The Tropical Fruit Forum

My spot in California is inland, so we get more heat and more cold than the coastal and bayside locations. However, I'm 600 feet up in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, so that spares me from the worst of the winter lows that hit the valley below. I still get colder than the east bay cities, but if it's 33F in Fremont (near the bay) it's 30F in my backyard, and 27F in San Jose (valley floor). But on a hot summers day, it might be 90F here and San Jose, but only 80F in Fremont. Meanwhile, San Francisco is always 60F every single day of the year. The Bay Area climate can be really confusing!

The 1 gallon plants often like to grow a little bigger before being planted out directly. The Jaboticaba's like specific soil and water and do good in pots.

I'm mixing my native soil with 50% peat moss before planting the jaboticabas and eugenias, and I'll be focusing on keeping the pH low in the future.

For years I've been wondering what, if any, subtropical fruit trees could make it in my backyard. This year I decided to stop wondering. I'm going to plant several dozen trees, from mango to jaboticaba, black sapote to green sapote, and I will find out once and for all.

Yes, this is a stupid thing to do and I know I'm going to kill a lot of trees. My home in Los Gatos, CA is zone 9b (Sunset 15/16), and while it's relatively warm for the Bay Area, nights are still cool and winters are still cold. Still, the more I hear about NorCal zone pushers succeeding, the more I wonder what my little microclimate could accomplish. Only one way to find out!

So, here is the list of trees I have collected and begun to plant:

* Mango (Antonio, Tequila Sunrise, 4 others)
* Cherry of the Rio Grande
* Cedar Bay Cherry
* Surinam Cherry
* Jaboticaba (Red, Sabara, Yellow, Trunciflora, Grimal, Coronata)
* Pitomba
* Grumichama
* Peanut Butter Fruit (Argentea)
* Black Sapote
* Green Sapote
* Lucuma (highland)
* Cinnamon Apple
* Sunsapote
* Lychee (Mauritius)
* Longan (Kohala, Biew Kiew)
* Genip (Yellow)
* Achacha
* Imbe
* Luc's Mexican Garcinia
* Sugar Apple
* Wax Jambu
* Starfruit (Dwarf Hart)
* Cinnamon (True)
* Allspice

As I said, they're going in the ground, not in pots, because my goal is not just to keep them alive, but to observe how they respond to my climate. I do plant to cover and heat the smallest of the trees during winter, but not the larger ones.

If every single tree dies except for one, I will consider it a success to have discovered one new fruit that grows in my backyard. If not a single tree makes it, that's ok too, then I will be relieved of my tropical lust and can focus again on fruit trees of temperate climates.

In the coming days and weeks I will follow up with photos of each of the plants and begin tracking their progress in this thread.

Wow, Barath, I didn't see this coming! So many things on the list that I've been looking for. Are most of the plants 1 gallon size?

I'll be there first thing on Friday!

I've spent a lot of time on the Flying Fox Fruits Periscope and it is a lot of fun just watching him walk around his greenhouses. Thanks, Adam, for answering all my questions!

I had the same talk recently with Papaya Tree Nursery about the waiting list for Green Sapote. Then I did a dumb thing and ordered a grafted Whitman from TopTropicals and another from Plantogram (they call the cultivar "Miami").  I say dumb because both are grafted on Mamey rootstock, which may doom them here in northern California. Should have waited to find trees grafted onto Green Sapote rootstock.

I would up ordering a 3ft seedling from Polynesian Produce Stand on eBay, and also some seeds from Maui Seeds. I'll try to graft my Plantogram/TopTropicals trees onto the seedlings if I can keep them alive long enough.

Go to Hilo farmer's market on Wednesday or Saturday and you should find just about every fruit that tour would provide, and for a lot less cost.

I wouldn't count on that. I've never found Jaboticaba, Rollinia, or Ice Cream Bean at the Hilo market or any other market I've been to on any Hawaiian island, but I had them on the Kohala farm tour. Every Mamey I've bought on the islands has failed to ripen before I had to fly home, but I ate a ripe one off the ground on the Kohala farm tour.

It's unfortunate that with the seasonality of fruit, some days the farm tours are going to be less exciting than others. I'd recommend calling or emailing them in advance to check on what's in season.

The drip irrigation system for my blueberries injects vinegar into the water, and that has been very successful at keeping the plants happy. It spares me from having to keep acidifying the soil with sulfur or any other amendments. The resulting soil ph is probably around 5.5 which is on the high end for blueberries, but working fine.

When I put my new Jaboticaba trees in the ground (thanks Adam!), I'm going to put some of them on the vinegar drip line to see how they like it. Otherwise, my soil is a slightly alkaline sandy loam.

I have them. How many do you want?

Oscar, I'm on the list for Luc's seeds this year but this is the first I'm hearing that you have live plants you would ship to CA. How many plants would need to be ordered to justify the hassle of ag inspection? I could probably round enough buyers to make it happen.

I have a Beaumont. It grows much faster than I expected. Last year was its third year and it grew from about 5 feet tall to 10 feet tall. Has been through 27F nights several times with no damage. Hasn't flowered yet, doubt it will for a couple more years at least.