The Tropical Fruit Forum

Your greenhouse looks awesome.
I just encourage you to keep up the motivation and curiosity with plants and nature.
Most high schoolers that have participated on the forum drop off ,as other interest’s or work and whatever else take over.

I feel your pain, Ryan!
Everyone laughed when I got hooked on tropical fruit trees. Boise Idaho is zone 6, so a greenhouse was the only way to go.  I struggle getting things to fruit, and cant put anything in the ground due to cold clay soils and huge tree roots under my greenhouse.

I like to think my trees have it pretty good compared to Florida or the tropics - I can give them the weather they need, and avoid the hurricanes, etc. And greenhouses, as a hobby, are way cheaper than other things, like horses.

So hang in there!

Carolyn

Quote from: Jaboticaba45 on May 04, 2022, 11:48:27 AM

Quote from: simon_grow on May 04, 2022, 01:34:48 AM

Hey Ryan,

With every obstacle you overcome, you become that much more knowledgeable in growing tropical/subtropical fruit trees. I’ve killed many fruit trees and faced many of the same issues you listed and if you love growing fruit trees, you will find a way to jump any hurdles that pop up.

Try growing the red hybrid Jaboticaba, that one will fruit much sooner than the others and it tastes great.

Simon

Thanks for the encouragement Simon. I remember when I was at Pine Island Nursery buying my first jaboticaba. I believe I was in the 4th or 5th grade...Someone handed me PIN's handout with all the trees they sold and wow was I amazed that there were so many trees. Now I look at my knowledge of fruit trees and realize that there are way more plants that I know about now. I've come a long ways now. I recently picked up a couple reds last summer, but still think they need another year or two. I realize now that this is such a cool hobby to be in.

Hey Ryan, I'm going to be a shill here and suggest you play around with hydroponics ^_^

Here is my thread on my hydro red from seed - https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=47159.msg458240

Here is some more 'inspiration' from a guy in Sweden..

Hydro coffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_bXUtYP9M

Hydro guava: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH3t7Y4dZCE

Ryan, I can understand your frustrations- being a zone pusher is seeing many of your cherished and rare plants die

A few constructive points- It may benefit you to dig out the floor of your greenhouse if possible- look into something called a pit garden, which usually are dug about six feet into the ground.

The idea here is that you are below the frost line which should prevent any of your roots from freezing, you may need to add a layer of organic material on top to act as a top soil since all of that will be removed.

This also gives you the benefit of additional height to your greenhouse for some of the taller things. If you really want a perfect greenhouse set up you should look into something like and arduino controlled unit that has a significant number of sensors and outputs.

Also worth noting rare fruits do not always mean tropical ones, although we mostly focus on the tropical on this forum there are plenty of rare temperate fruits. (honeyberries, pawpaw, goumi and others are all becoming more popular for example)

Since we are on the subject of pawpaw they need a significant amount of chill and we grow them successfully in Michigan 5b with no protection. All the ones in Houston look miserable and do not fruit. (I am not familiar with the more recently developed cultivars that may require fewer or no chill hours though) The fruit might be my favorite Annona, although sometimes they are quite seedy.