Ultimate potted plant food forest?

[Filozophr]

What are some delicious fruit, whether rare, tropical, or temperate, that I can grow in pots (of any size) in south Florida zone 10?
So far this is my collection, I wouldn't mind the whole thing being Annona but id like more variety.
(All seedlings)
Soursop
Rollinia
Ilama seeds germinating
Lisa atemoya seedlings
Temoylata seeds germinating
Cherimoya seeds (hopefully will crack soon)
Sweetsop/sugar apple
Apples
over 30 varieties of dragon fruit
passionfruit
Jaboticaba
lychee
Mango
Also, I like fruit that are creamy, sweet, jelly or jam-like texture.

(non-seedling)
Copious amounts of pineapples

(Trees I  want) (unsure if pot-friendly, nor good pricing)
Ice cream bean
grafted lychee
cacao

Feel free to suggest fruit plants/trees that grow well in pots please!

I want to have my whole yard filled with fruit trees, unfortunately, I don't "own" a home, just a teen. So I have to keep my plants potted in my backyard. I also plan to move them to my own home in the future if I'm blessed enough to reach that time.

(if my parents like some of the fruit and want to keep a few trees I wouldn't mind)

[Nick C]

Most trees/plants can be grown in a pot to an extent. Some you just have to stay on top of watering, fertilizing, and repotting more than others. All my tropical and subtropicals are in containers. Annonas, jaboticaba, cacao, avocado, citrus, white sapote, olive, jackfruit, sapodilla, inga , the list goes on. Eugenias make great container specimens as they stay relatively small.

[K-Rimes]

I have tried many tropicals "trees" like sapotes and annonas in pots, they never really grow stout enough to really rule it and produce. So much work for a tree that can only support maybe 5-10 fruit at most.

My suggestions and ones I have a lot of success with are:

Dragonfruit (25 gallon or 45 gallon pots)
Jaboticaba (can fruit in small pots but the tree grows better going up annually)
Eugenias (I get up to 25 gallon and call it a day)

Ice cream bean is tough in a pot, VERY fast grower, you would need to root prune annually
Lychee and mango was a lot of work for me in pots, I give up, killed a lot of them
Cacao is a fast grower and I think it would be good for pot culture if you can keep heat and humidity up AT ALL TIMES - mine all died from cold

I too am not a home owner (and somewhat young) and thought I'd be able to grow them well in pots before I moved onto my own property but that hasn't happened, housing market got away from me. I highly recommend to not grow big trees in pots. They will do ok for some years and then will all start to die off. They will also develop sub-par root systems that will not do well if / when you plant them in ground. Also, what is your growing zone? I also don't recommend growing anything that won't eventually live outside unprotected.

[brian]

It seems you can grow pretty much anything in a container, though it probably isn't worth trying to grow plants that take a long time to fruit from seed.  Ice cream bean and cacao seem easy to obtain, and they are growing very well in containers for me so far (both ~6ft tall).  My air-layered lychee is more finicky and is a slow grower. 

As you are young and likely to move repeatedly, I would keep growing things that are cheap and see how it works out, then use that experience once you settle down a bit.  When I started growing container citrus in my 20s I killed all my trees one winter when I got busy doing other things and neglected to water them. 

I suggest buying small seedlings, or buying seed lots and selling the excess seedlings to recoup costs.  Some of the types you listed I don't think even come true from seed (apples, atemoya) but I wouldn't let that stop you, the experience may be valuable.  It's an oddly addicting hobby.. when I was a 23yr old buying an orange tree out of curiousity I never expected I would end up 15 years later with hundreds of fruit trees and building greenhouses

[BQ McFry]

The Wurtz (sometimes called "Littlecado") is the best dwarfing avocado prospect for container growing. You'd need to change soil and trim the roots every few years. And as mentioned with other trees, it's really best to go with the largest pot that you can still manage to move around.

[Funguy10a]

I’ve only been growing plants for 2.5 years, and this is my first reply on TFF.   

Growing figs in pots has worked out well for me. There are different cultivars with varied flavor profiles (honey, sugar, or berry).   They are easy to start from cuttings (in CA zone 10a), and fruit within 1-2 years.    I have about 25 varieties so far.  I’m currently rooting second generation cuttings after pruning my original plants.  I root in 1 gal pots, then up potted to 5 gallons.  Three “keepers” are in 15 gallons and produced the most.   

[digigarden]

annonas can "survive" in pots for a few years then decline fast. they seem to do much better in ground. or you would need to prune roots every year. Eugenias same thing but they die more if the bot is very small/root bound when new but later they die less if it makes any sense. but at least they produce more in containers and some are so small that do fine in a container for life.

[felicebehaviour]

spammer

[Sir Graftalot]

*

[Daintree]

annonas can "survive" in pots for a few years then decline fast. they seem to do much better in ground. or you would need to prune roots every year. Eugenias same thing but they die more if the bot is very small/root bound when new but later they die less if it makes any sense. but at least they produce more in containers and some are so small that do fine in a container for life.

I have had pretty good luck with annonas and relatives. My biriba, soursop and custard apple are all in 25 gallon pots and are about 10 years old. I have to keep them pruned because they are in the greenhouse. They produce, although not a lot. I only prune the roots when I repot, every few years. The big thing is that soursop leaves are a delicacy in some African cultures, and I make a good bit of money selling the leaves for tea. Works well, since it generates lots of prunings. Got rid of the cherimoya since it had an upright growth habit too powerful to train. My sugar apples are younger but also doing well.

[elouicious]

Surprised no one has really mentioned Air-layering yet,

As K-Rimes rightly mentions-

I have tried many tropicals "trees" like sapotes and annonas in pots, they never really grow stout enough to really rule it and produce. So much work for a tree that can only support maybe 5-10 fruit at most.
...
I highly recommend to not grow big trees in pots. They will do ok for some years and then will all start to die off. They will also develop sub-par root systems that will not do well if / when you plant them in ground.

For many fruiting species in pots the taproot ultimately becomes a problem. Air-layered trees (or trees rooted from cuttings) have no tap root, and while this generally makes the tree weaker, it makes them much more amenable to pot culture

Air-layered trees generally demand a premium from sellers as they take a lot of work to make, but you can buy cuttings for pretty cheap and try to root them, or pre-order air-layers for a little cheaper

[Midwestfruitjungle]

Annonas can do alright in containers, I wouldn't recommend inga as they grow really fast. There are so many myrtles out there (eugenias, plinias, syzygium) that all do awesome in containers. I have heard artocarpus can be containerized well too.

[Filozophr]

spammer

huh? anyone know what this person is talking about? im rarely on here

[BloomAndSprout]

spammer

huh? anyone know what this person is talking about? im rarely on here

Moderator edited the post, it was a spam bot.

I am in 7b and am attempting to grow longan, various garcinias, bananas, dragon fruit, miracle berry, peanut butter fruit, various eugenias, feijoas, various uncommon berries, etc, all in pots. Even my medlar are presently in pots, though I expect I'll at least plant one of them. I also have three extremely rare Stern's medlars.

I've mostly tried to avoid trees that produce larger fruits and need to grow too tall as I will have to bring all of them in during the winter.

Jackfruit is the one plant I want to grow but doubt I could. Does autocarpus here refer to the jackfruit, or one of it's many relatives (some like kwai muk I have on order and germinating from seed)? I would love to grow jackfruit--its such a pleasant and versatile fruit--but I doubt it would be worthwhile. Are there any dwarf varieties to look into?

I'm also growing both Inga edulis and spectabilis, but they are just seedlings at present.

Does Jaboticaba truly work well as a potted plant? I assumed it would need to get too tall and need too big of a pot to produce.

[SDPirate]

Everything I have is in pots for now but I also only started a year and a half ago.  I do plan on putting some of the bigger species in ground at a relative's property as it will be hard to keep them in pots indefinitely, mainly my Pouteria and Ingas.  Basically everything else I have is pretty manageable in a pot, dragonfruit and various cacti, myrtacea family e.g Psidiums, Plinias, Eugenias, Myrcianthes etc as they are all tending to be smaller trees.  My garcinias stay in pots for now too because they are really slow growing like a lot of Plinias.  The only thing annoying about this is playing musical chairs when I have to up the pot size but it also allows me to refresh the soil medium and give the plants a fresh start.