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!
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.