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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Seeking seeds
« on: January 22, 2017, 10:17:47 PM »
Still looking
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I have some seedlings from these. Not a named variety.
Never had any seeds rattling in my ripe moyas..
Give it a "shake" as with most varieties you can hear the seeds "rattle", then wait until it is soft to eat.
Hey of friend, are the prickly pear nearly spineless?
Oh yeah, forgot to add TR Hovey Papaya, which is a dwarf papaya that fruits at a short height...
*Add also natal plum, which is a pretty shrub with great smelling flowers, and can fruit at pretty much whatever height you choose to keep it at. I have not eaten m own fruit yet, but I had someone else's fruit, and really liked it. Apparently, the taste is very variable.
Daniel (Californiatropicals on this forum) has a Green Sapote that is around 20' tall. Here's a pic:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=21711.0
Jaboticaba takes a really long time to get to 20' tall but based on trunk thickness, the trees in Prusch Park (San Jose) and Quarry Lakes (Fremont) must be over 10 years old.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I1DIMEIS-Y
Axel (of Cloudforest fame) had a very large Inga in Santa Cruz. It would freeze back and regrow every year until it became taller than his house, at which point it became very hardy. I couldn't find any pics but it's been discussed plenty on cloudforest.
Hi Barath
Is there a reason why you don't see mature 20-30' mango,Mamey, Sugar Apple, Green Zapote, Garcinia, Jackfruit, Chico,Inga, Papaya, jaboticaba trees in SF area, we have plenty in Socal? Probably the same reason you don't see rows coconut trees here. There is zero historical evidence that any of these trees thrived in SF, why is that? Short term experiments on pots are good thing but they prove nothing
Seriously though, Garcinia, I've spent the last year focused on this issue and I planted a bunch of questionable "subtropical" fruit trees last year to see how they'll do. Before I get to that, I should mention some trees not on your list which I've seen large specimens around the Bay Area:
* Jaboticaba
* Cherry of the Rio Grande
* Suriname Cherry
* Cherimoya
* Green Sapote
* White Sapote
* Ice Cream Bean
Condo mangoes like Pickering, if you don't mind pruning.
Peanut butter fruit
Miracle fruit
Strawberry Tree (Muntingia calabura)
Coffee
Truly Tiny banana
Pineapples
Passionfruit and any other vine fruit
Barbados cherry
Surinam cherry
Cherry of the rio grande
Pitangatuba
Mysore raspberry (but careful about placement so you don't scratch yourself walking by!)
Sugar cane if you're willing to keep cutting it
Citrus like Calamondin or Makrut lime can fruit at small sizes, but I'm not sure if you need to put them in a greenhouse considering where you live - nonetheless, someone else reading this for small fruiting plants might find the lists useful...
Pomegranates can be trained to stay within height requirements, again if you don't mind pruning. Dwarf pomegranate, except that the fruit is usually not worth it.
Sugar apple
Figs, but again, you might already be able to grow these outdoors. But for people reading from further North than you, they might appreciate these suggestions.
Gogi berry is another one that's not tropical, but can fruit at a small size.
Starfruit can fruit below 8ft and be kept short.
Likewise with Sapodilla
Same with lychee, you can just keep pruning it
Dwarf coconut
Most tropical vegetables - plenty of good ones very worthy of growing
Almost anything you could want to grow in the tropics could be subject to espalier, and then you can keep them at whatever height you want because they simply start to grow sideways rather than up. I don't know that anyone has ever tried to keep bananas at a particular height, but you could be the first to experiment if you want - if you get a dwarf variety like Namwah, and keep cutting off the leaves or letting them bend at 7ish-ft, will it still eventually put out the flower stalk? Maybe so... Or if you train it to bend a bit sideways with support... You can't really train it to espalier technique of course, but maybe it would fruit even if it had to start bending sideways... I don't know.
The limit with growing plants is only your imagination, and your budget. If you're willing to lose plants, take the risk and try to grow whatever you really want to grow, and just keep training the limbs, or pruning the top, or whatever you have to do to keep it the size you want, and just see what happens. You seem pretty patient about whether or how soon these things fruit, anyway.
Honestly, while I listed some things that are not truly tropical, most tropical plants can fruit at a height below 8ft. The plant will be under some stress, and might not produce an ideal crop, but that would be true for any plant in a greenhouse anyway. You just keep bending the limbs, or pruning the plant, so it never hits the ceiling. The only ones you can't would be like a standard coconut palm for instance, and even those, you can train to grow sideways from the beginning (as they often do in the wild) and so still could fruit at under 8ft - although the space they would take up inside a greenhouse would be enormous, especially after the first few years of growth, simply because the fronds are huge.
There are a ton of naysayers on this forum. Just do what you want. There are a lot of dwarf plants in the tropical world, and you can stick to those, but you could also branch out (so to speak) and try things that are not typically dwarf but that can technically fruit at a low height even though you might have to keep bending or cutting it back (the remains of which you can use for fertilizer and mulch). Then again, a lot of good options are not necessarily tropical, if you simply want to produce good food year round - like strawberries, melons, blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, peppers, squash... Short fruiting plants are in no small supply, whether tropical or temperate. The only limit is with what you're willing to try.
Uhhhh, nobody has ever heard the classification of sub-tropical? Big difference with sub, full and ultra. I cant help why and when people classify things incorrectly but one should know the difference before making statements.
Well this is the TROPICAL fruit forum and there are many topics about these plants so I figured it would be safe to call them tropical.
Well, responses like that is just what I have been trying to say. Your comment is senseless. You really think every fruit discussed is "tropical"?
You should look closely at all the different forums and their designations ("tropicalfruitforum" is just a name, not gospel that only pure tropical fruit are discussed here). Better yet, do a little research on what fruits are really classified as what.
I am not going to name every fruit but for one you mentioned, I dont know of anywhere its stated that feijoa is considered tropical (do you even know where it originates from?). As a matter of fact, it thrives in Gainesville, Florida which is in the northern part of the state, far from any tropical designation.
Uhhhh, nobody has ever heard the classification of sub-tropical? Big difference with sub, full and ultra. I cant help why and when people classify things incorrectly but one should know the difference before making statements.
Garcinia, why clarify when you can just ignore? Don't waste your energy commenting on what others say about your choices. Ignoring other's advice may risk the health of your plants (and your wallet). But the commenting seems a bit obsessive. But that's not my problem. Not to be rude, but why not do some of your own research? You can find all of your answers on the web. That's why you don't see a lot of questions like this on the forum. In a way, its common courtesy. You don't have to deal with "negativity" (facts) when you go your own way. Imho-Don't waste money on stuff that obviously won't fruit in your area, or will need a huuuuge heated greenhouse to fruit. It'll have a lot of disappointment in store for you. I promise, we want your plants to thrive, and not just survive.Good luck with ur garden.
You can prune many things but I guess some will grow back too fast. Jackfruit might not work.
The greenhouse is for tropicals or protecting things from frost? I mean are you planning to grow things like white sapote and loquat that can take some cold but not extreme cold? Loquat is dwarfed when grafted onto quince. White sapote has small cultivars.
Pitangatuba, miracle fruit are pretty short for me so far.
The greenhouse is for tropicals such as Anonna, Garcinia, Mangifera, etc. Loquat grows outdoors here really well. Avocados and jackfruit (even small seedlings of the jackgruit) have no problem with the weather.
Jackfruit have no problem with your climate? I highly doubt that statement is accurate. If it were, you would be able to grow many things outdoors, including mangoes and annonas.
Some people need a reality check...
I asked him if he brings them inside and he says "no, they freeze every year and just regrow." They don't have constant growth but they don't get killed.
Then what is the point? They arent fig trees that need to be froze back. Based on that description, which I already knew from your location, it will not produce fruit.
Rob this is misinformation or just a flat-out lie. there is ONE chlorotic manila tree with tiny fruits as evidence that mangos fruit outside in SF. Jackfruit has never and will never fruit outside of a GH in SF. Just look at their winter lows many days below 35 this place is colder than New Orleans and we can see what happen to greenman62 orchard. We had this discussion with a SF poster last year that was banned from this forum for insulting members and mothers.
You can prune many things but I guess some will grow back too fast. Jackfruit might not work.
The greenhouse is for tropicals or protecting things from frost? I mean are you planning to grow things like white sapote and loquat that can take some cold but not extreme cold? Loquat is dwarfed when grafted onto quince. White sapote has small cultivars.
Pitangatuba, miracle fruit are pretty short for me so far.
The greenhouse is for tropicals such as Anonna, Garcinia, Mangifera, etc. Loquat grows outdoors here really well. Avocados and jackfruit (even small seedlings of the jackgruit) have no problem with the weather.
Jackfruit have no problem with your climate? I highly doubt that statement is accurate. If it were, you would be able to grow many things outdoors, including mangoes and annonas.
Some people need a reality check...
I asked him if he brings them inside and he says "no, they freeze every year and just regrow." They don't have constant growth but they don't get killed.
Then what is the point? They arent fig trees that need to be froze back. Based on that description, which I already knew from your location, it will not produce fruit.
Tropicals...NONE.
You need to plant for your location, unless you like plant genocide
If "some" mangoes survive. Then most would. Will mangoes survive, thrive and produce well...highly doubtful.
I think the following should survive here:
Muntingia Calabura
Pawpaw
Jaboticaba
And these may:
Eugenia candolleana (Rainforest plum)
Atemoya/Cherimoya
White Sapote
Eugenia neonitida (Pitangatuba) (grows well in a pot so could be taken indoors in the winter)
Possibly some mangos
