The Tropical Fruit Forum

which of those fruit trees can handle cold weather best? I mean daily cold temps at night, rarely below freezing, nice warm temp. during the day, no hard frosts, maybe 27F as the lowest temp.

thanks

Mango and Lychee would be my choice. Sweetheart from the lychee group, others seem more susceptible to the cold, sweetheart doesnt seem to care at least to the temps you describe. Mangos will get their leaves burnt from frost especially if you go for the open style instead of the big bushy style.

In Central Florida in 10a, but what Nick from Nick's Edibles calls the arctic of 10a and having had most of these at one point or another:
 Sugar apple: Low- wont survive in the ground through any but the mildest of winters
Atemoya: Low- wont survive in the ground
Mango: Moderate- Protect when young, when bigger doesnt really care about short frosts aside from leaves burning off
Mamey Sapote: Havent had this one
Sapodilla: Low
Jackfruit: Very Low
Lychee: High- one of my more successful trees
Rollinia: Havent had this one.

Note that these are for in ground plantings. Potted you can keep almost anything alive with effort.

I believe, dont quote me, but I believe there are varieties that will grow in FL so SC should be fine. Again, depends on where. In North Ga they grow massive rhododendrons and the best we can grow in Central Fl is their Azalea relatives that dont mind the sun as much, theres like two of those. There really is a massive difference between FL and the coast coast of GA/SC/NC and Ga/SC/NC literally a couple miles or more inland.   Use the alligator method, if there are alligators, you can "probably" grow sub tropicals, the less gators naturally occur, the harder time you are going to have.

Really depends on where in SC. Its a very variable area. I am from Coastal Ga and grew up on an island not far from the SC border, in winter I used to duck hunt on the Savannah river, which is the border. If you are talking on the coast, as in, you are living in the barrier island areas, not just living near I-95 then you can expect to grow some sub tropicals and have pretty good luck with citrus. The island I grew up on is about 20 minutes by boat from the Atlantic and I am always jealous of how healthy and lush their citrus trees are there compared to what I can grow here in FL. Plus the added bonus of pecans growing insanely well, talking huge 75' tall trees that drop tons of nuts in the fall. Loquats grow very well and I know the island my parents still live on has them everywhere growing wild.

The negative is winters are very unrpedictable. You will get freezes, some winters will drop into the teens for a day or two. We even had snow sit on the ground 3 days in 89 with some of the shaded areas lasting longer. It doesnt get that cold with the weather cycles changing very often but the potential is there. I would still expect to see upper 20s and 30s every year for at least a couple days.

Inland away from the Ocean water gets colder quickly. Remember Snowmageddon? Chic-Fil-A coming in during a blizzard and its employee volunteering to walk down the highways handing out warm sandwiches to people trapped in traffic jams in the snow for several days? That was in GA. While that was a bad one, they get lesser forms of it every other year or so. I dont hear much out of SC but I can only imagine they would get it too being the next state up. The farther west you go the higher elevation and the colder it would probably get. So you could probably get away with more stone fruit but less subtropicals.

So in short, if you are right on the coast your options for sub tropicals are much higher than if you live in the western end of the state. Note there is also a shift in soil content as well once you hit a certain point going west. But with prep and protection your options are always there. Theres a dude in Evansville Indiana with palm trees in his front yard, blew my mind when I saw them in winter, so it can be done.

Again, I cant get to the roots without chopping through a hedgerow of saw palm which I would prefer not to do. I guess a bird dropped a seed smack dab in the center of a5ish foot wide row of palm that acts as my front fence for the yard. Saw palmetto grows an inch a year so cutting it isnt really an option since it will be a few decades for it to grow back to a somewhat decent fill for the hole.

The camphor is the pest. I was wandering around a corner area I am turning into a butterfly garden with a few fruit trees and native grasses mixed in, mostly so I have less lawn to mow. Along the front of the yard I have a hedgerow of saw palmetto which is 5-7 feet tall and about as wide running along my side of a ditch. Right in the middle of it I noticed a camphor tree popping up above the saw palmetto. I would rather not chop my way into the saw palmetto seeing as it takes a very long time to grow. Would brush remover spray targetted just on the camphor kill it? I know they are notoriously hard to get rid of. I also know if I dont get rid of it, it will get large enough to shade out everything else in that corner of the yard in a fairly quick order.

Right there with you dude. I have had one that is about 7 or 8 feet tall now. Hasnt had a freeze do damage in several years at this point. No fruit still. I have noticed my smaller potted ones have these weird spontaneous die offs where they lose all their leaves. Big ones dont seem to have these issues. I need to plant them this weekend

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I would also add 6- unavailable at a grocery store
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Conversely, available at the grocery store, but you can show people how much better home grown taste. My dad mentioned this to me about mangos this past weekend. "Your mangos tasted so much better than these little ones we get at Publix."

Really? I have never noticed grasshoppers here in FL bothering my citrus trees. I have all kinds and colors of them I see when I mow the grass. I figured the leaves were too tough for them or they just didnt like leaf minered leaves.

I have a couple Lemon Zest still there last I looked

You guys dont find the living ground covers stealing nutrients and water from the tree in the pots you are actually trying to grow? Note I am in FL where ground covers both live, organic and inorganic typically do not work very well vs the insane weeds who dont care and will push through ground cloth, card board, 24" of dirt and 6" of bark mulch and laugh at you.

Wow, thats crazy. I have tons of rabbits in my area and they dont touch my trees. The deer on the other hand will tear up a young unprotected loquat the day you stick it in the ground. Once it gets about 5 feet tall I can take fencing away and they will only eat lower branches.