The Tropical Fruit Forum

I think zone 9a is doable for most bananas but fruiting them can be somewhat of a challenge.  They would need to be protected on frosty nights and given a nice headstart to be able to hold fruit.  In 9b we are able to fruit most bananas but when we get frost they do get knocked back and can be slow to get back going to fruitable size.  Once you have an established mat I think they can take the cold a lot better and you have a better chance at fruiting, because once spring hits they tend to shoot up really fast.  I would recommend the dwarf favorities.  Dwarf namwa, Manzano, rajapuri, Patupi, ?Viente Cohl", dwarf cavendish but it seems to take a long time to ripen fruits for us.  We try to grow only dwarf types.  Even praying hands works good for us but its one of the taller varieties we have. 

Im not sure where the swarm came from but definitely not one of ours.  All our queens are marked and we inspected today and all of our hives are doing well.  No comb formed as they had just landed, Picked up another swarm from a water meter yesterday.  Bees everywhere.  lol

Congrats! Beautiful tree, by the way. Do you know what rootstock its on?

Pond apple, but Cherilata grafts easily to most any annona. 

Yes both are protected with other trees.  Ours in Kissimmee is about 12' tall hasn't fruited we throw a popup canopy over it and wrap the sides with plastic when we have frost in the forecast.

I have no information to share.  We did plant some seeds last month but I didn't find much info either.  Im going to follow in hopes of learning something new.  No info from the scion provider? 

Aparantly we need a discussion post.  Lol. Here is our little tree purchased as a small seedling last April from HapaJoe.   I think it's growing really nice zone 9b central Florida

Yes it's possible with the right protection.  My friend in Orlando has a large tree that fruits every year.  My friends mother who lives 1 block over from us has a tree grown from seed that is fruiting for the first time this year.  Protected by the canopy of some large trees only. 

You were talking with Mike at TreesNMore.  You might ask him, I know he did some grafting about 2 years ago for another seller.  He might have some available though. 

I traded for this on the forum, Actually for a few of these but ended up getting only one.  Here it is holding a fruit but looks like a regular sugar apple to me.  Has anyone else fruited this cross? 

how many do you need and do you need them shipped?  I might know a lady that has some but she is in central Florida. 

We got a good take on our scions.  1 even grafted to our grafted San Pablo in the ground.  It is growing the fastest.  Hopefully we get some flowers later in the year and I will pollinate it.  Grafted to Pond apples and cherimoya rooststocks.  I'll double check tomorrow for sure about the cherimoya takes for you Kaz. 

I would like to see pictures also, can you just add them to the post?