The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have a path in my backyard with three lilly pillies on each side forming a small hedge (about 4ft tall) along the path.

They haven't borne fruit yet, so I don't even know whether I'll like it (it's not a fruit you could buy around here), but in any case, I think six are actually a lot of them.

I'm considering replacing some of them with something else, keeping a low height profile, 4-5ft max. The path is about 8ft long.

Before the lilly pillies, I had blueberries. It's too hot for them. My backyard gets quite hot even with a mild temperature (it's like a greenhouse). In fact, I moved the blueberries (they are in pots) next to a wall where they don't get morning sun, but still they struggle and one even dried up.

I think a possible choice here would be pomegranate. But what other choices do I have? I would expect to have four varieties here, lilly pilly, pomegranate, and two others. There is no trellis, so vines are discarded.

I have two possible spots where put these guavas.

The first one is in full-sun all year round, but the tree needs to be espailered.

The other one has plenty of afternoon sun from February to November, but the other months is in full-shade. On this side of the backyard I also have a lime/lemon planted together and a red atemoya. The problem is that guava season here is from October to January, so I assume the lack of sun will impact the harvest, right?.

There is a third spot where I have right now a beach cherry which I could dig out and move to a pot or something, as it's a small low growth plant. In this spot, the tree is somewhat limited in space but it's not necessary to espalier it. Also, it gets morning to afternoon sunlight, but with some shade from papayas planted nearby. For reference, I have a lychee here too.

Last fall I bought a nectarine tree with a nice but very high branching, so I cut it down to knee high and it became a whip.

It has pushed growth for a while already. The problem is that the stubborn want to push growth on the lower buds, no matter how many times I stop it.

It has only pushed growth in one of the high buds, which is already a branch pushing more branches.

How could I encourage the other buds to start growing? Should I prune back this new branch that it's already pushing too far?

Last year I planted an espailered pomegranate and so far I've been randomly attaching branches to the wall with no specific shape.

I installed now a proper trellis with three tier of wires along the wall, picked the most convenient branches and pruned the rest.



As you can see, the lowest tier is more than double of the other tiers. Should I trim those branches back so that all three tiers are leveled?

Also,  does it make sense to leave that second branch at the bottom left? The one that is between both tiers.

what is going on with this red atemoya? It started with the dark stuff, but at least the leaves were green. But now it's getting worse, with the leaves actually becoming quite yellow-ish and drying up.

I have two spots on a wall, deciding whether to go for a vine (likely kiwi) or use a nectarine and a cherry.

As the deciduous bear fruit on second year wood, would they really be a smart choice here? Do they even fruit again on the same branch once they have already fruit once?

I have this lippens in a pot and for a couple of weeks now, it's showing this bad look.

What is it?

This yellow sapote was recently dug out and planted in this location. In the process of digging it out, I broke the largest root, I wasn't expecting such small tree to have a root that depth. This was about two weeks ago.

Right now, this is the situation in its new spot:



Notice those curly leaves? What might be the reason?

I planted this red atemoya about five months ago.



It's been consistently growing on those two main branches.

Should I trim them back to encourage branching as in deciduous trees?

My idea was to let it grow up to the black zone, and then let it form a canopy.

Starting today (literally, yesterday was ok) until late February, the patio of my backyard is fully shaded.

Persimmon, apple, pear, pomegranate, plums, nectarine, peaches, lychee, longan, guava, citrics, subtropicals.... any suggestions for that area, considering that it has to be a potted plant.

A few weeks ago, I started to notice how this papaya was leaning to one side. Days later, I also noticed how it was very unstable, and a few days later, I started to see its roots.

It's like if the soil was spitting it out. I tried to add more soil but to no avail.





Any ideas about how to approach this? The other papaya in the background is very healthy.

I know there are some low chill blueberries, but are they low enough that you can grow them in South Florida or Hawaii? Which are the climate most similar to the one where I live.