tropical island, I've managed to sprout or grow:

Strawberries
Almonds
Apples
Figs
Brussel Sprouts
Cilantro
Kiwi
Persimmon
Italian plum-(slugs ate it)

I'm also trying to find good/viable peach and apricot seeds but those at the supermarket are usually shriveled up inside the pit. :(

I've found out that most of these have already successfully been grown in places like Hawaii, New Zealand, etc. but I just wanted to try for myself and under my local conditions, where it never dips below 65 F.

Some pics taken today:

Muscat grape


Manzanillo Olive


Negronne Fig with fruits


Black Madeira inflicted with fmv but growing vigorously.


Heavily pruned Niagara Grapes-- flushing again


Niagara grape flush


Strawberry


Persimmon


Strawberry in ground- planted out yesterday


Chris
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jcaldeira

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2012, 03:50:05 AM »
Nice array of temperate fruits.  What are your winter average temperatures?

Do your figs lose most leaves in 'winter'?
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Mike T

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2012, 04:11:35 AM »
Ad. there's no such thing as hijacking my thread, it was invigorated after it ran out of steam.

Adacaosky

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2012, 04:16:03 AM »
Nice array of temperate fruits.  What are your winter average temperatures?

Do your figs lose most leaves in 'winter'?

So far, none of my figs loose their leaves voluntarily, not even in my winter months. I guess it's not cold enough. The figs hold their leaves but take a break between growth flushes. Usually, the "break" is a month or so....The leaves drop once they are old and nothing more. I notice a breba crop on one of my figs (super slim/narrow shaped) but no fig wasp here. Others have a main crop -- it's located on the new growth only....but everything is just so young that I'm hesitant to report this as absolute truth. Give me a few years and I'll be sure.

I notice the grapes stop growing, which signals me to prune them hard. This hard prune tricks them into thinking it's winter. They then shoot out with flowers and new growth again. Here in the tropics, I've had up 3 grape harvests each year, depending on how often I time my pruning. Guam winters average a bone-chilling 73 ~ 87 Fahrenheit (22.8 ~ 30.5 C.). lol. I'm just like you- in the "true tropics" and with 75% or more humidity for most of the year.
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Adacaosky

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2012, 04:18:53 AM »
Ad. there's no such thing as hijacking my thread, it was invigorated after it ran out of steam.

Well, thank you for being so diplomatic. :)  I'll be sure to mind my online manners next time!

BTW, what conditions prevent you from growing/fruiting your own strawberries? Is it just too warm where you're at?
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samuelforest

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2012, 09:58:07 AM »
Have you been able to harvest strawberries Chris? Out here it grows like weeds!

Mike T

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2012, 10:09:29 AM »
Ada I could go to the mall or hardware chain and get a variety of fig varieties and strawberries and try growing them like people do all the time in my home town.They struggle to survive the November to March period of heat,humidity and rain but thrive on the adjacent Atherton tableland.

Adacaosky

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2012, 12:33:00 PM »
Have you been able to harvest strawberries Chris? Out here it grows like weeds!

Samuel,

No, Sadly, I have not... Not yet, that is. I live in the humid tropics where the temperatures are way too high for strawberries to flower. They grow well all year long but refuse to flower. It gets really humid here and yet they do not die. They don't  slow down growth-wise either. They just absolutely refuse to flower. It's beyond their biological capability, I'm sure.

Ada I could go to the mall or hardware chain and get a variety of fig varieties and strawberries and try growing them like people do all the time in my home town.They struggle to survive the November to March period of heat,humidity and rain but thrive on the adjacent Atherton tableland.

MikeT,

I totally understand your logic. Why struggle with something that has a hard time growing when you could work with things that work well for your area naturally.  :) I thought that many times over and then exhausted what was available to me at the moment. I maintain my small collection of tropical fruits and have several ongoing experiments. In between the tropicals, growing temperate fruits outside their natural zones is but one. LOL! I wish I had tablelands/mountains nearby.
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samuelforest

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2012, 01:10:15 PM »
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Samuel,

No, Sadly, I have not... Not yet, that is. I live in the humid tropics where the temperatures are way too high for strawberries to flower. They grow well all year long but refuse to flower. It gets really humid here and yet they do not die. They don't  slow down growth-wise either. They just absolutely refuse to flower. It's beyond their biological capability, I'm sure.

What you can do is put them in the fridge for a a couple of months and then bring them outside. It would fake a dormancy period and force the strawberrie to flower after a month or two that you put it out.

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2012, 07:18:49 PM »
I unintentionally hijacked someone else's thread instead of creating my own! Shame on me and I apologize, Mike. :( :( 

Anyways, I guess you could say I'm reverse zone pushing in a way?? Located 13 N. Lattitude, 300ft. elevation and on a small tropical island, I've managed to sprout or grow:

Strawberries
Almonds
Apples
Figs
Brussel Sprouts
Cilantro
Kiwi
Persimmon
Italian plum-(slugs ate it)

I'm also trying to find good/viable peach and apricot seeds but those at the supermarket are usually shriveled up inside the pit. :(

I've found out that most of these have already successfully been grown in places like Hawaii, New Zealand, etc. but I just wanted to try for myself and under my local conditions, where it never dips below 65 F.

Some pics taken today:


Chris

Hi Chris, same thing here. The really "rare" fruits i grow here are anna apples (just harvested a few), methley plums (few green ones on the tree right now, hope to beat the birds to them this year), tropical walnuts (Juglans neotropica), muscadine grapes, and some figs. I suggest skipping planting seeds from supermarket. You need ultra low chill types to be succesful. For example, with peach you should try to get Ceylon peach, with plums the Methley, etc. Look for ones rated 100-200 hours chill. I find that those often really don't have any chill requirement at all. Defoliating all the leaves during December-Janurary to imitate dormant season also really helps.
Oscar

Adacaosky

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2012, 09:06:21 PM »
Quote
Samuel,

No, Sadly, I have not... Not yet, that is. I live in the humid tropics where the temperatures are way too high for strawberries to flower. They grow well all year long but refuse to flower. It gets really humid here and yet they do not die. They don't  slow down growth-wise either. They just absolutely refuse to flower. It's beyond their biological capability, I'm sure.

What you can do is put them in the fridge for a a couple of months and then bring them outside. It would fake a dormancy period and force the strawberrie to flower after a month or two that you put it out.

You're probably right. That's the closest thing to nature's cycle I'll ever get to. You and a few others have recommended this to me, so that's my next step. I was trying to figure out if what I had were "day neutral" varieties and if that made a difference or not. There are others, such as "everbearing" and such. I'm trying to eliminate all possibilities that it will not need refrigeration. I guess it's all just wishful thinking on my part? LOL! ;D ;D

I unintentionally hijacked someone else's thread instead of creating my own! Shame on me and I apologize, Mike. :( :( 

Anyways, I guess you could say I'm reverse zone pushing in a way?? Located 13 N. Lattitude, 300ft. elevation and on a small tropical island, I've managed to sprout or grow:

Strawberries
Almonds
Apples
Figs
Brussel Sprouts
Cilantro
Kiwi
Persimmon
Italian plum-(slugs ate it)

I'm also trying to find good/viable peach and apricot seeds but those at the supermarket are usually shriveled up inside the pit. :(

I've found out that most of these have already successfully been grown in places like Hawaii, New Zealand, etc. but I just wanted to try for myself and under my local conditions, where it never dips below 65 F.

Some pics taken today:


Chris

Hi Chris, same thing here. The really "rare" fruits i grow here are anna apples (just harvested a few), methley plums (few green ones on the tree right now, hope to beat the birds to them this year), tropical walnuts (Juglans neotropica), muscadine grapes, and some figs. I suggest skipping planting seeds from supermarket. You need ultra low chill types to be succesful. For example, with peach you should try to get Ceylon peach, with plums the Methley, etc. Look for ones rated 100-200 hours chill. I find that those often really don't have any chill requirement at all. Defoliating all the leaves during December-Janurary to imitate dormant season also really helps.

Oscar,

I have followed much of the Hawaiian literature on what fruits do well there. The fact is, Hawaii puts out the most literature on this subject which is readily accessible to me online (Thank you, Hawaii!). The main inhibitory factor is accessibility to these cultivars/varieties in the first place. I honestly don't know where to get them at reasonable prices or with reasonable survival rates. I have ordered from your online site several times before and I can expect a high quality product at reasonable prices. If you or someone else offered seeds for them, I would have access to them.

My experiences have shown that bare-root shipping is never a good idea heading to Guam. Other sites have tried to charge as much as $200 and above for a single tree. USPS flat rate shipping is the same as the continental US, so I don't understand all the extras. LOL!

I will definitely keep searching for these elusive varieties you have mentioned. I ran into a rare find on ebay last month. Low chill/no chill lychee grown in lowland conditions for almost 400? years in Thailand. I researched the variety "KOM" and it is, indeed, low chill/no chill and quite popular in Thailand. Once again, it's accessibility to these great varieties.

Thanks for the recommendations.
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samuelforest

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2012, 09:19:59 PM »
I have a everbearing strawberrie, but it only bears all summer. I'm surprised how hardy they are. Chris do you figs produce well without dormancy? I will use my garage as a grow room, so I need to heat it. That means I have no place to put my fig tree for winter, but only under the grow light.

Adacaosky

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #12 on: August 14, 2012, 09:36:30 PM »
I have a everbearing strawberrie, but it only bears all summer. I'm surprised how hardy they are. Chris do you figs produce well without dormancy? I will use my garage as a grow room, so I need to heat it. That means I have no place to put my fig tree for winter, but only under the grow light.

It may be a bit too early to say, because I have only had them since this past spring, when I ordered them online from a US grower. They have only been on island for about a year, so I can't tell just yet.
There is one I've had for about 1.5yrs. That is the Brown Turkey. The BT produces year-round and does not need a dormancy period. I understand it's not the tastiest fig around, but she gives with all her might.

Most times, I look to Hawaiian literature for guidance: http://www.hawaiifruit.net/index-figs.html

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fruitlovers

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #13 on: August 14, 2012, 10:42:08 PM »
I have a everbearing strawberrie, but it only bears all summer. I'm surprised how hardy they are. Chris do you figs produce well without dormancy? I will use my garage as a grow room, so I need to heat it. That means I have no place to put my fig tree for winter, but only under the grow light.

Figs fruit fine here without any dormancy. The link that adacaosky gave to hawaiifruit.net, they produce figs all year to sell to gourmet chefs and to resorts.
Oscar

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #14 on: August 14, 2012, 10:46:18 PM »


I have followed much of the Hawaiian literature on what fruits do well there. The fact is, Hawaii puts out the most literature on this subject which is readily accessible to me online (Thank you, Hawaii!). The main inhibitory factor is accessibility to these cultivars/varieties in the first place. I honestly don't know where to get them at reasonable prices or with reasonable survival rates. I have ordered from your online site several times before and I can expect a high quality product at reasonable prices. If you or someone else offered seeds for them, I would have access to them.

My experiences have shown that bare-root shipping is never a good idea heading to Guam. Other sites have tried to charge as much as $200 and above for a single tree. USPS flat rate shipping is the same as the continental US, so I don't understand all the extras. LOL!

I will definitely keep searching for these elusive varieties you have mentioned. I ran into a rare find on ebay last month. Low chill/no chill lychee grown in lowland conditions for almost 400? years in Thailand. I researched the variety "KOM" and it is, indeed, low chill/no chill and quite popular in Thailand. Once again, it's accessibility to these great varieties.

Thanks for the recommendations.

You should try and see if you can get one of the nurseries in California or Oregon that distribute the Dave Wilson nursery low chill trees to you. I think some of them are Peaceful Valley Farm and Bay Laurel nursery. Make sure to tell them Guam is part of the USA and all that is required is a phyto.
Oscar

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Re: Strawberries/Figs in the tropics...
« Reply #15 on: August 15, 2012, 03:01:04 PM »
Quote
Samuel,

No, Sadly, I have not... Not yet, that is. I live in the humid tropics where the temperatures are way too high for strawberries to flower. They grow well all year long but refuse to flower. It gets really humid here and yet they do not die. They don't  slow down growth-wise either. They just absolutely refuse to flower. It's beyond their biological capability, I'm sure.

What you can do is put them in the fridge for a a couple of months and then bring them outside. It would fake a dormancy period and force the strawberrie to flower after a month or two that you put it out.

This doesn't help in your case but here in California some people use misters and evaporative cooling to reduce heat.