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My jaboticaba has been surprisingly cold hardy, with only minor leaf burn at around 23 F.The University of Florida has bred some quite good low-chill peaches, plums, & nectarines. Grapes, both muscadine & bunch should do well too.Blueberries, blackberries & raspberries also.
Quote from: Botanicus on May 28, 2019, 10:37:51 AM As much as I love berries they are too invasive and the food forest will be overrun with them in a few years. Please try some of the erect thornless blackberries they stand up with maybe just a little support. They aren't invasive and thornfree. Look for one with low chill hours, some are 200-300. They bear the second year much faster than your fruit trees will.Also, a fall planting of strawberries will make you happy by spring. You may have to replace every year.
As much as I love berries they are too invasive and the food forest will be overrun with them in a few years.
Quote from: Empoweredandfree on May 28, 2019, 11:33:32 AMQuote from: Botanicus on May 28, 2019, 10:37:51 AM As much as I love berries they are too invasive and the food forest will be overrun with them in a few years. Please try some of the erect thornless blackberries they stand up with maybe just a little support. They aren't invasive and thornfree. Look for one with low chill hours, some are 200-300. They bear the second year much faster than your fruit trees will.Also, a fall planting of strawberries will make you happy by spring. You may have to replace every year. I’ll investigate. I was planning to do strawberries for sure but don’t nematodes attack them fairly consistently?
I would set up a raised bed and build a compost pile inside so the strawberries were in pure compost, not just growing in native sand.If you suspect nematode infestation there is a bio-control for that beneficial nematodes also works against grubs, ants, etc.https://biologicco.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BioLogics-Nematode-Application-Directions.pdf
LSU purple fig should do fine. Supposedly nematode resistant. Mine has done very well in the ground for the last few years. Brad
Quote from: Botanicus on May 28, 2019, 10:37:51 AMMy jaboticaba has been surprisingly cold hardy, with only minor leaf burn at around 23 F.The University of Florida has bred some quite good low-chill peaches, plums, & nectarines. Grapes, both muscadine & bunch should do well too.Blueberries, blackberries & raspberries also.I’ll second the UF peaches. They are excellent. I have UF Best and they are great trees and EXCELLENT fruit.
LSU fig is not resistant enough. Mine lasted three years in the ground before dying as opposed to two. The only method of planting that has promise is the 5 gallon bucket method where you cut the bottom of a buck out and plant the fig inside that since the nematodes apparently don't go lower than 18inches or so. That hard freeze we had last winter didn't mess with my lychee or my in the open regular jaboticabas. It did kill my red jabo though and it was under an oak tree for protection from frost. Did kill all my sugar apples, Barbados cherries, and Annona aside from freeze a mountain annonna down to the roots. Cheriyoma did fine. Surinam cherry in the open in a low spot didn't care about the cold either.
Feijoa would be nice if you like them and Ugni if you have acid soil.One nice thing about Ugni is that they can grow really well in the shadow.Kiwi vines are also nice.Walnuts or pecans are valuable trees but they poison the soil around them.Almonds are verry drought tolerant and they like alkaline soil.Texas persimmon ,D. Texana,also likes high ph.
Start with your trees and plant smaller things around them for protection I have a coffee plant for about fifteen years now that has froze back a couple times and came back out and is about 12,ft at the moment Some things like moringa is cut to the ground to over winter and comes back outThere is a lot you can grow here when you start understanding your land
If you were a little farther south (say, Sebring), would you try mango trees in the ground?[/quote If I had more ambition to create micro-climates and so forth I def would, but otherwise I wouldn’t bother unless I was near the coast and much further south where I wouldn’t have to worry about a bad winter killing my tree. I see mangos growing around Orlando doing great but always next to walls or structures. My food forest will be in an open setting. I give lots of credit to those who experiment and zone push but I’ll go with the proven survivors. I’ll keep my mangos and ultra tropicals in pots and build a greenhouse. I’m still debating if atemoya is worth putting in the ground?