Author Topic: Tropical Fruits and Greenhouse in TN (Read 1840 times)

Jaboticaba45 · « **on:** December 27, 2021, 06:11:23 PM »

Sugar apples - 2018?

Citrus - 2019?

First Mango - Mallika 2020

Cabelluda 6/21

Fruits from last FL trip in July of 2021 (starfruit, mangoes, jackfruit, g.hombroniana, g.brasiliensis, olosapo, jabos, and dragonfruit)

Grumichama 10/21

Miho satsuma

My multigrafted sabara (crowns 1,2,3, trunciflora, Branca Vinho phitrantha x3, cambuca, restinga, and white) and yellow jabos.

pitanga

chicken in front of ndm4 mango

Pineapple from store

Greenhouse as of 12/27/21

Hello everyone,
Just spent the last couple of days cleaning out the greenhouse and figured I'll use this thread to document the progress of my tropical fruit trees. I'll add to the post whenever something noteworthy happens such as a new tree fruiting or a new addition to the collection. Questions, comments, and derogatory remarks are welcome.
Note: The greenhouse is 20x26 and was set around 1.5 years ago. The trees planted in ground have been growing way faster than in pots and I expect them to give me more fruit as time passes by (I haven't let most of them hold fruit if they could anyway so they can grow faster). This has been a big learning experience for me switching to a larger setup and planting the trees in ground. My collection is always evolving, and I have shifted from wasting time on ultra-tropicals (artocarpus and such) to focusing on stuff that actually can fruit in a greenhouse.

CarolinaZone · « **Reply #1 on:** December 27, 2021, 07:05:44 PM »

Abso-f******-lutley beautiful!

achetadomestica · « **Reply #2 on:** December 27, 2021, 09:17:15 PM »

CarolinaZone · « **Reply #3 on:** December 27, 2021, 09:33:41 PM »

How are you heating it?

Nick C · « **Reply #4 on:** December 27, 2021, 10:10:56 PM »

Awesome set up you have goin !

shmojojojo · « **Reply #5 on:** December 28, 2021, 02:59:16 AM »

Amazing!

ScottR · « **Reply #6 on:** December 28, 2021, 10:45:03 AM »

Very nice you've got a lot going on in that G.H. excellent job keep doing what your doing

johnnym33315 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 28, 2021, 06:16:59 PM »

Very INSPIRATIONAL!! Looks great, growing tropicals in TN, way to go!

This past fall I upgraded from my 12X20 greenhouse to a 20X40 hoop house, bootstrap farmer style, I think I'm good for a few years before I outgrow this one, pun intended.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 28, 2021, 09:38:41 PM »

Thanks everyone! I’m still in the learning process, and have a lot more aspirations for my collection.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #9 on:** December 28, 2021, 09:43:13 PM »

Quote from: CarolinaZone on December 27, 2021, 09:33:41 PM

How are you heating it?

The greenhouse is heated using propane. Originally wanted to use natural gas, but was too expensive to set up a line. This winter I have been experimenting with thermal mass to help lessen the costs of heating. It’s been a pretty warm winter so far and this week the temps have been in the 70s. I have been trying to keep the minimal temps around 45, but realized that 40 wouldn’t hurt most of the plants I grow anyways. Still trying to perfect the setup as it is a work in progress.

brian · « **Reply #10 on:** December 29, 2021, 04:01:23 PM »

Very nice! It is extremely encouraging to see your success. I am about a year or two behind you for many similar varieties... where I have seen the trees bloom and sometimes produce immature fruit that then falls off, but my trees are still very young.

Citrus is very easy for me to grow and highly productive, I had just started expanding into other sub & tropicals in the past year or two and I am always wondering what will actually produce.

Daintree · « **Reply #11 on:** December 30, 2021, 10:57:03 AM »

LOVE the chicken! Does she live in the greenhouse? My quail clean up everything except the bigger slugs.

As far as heat, it is so weird how propane and gas costs fluctuate by area. Our gas company ran my line for free as long as I got a separate meter for the greenhouse.

I am jealous of your sugar apples! They look great!

Cheers, Carolyn

K-Rimes · « **Reply #12 on:** December 30, 2021, 03:12:36 PM »

Absolutely love to see it. I'm fighting some mold and such in my greenhouse because it keeps getting flooded this year. Super weird. Last year it stayed totally dry. It's still welcome to see it so warm compared to the outdoors though, even barely heated with string lights.

My landlord is taking out an oak that's blocking my GH from full sun so I can't wait to see temperatures ripping again during winter.

It's been a weird winter here in CA 9b. The warmest by FAR till now and now pouring rain (16" in a month) and cold at night. Oh well, we're not far from March 1 when it's basically Spring here.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #13 on:** December 30, 2021, 08:27:24 PM »

Quote from: brian on December 29, 2021, 04:01:23 PM

Very nice! It is extremely encouraging to see your success. I am about a year or two behind you for many similar varieties... where I have seen the trees bloom and sometimes produce immature fruit that then falls off, but my trees are still very young.

Citrus is very easy for me to grow and highly productive, I had just started expanding into other sub & tropicals in the past year or two and I am always wondering what will actually produce.

When I first started collecting, I was into citrus as well. It also got me into grafting - this past year I had my first citrus graft fruit. But now, I have shied away from citrus as they are pretty common although I do enjoy eating them…lots of my trees have bloomed but no fruit set yet. I realized that some need to bloom a few times before setting fruit like grumichama.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 30, 2021, 09:10:05 PM »

Quote from: Daintree on December 30, 2021, 10:57:03 AM

LOVE the chicken! Does she live in the greenhouse? My quail clean up everything except the bigger slugs.

As far as heat, it is so weird how propane and gas costs fluctuate by area. Our gas company ran my line for free as long as I got a separate meter for the greenhouse.

I am jealous of your sugar apples! They look great!

Cheers, Carolyn

Carolyn,
The chickens don’t live in the greenhouse, but whenever I am in there they naturally follow me inside. They are pretty good at cleaning the pests, but they do like to eat the miracle fruit.

The sugar apples have been quite a pain for me… no matter what it always drops it’s leaves and gets root rot in the winter and branch dieback. It gets better in the spring and the tree still manages to put out flowers and fruits. I haven’t let it set fruits for the last year to encourage growth, but looks to be in vain. I even put it in a rootmaker pot so it would have better drainage. I think the best course of action would be to graft it on a. Glabra (pond apple). I would like to get some quail, I wonder if they would get along with the chickens.

Mark in Texas · « **Reply #15 on:** December 31, 2021, 03:51:06 PM »

Way to go, very inspiring.

A lot of my avocados like Sharwil have flower buds and the citrus is loaded. How do you like the RootBuilder? Is it bottomless?

Arctic cold front kicks us from the 70's down to 19F Sunday!

Stay warm....

K-Rimes · « **Reply #16 on:** December 31, 2021, 04:08:51 PM »

Quote from: Jaboticaba45 on December 30, 2021, 09:10:05 PM

Quote from: Daintree on December 30, 2021, 10:57:03 AM
LOVE the chicken! Does she live in the greenhouse? My quail clean up everything except the bigger slugs.

As far as heat, it is so weird how propane and gas costs fluctuate by area. Our gas company ran my line for free as long as I got a separate meter for the greenhouse.

I am jealous of your sugar apples! They look great!

Cheers, Carolyn
Carolyn,
The chickens don’t live in the greenhouse, but whenever I am in there they naturally follow me inside. They are pretty good at cleaning the pests, but they do like to eat the miracle fruit. The sugar apples have been quite a pain for me… no matter what it always drops it’s leaves and gets root rot in the winter and branch dieback. It gets better in the spring and the tree still manages to put out flowers and fruits. I haven’t let it set fruits for the last year to encourage growth, but looks to be in vain. I even put it in a rootmaker pot so it would have better drainage. I think the best course of action would be to graft it on a. Glabra (pond apple). I would like to get some quail, I wonder if they would get along with the chickens.

A learning lesson for me has been to not water in the winter unless the plant is absolutely screaming for water. You have a wide window. I have watered my sugar apples only once since early November.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #17 on:** December 31, 2021, 07:39:14 PM »

Quote from: Mark in Texas on December 31, 2021, 03:51:06 PM

Way to go, very inspiring.

A lot of my avocados like Sharwil have flower buds and the citrus is loaded. How do you like the RootBuilder? Is it bottomless?

Arctic cold front kicks us from the 70's down to 19F Sunday!

Stay warm....

I love the rootmakers. I purchased bottoms for the smaller plants, but the big trees in ground are bottomless. So much easier than digging a hole to plant a tree. One thing I dislike is that they don’t have bottoms for pots bigger than 5 gallons. I wish the warm front lasted forever - temps were in the 70s this week. Looks like I’m going to have to protect my citrus.
Wishing the best of luck to you and your collection. Glad your trees made it through the storm last winter.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 31, 2021, 07:55:15 PM »

[/quote]

A learning lesson for me has been to not water in the winter unless the plant is absolutely screaming for water. You have a wide window. I have watered my sugar apples only once since early November.
[/quote]
Thanks for the advice…I’ve taken note of that and tried to make sure to not water them unless they need to. Still doesn’t work for the sugar apple…maybe I am watering too much. Learned that lesson with the araza. Last year it got a lot of dieback cause of too much water. This year I have barely watered it and it is looking definitely better. I guess I still need to master the technique of watering. If not, how am I going to grow all those cerrado species I am addicted to???

skhan · « **Reply #19 on:** January 01, 2022, 10:37:33 AM »

How do you find olasapo.
I Still haven't tried it yet.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 01, 2022, 06:24:23 PM »

Quote from: skhan on January 01, 2022, 10:37:33 AM

How do you find olasapo.
I Still haven't tried it yet.

I was able to taste it because of a kind forum member who was able to let me stop by. I’d be happy to let you know who it is, just send me a pm.
Olosapo is really good and I think it is one of the most underrated fruits. Smells like burnt sugar. Good flavor, but has some fiber.

Jaboticaba45 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 04, 2022, 05:35:33 PM »

Pitanga finally ripened and the taste is great! No resin taste at all. Looks like I got one that has good genetics. What's interesting about this plant is that I bought it as a black pitanga, but the fruit in the summer were not nearly black, although a bit darker, and now the fruit when fully ripe is red. Tree looks to be grafted, if anyone has any pointers to the variety, please let me know.

skhan · « **Reply #22 on:** January 04, 2022, 07:32:23 PM »

Quote from: Jaboticaba45 on January 01, 2022, 06:24:23 PM

Quote from: skhan on January 01, 2022, 10:37:33 AM
How do you find olasapo.
I Still haven't tried it yet.
I was able to taste it because of a kind forum member who was able to let me stop by. I’d be happy to let you know who it is, just send me a pm.
Olosapo is really good and I think it is one of the most underrated fruits. Smells like burnt sugar. Good flavor, but has some fiber.

If they don't mind I'd love to try it my self.
I have a rather larger 7g tree that I want to put in the ground

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Author Topic: Tropical Fruits and Greenhouse in TN (Read 1840 times)