The pulusan though is a real tropical, right? I mean, in a subtropical climate we just have one option to pick from these 3 species: lychee. Or it would be a realistic bet to expect a crop from pulusan or rambutan trees in a 11a or colder region?
Yes pulasan is an ultra tropical. The rambutan is also tropical, but it seems more widely adapted than pulasan. So you would probably be able to grow it and fruit if you give it some special protection in winter. Lychee is subtropical, so should be easy for your area.
There were only one or two successful rambutan fruitings in S. FL after enormous efforts to keep them alive, even though S. FL has nearly everything going for it: borderline tropical climate, sufficient humidity etc. Southern Spain is much cooler and drier, no matter what microclimate Jose is in. It's subtropical/ mediterranean climate. Rambutan maybe alive for a while but will be absolutely miserable. I feel sorry when people given false hope. There is good reason 2-3 years on they never update on their little pet projects.
No, Southern Florida does not have everything going for it for growing rambutans. The problem with Florida and rambutans is not the temperatures, but the soil. Rambutans will not grow in alkaline soils, and a lot of southern Florida is limestone. The people that fruited them trucked in soil from elsewhere. Also S. Florida gets occasional arctic blasts. Does Southern Spain also experience these? Anyway, note that i said he would need to protect them in winter. Humidity can be easily controlled by adding overhead misters.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=1249.0
I know about the soil. It's not just occasional cold blast it's persistent temps in 50's or 60's for days or even weeks in winter combined with arctic blast, which is far more stressful than occasional overnight dips in S. FL. Southern Spain more or less = SoCal. Let somebody grow rambutan in the best of SoCal microclimate even with misters, and let's see how far that goes. This may sound new agey but seems like some species sense being on artificial life support and not happy about it at all, even though technically everything is provided. There is quite a bit of scientific research into subject.
We have night time temperatures in 60's here. That is not a problem for rambutan. If you do a climate comparison for Hilo and Homestead, which i have done, it turns out Homestead is more tropical than Hilo, with higher temperatures in both summer and most of winter. It is only occasional cold blasts that are a problem, along with soil that is not at all suitable for rambutans.
Yes rambutans will not do well in Southern California. If the climate in all of Southern Spain is similar then you are right. The person who posted said he was in zone 11a, which led me to believe his climate his warmer.
Where I live (Marbella) we have a particular microclimate thanks to the mountains that make an arch surrounding our zone like a wall, protecting us from cold and hot winds from north, being sea the main controller of temperatures (and keeping RH over 80% most of the time, bread never get to night without getting soft here doe to high humidity, just few miles to north it will keep dry for days). Cold blasts is something that we watch in TV, last winter came the hardest one in decades and let half of Europe without Spanish greenhouse orchard products, even did snow near us (Almeria and Murcia), and yet here temperature dropped just to 40F, which is the absolute minimum we get here. Average temperature in winter is around 55 though, with midday temperatures around 68/70.
Soil is quite variable, from ultrabasic to acidic where Ericaceae dominate the landscape. I think rambutan would do well in these ones, inside of a greenhouse, but having lychees, what for bother with rambutan? In fact Marbella was the first location of Spain where lychee was planted with commercial porpoises. Pulusan sounds very interesting, but being ultratropical and again having lychee seems more logical to put efforts in other species. Thank you both for the info!
