The Tropical Fruit Forum

I am very impressed with everyone's set ups

jimmy_va- I've been considering doing something similar to your set up some time in the future....I often think we have the ideal weather in the eastern half of the northern US for growing tropical plants summer and it's nice to let mother nature handle all the heavy lifting during that period so the grower doesn't have to

Carolyn- I really love when growers have personal connections to plants they are growing...it's quite the gift to your extended family that you can offer this small piece of botanical life from your daughter in-laws birthplace and you get share those experiences with them (:

Wow Carolyn...Holy crap indeed! Your list is very impressive and with plenty of things I didn't expect to see. I especially wasn't expecting all those tropical nut trees and I had to look up Njangsa. White Sapote, Cambuca and some species of Theobroma are on my list of things to try soon. You can also add Papaya and the more uncommon members of the Solanaceae family to the list of things of failed to grow despite trying.

oh and nice catch kevin I've edited my mistake

Hi Daintree if you do decide to put them outside and depending on how tall the pot is I might consider protecting them from rabbits.  The rabbits in my area absolutely annihilated my passion fruit last summer, but it could have been an odd/bad year as they seemed to go after almost everything

Failures:

-Anonna Fruit: I've tried my hand at growing a number of anonna fruit from seed from cherimoyas to sugar apples to atemoyas along with a few others. I have struggled to get them past the seedling stage when they get stuck in the helmet head stage (sprouted but with the hard seed coating still attached) and seem unable to force the seed coating off. Not sure if this is an issue with old seed or my growing conditions, but I've had this issue time and time again.  The second issue and the nail in the coffin for me is that besides summer the few plants I've managed to get past this stage (a cherimoya and an atemoya) have really struggled.  They've put on a little growth during the summer and then died that winter or next spring, I feel like I haven't been able to give them the conditions they want.  I'm open to any suggestions.

-Starfuit seedlings: They seemed to either get sun burnt or to not be getting enough light and eventually died

-Banana passionfruit: While it grew very well on my porch in the summer it always suffered in the winter where it seemed like it was either getting too cold or not enough light and was constantly plagued by spider mites who ignored pretty much every other plant except my plumeria...decided to give it a chance in the garden where the rabbits promptly ate it to a stub 

-The numerous things I've failed to sprout from seed (bananas, star apples, star fruit relatives, a number of passiflora)

Partial Failures:

-High sun low moisture plants: While I've technically kept my dragon fruit plants and baobab alive they've struggled outdoors where they are getting too much rain and indoors where they are not getting enough light

Lemon Guava (P. cattleyanum var. littorale)

I started some Lemon Guava from seed a little less than 3 years ago back in January of 2017 and the seedling that I kept has produced 7 fruits for me in a two gallon pot. It's in need of an up-potting which I will try and do in the spring at which time I will probably prune it back to promote branching and keep it at a manageable height. 



I've enjoyed the fruit which tasted to me (in my very limited experience) like a mild slightly sweet lemon flavored pear with a hint of that typical guava flavor.

Hi All I'm creating this thread to document my success and failures growing tropical and sub-tropicals in Wisconsin. I realize this topic might only have limited interest for those who live in tropical areas, but I hope that it can be a resource for those who decide to try and grow these plants outside of their comfort zones and serve as a source of encouragement.  I have up to this point grown all my plants in pots and moved them outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter where I use supplemental lighting in the form of Compact Fluorescents and LEDs. I'm starting this thread now because now 5 years in I am starting to have success fruiting some of these plants. 

I whole hardly agree with you on Shasta Gold and I've been trying to promote them the past few years (http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=19184.msg238562#msg238562) and I've had some luck in my area, though Satsumas are still king popularity wise. Since Shasta is later than Satsumas though it's easy to point people in that direction once the Sats have run out.  I've also had a chance to try Yosemite Gold which I like quite a bit. Haven't had a chance to try Tahoe Gold.

Thanks for the responses...so far only one out of 12 seedling trees is being attacked and I see no sign of a current infestation so I'm just going to roll with it unless I see issues again next year

The Phillipine/Carabao I got from him were very good, if I order another box Zill is definitely on my hit list

ha i don't have a small star...but I do put them on my porch in the summer so they're indoor plants 7 to 8 months a year with 4 to 5 months outdoors...so they are not completely indoor plants...the plants have northern exposure both inside and out for which in the winter I do use a plant lights as supplimental light....when I lived at a place with a southern exposure the plants did great without supplimental light...all that said they seem to doing great, with the pomegranate blooming like crazy in only its 4th year from seed

Yes, it is very common to propagate pineapples from their tops...I will post a wikihow below...I would only dry for two or three days and I would skip the toothpicks, but otherwise this is an ok basic guide

https://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Pineapple

you can somtimes see which variety it is if the grocery store stocks the cases out...should be marked on the end of the box...if dont see any cases out you can always ask an employee which variety it is by having them look at the box