Most Difficult to Grow Trees

[FruitGrower]

I was inspired by Gnappi’s post, Fruit Trees You've Given Up On, to start a thread about trees that have been difficult to grow, but you’ve still not given up on and maybe even eventually found success with, expanding on what you found.  For me, it’s been:

Purple Mangosteen - my hardest tree to grow so far. It is the most tropical of anything I grow, gets burned easily with too much sun but struggles to grow with too little, is finicky about the soil and nutrition, and seems to have a problem if you just look at it wrong.

Abui - my second hardest trees to grow.  With the exception of one particular tree from Excalibur that just excelled, all of the other roughly dozen trees have been difficult and I lost about half of them. They are very finicky in our limestone/ high ph soil, need a lot of minor nutrient applications, and don’t seem to recover if damaged by the cold too young.

Citrus - lost about a dozen trees the first time around due to HLB (poor container mix didn’t help either) but with screen protection they’re actually not that difficult.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I would put lychee and my coconut crème mangos in the giving up on category.

[Jaboticaba45]

Most difficult to grow trees are
based on location...for example many struggle with cerrado species. Well if you live in the Brazilian cerrado, they grow wild.
Other example, mangosteen and durian. If you're in FL, they are gonna be hard to fruit and grow. If you're in Thailand, they're gonna be way easier.
For me, hardest are ultra tropicals so I don't mess with them. Other than that, nothings been too hard, just the cerrado species some are hard like plinia nana.

[elouicious]

Garcinia mangostana
Durio spp.
Canarium spp,
Artocarpus always get too big too quick and choke themselves off before fruiting

Pretty much anything that needs irregular water is tough for me as I like to do daily watering adn walk around

[FruitGrower]

Most difficult to grow trees are
based on location...for example many struggle with cerrado species. Well if you live in the Brazilian cerrado, they grow wild.
Other example, mangosteen and durian. If you're in FL, they are gonna be hard to fruit and grow. If you're in Thailand, they're gonna be way easier.
For me, hardest are ultra tropicals so I don't mess with them. Other than that, nothings been too hard, just the cerrado species some are hard like plinia nana.

Yes, based on your location.

[FruitGrower]

Artocarpus always get too big too quick and choke themselves off

Curious what you mean by choking off? Mine got big before producing but they’re going now with no problem.

[elouicious]

usually the tap root will coil itself in the pot, and cause the interior structure to malform to the point that they cannot transport water and nutrients efficiently-

Some species appear to be more resilient to this, maybe have a mechanism for stopping growth on the taproot? maybe just better at surviving off feeders?

Either way Artocarpus, Durio, and Canarium all seem to have this problem

Cerrado species IME also can have this problem as they have huge taproots to deal with the long droughts in their native region-

One of the major advantages to air layered plants for container growing is no taproot- also an old saying from bsbullie (i think is where I heard it) on here is that when shopping for trees at a nursery go for the smallest ones that haven't filled out the pot yet and put them in the ground immediately.

People typically go for the largest ones to get the most bang for their buck but root structure is very important to the long term health of some trees

[Bush2Beach]

Most difficult to grow at my location:  Anything from the tropics . Thousands of things.
Most difficult fruit tree to grow in my experience: The one's I can't find a seed source.

[W.]

Citrus are one of the hardest types for me to grow. While I do not have to worry about HLB, I do have to make sure their potting mix is just right and constantly defend them from spider mites.

Sapindaceae are probably the most difficult for me. I've managed to keep one lychee alive long-term but with the exception of that lychee and the generally easy-to-grow Mamoncillo, I've killed many other plants in that genus. I've given up on growing rambutan or pulasan.

[FruitGrower]

usually the tap root will coil itself in the pot, and cause the interior structure to malform to the point that they cannot transport water and nutrients efficiently-

Some species appear to be more resilient to this, maybe have a mechanism for stopping growth on the taproot? maybe just better at surviving off feeders?

Either way Artocarpus, Durio, and Canarium all seem to have this problem

Cerrado species IME also can have this problem as they have huge taproots to deal with the long droughts in their native region-

One of the major advantages to air layered plants for container growing is no taproot- also an old saying from bsbullie (i think is where I heard it) on here is that when shopping for trees at a nursery go for the smallest ones that haven't filled out the pot yet and put them in the ground immediately.

People typically go for the largest ones to get the most bang for their buck but root structure is very important to the long term health of some trees

That makes complete sense, I didn’t realize you were growing in containers. I would imagine they would be hard to fruit in them, though I have seen fruiting jacks in 100+ gal. pots. 

I also adhere to the advice of getting a smaller plant for its pot size. I’ve had too many bad experiences with root-bound pots.

[FruitGrower]

Citrus are one of the hardest types for me to grow. While I do not have to worry about HLB, I do have to make sure their potting mix is just right and constantly defend them from spider mites.

Sapindaceae are probably the most difficult for me. I've managed to keep one lychee alive long-term but with the exception of that lychee and the generally easy-to-grow Mamoncillo, I've killed many other plants in that genus. I've given up on growing rambutan or pulasan.

I wish I could grow citrus without the worry of HLB! 

Have you tried the 5-1-1 potting mix? I use a variation of that and have had great results.

[Plantinyum]

There are alot of things i havent tried growing, but from the ones i did the most problematic were :
Lychee- i would have to outlive the planet if i wanted to get to the point of it fruiting, such a slow grower here, from seed.
Papaya- very fussy about soil moisture in my climate.
Cacao- ive tried several times to germinate fresh seeds, right from a cacao pod. The problem is its awlays available in the depth of winter, and such tropical plant seeds are hard as a rock to germinate with my inconsistent temperatures in home.
Longan- same as lychee
I would also have to add citrus to the most difficult for me, i just cant make them happy , awlays some kind of defficiency, too much moisture or whatever , very hard for me to grow. On the other hand i have a friend which growns several citrus plants in pots, she is doing an amazing gob with them, compared to me haha.
I also kinda strugle with plants that dont want alot of moisture, cacti and others. Whille i do have nice dragon fruits growing in my gh ,i awlays wonder if i'm waterring too much or too little,  regarding all the gh plants.

[roblack]

Garcinia mangostana is challenging. Did most of the work getting the hole ready. Now it just does its thing. Seems to be holding its own, but hasn't grown much lately. Winter is a slow to dormant time for them, here.

Citrus. Too many pests. Kumquats have been easy though.

Abiu. Died.

Not a tree, but cilantro doesn't do well for me. Too hot during the summer.