The Tropical Fruit Forum

I listened to a CRFG presentation on growing white sapote a couple of years ago.  The presenter advised not to grow white sapote in containers for very long, they have long very fragile roots that are difficult to transplant.  He recommended using tall pots if you start seeds in containers and transplant into the ground as soon as possible. 

If you are growing the beans for nitrogen fixation, remove the beans as they set.  As the beans grow and mature it will use up the stored nitrogen in the root nodules.  I haven't had any issues with companion planting in pots but you may need to water more often and have appropriate sized containers.  Some low growing companion plants act as a good living mulch and can help keep the soil moist.

There are many lectures by Christine Jones and Dr Elaine Ingham on the benefits of growing plants together on the soil rhizosphere.  John Kempf (Regenerative Agriculture Podcast) highly recommends alfalfa, barley, and oats for transforming soil health.  They are usually talking about plants growing in the ground but I have applied it to my my containers as well. 

Building soil biology and fertility in containers take time, for short term growing it's important to feed your container plants regularly.  The nitrogen stored in the roots of your bean plant won't be released until the plant dies.

Janet

Ive also watched the crfg white sapote video. I do remember him saying to plant in ground as soon as possible. Unfortunately I'm zone pushing the white sapote and am moving soon. Ideally I'll plant it out when I move. Fortunately they seem to have come back from the winter. It got down to 18f during the night and almost completely defoliated before coming back in the spring.

Has anyone else tried companion planting their container trees? I tried a little experiment with my 15gal white sapote. I just repotted it this spring into a larger pot and added a few seeds of Thai long beans and bok choy. I started the seeds a little late but they seem to be thriving together. I thinned out the bok choy as they filled in and now have some long beans coming in. My plan is to let the beans die out during the winter to add nitrogen to my pot.

My question is, will I have to worry about the roots getting too crowded? The white sapote is probably going to be in a pot for a few more years until I can find a sheltered place to plant it. Has anyone else tried squeezing all the space they have like this?

I had several dozen seedling red and scarlet jaboticaba make it through the winter with almost no protection. I kept the best ones inside but the rest were stored in my uninsulated garage during freezing events. The coldest we got was 16f for 2 days in a row during the nights. The year old seedlings all defoliated but all of them have started to bud out and regrow. I kinda wanted to stress test them to see how hardy they are since I had so many as backup. Im glad I know that such small plants will make it through our harder winters.

Surprising my white sapotes also made it through with most of their leaves and are pushing a second flush of new grown already this year.

Lost all my blueberries and gooseberries with a heat wave too. Went from like 40s to 87f over 2 days in early May. The heat nuked all my flowers and buds.

Is the topaz one of your own that you named? I don't think I've heard of many named varieties of pitangatuba. I'd definitely be interested in a named variety, how do they taste?

 I think more people need to start sharing their best seedlings to start selectively breeding. Mark Albert said that each successive generation of feijoa seemed to have major improvements from his own seedlings. I don't see why we couldn't do the same with pitangatuba.

I have multiple seedlings of red and Scarlett but still haven't tried the fruit. My largest is still probably 2 years away from flowering but curiosity is getting the better of me and I can't wait. I'd greatly appreciate anyone who has a few to ship to Oregon and willing to sell.

My Chilean Guava (ugni molinae) is flowering for the first time this year. Its in 3 gallon pot and just over 2 ft tall. The flowers smell amazing and I hear you can make tea from the leaves. The leaves have a really pleasant smell when crushed.

I had a plant last year. The leaves are really smelly, to me kind of like tar. It started to fruit at about 9 months old after starting indoor really early. I only had about 8 fruits before winter shut down the flowering. They taste really tropical in flavor with a little bitter after taste. I heard the fruits taste better after the stems start to get woody.

The plants get minor frost damage at 31f. I lost the plant completely when temps hit their lowest at 28f. I took a cutting inside that rooted so Ill try again this year and see how they go. It definitely has a leg up on last year.