The Tropical Fruit Forum

Mark in Texas asked in another thread for photos of my greenhouse, so I thought it would be best to start a new thread just for greenhouse photos, since I'd love to see photos of other people's greenhouses both for inspiration and just for fun.

Our greenhouse started its life as a 2x4-framed, dirt floored, 50+ years-old 1-car garage:


Everything but the framing was removed:
 

Then 8mm twin wall polycarbonate panels were affixed:


Here are a couple photos of the current inhabitants:




In the ground so far:
• two multi-graft avocado trees (grafted with Royal-Wright, Aravaipa, Duke, Brazos Belle, Joey, and scions of a seedling grown tree from Houston)
• A Dwarf Cavendish banana
• two Passiflora maliformis seedlings

Soon to go in the ground:
• Two more avocado seedlings to become multi-grafts
• Some dragonfruit seedlings along the inside of the north wall

As far as the dimensions, the greenhouse is about 14' wide, 21' long, and 8'4" from floor to the rafters, plus 3' to the peak of the roof in the center. So I'll have to train the avocados to grow bushy, but hopefully it'll be enough room for them long-term.

For cooling, I have a 16" ventilation fan plugged into a solid state Therma-Cube switch that turns it on at 80°F and off around 68°F, and this usually keeps the high temperature to about 14° over ambient:


For heating, I'm using a 1.5kW "Dr. Heater" that has worked ok so far but may need upgrading eventually. I haven't sealed up all the air leaks around the eaves and foundation, but the heater seems capable of maintaining about 12-13°F over ambient, which should be enough to keep it over freezing on all but our coldest nights (on average like once every 3 years maybe), when supplemental heating may be required. Hopefully with better sealing of drafty bits I can get that up to +15°F.

https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/egov/Press_Releases/Press_Release.asp?PRnum=21-091

Greenhouse construction begins next week for my avocado breeding attempts, hoping to do the impossible and find an avocado that is hardy here in Seattle winters.

Because var. drymifolia avocados are both the hardiest and have the highest genetic diversity, I'm attempting to add as many Mexican race varieties as I can to a few frankentrees in the greenhouse, including unnamed seedling-grown trees that are either exceptionally hardy or produce good fruit.

Already have these, so don't need scions (but still interested in seeds):

• Poncho
• Brazos Belle
• Joey
• Aravaipa
• Royal-Wright
• Duke
• Mexicola
• Mexicola Grande

If you have seeds of any of these, or seeds or scions of any other avocados exhibiting drymifolia traits (anise scented leaves, thin skin on fruit), please let me know! A non exhaustive list of cultivars I'd like:

• May
• Gainesville
• Lila
• Opal
• Fantastic
• Del Rio
• Wilma
• any criollos from Mexico

P.S. I had an older post but it wouldn't let me modify it anymore to update the varieties I have, so posting a new one instead of reviving that

Their algorithm messed up big time 😂😂😂

About a month ago my local grocery store had some citrus labeled as owari satsuma grown in Oregon, but there was no farm named. I got a bag, and they were very tasty, I'd say even better than most of the generic "satsumas" they usually have from CA. Each fruit had between zero and one seed, which I heard are almost always true to seed (nucellar), so I germinated them.

I've tried to figure out what farm they came from by googling, because I'm curious whether they were in greenhouses (I assume so), or just a particularly hardy selection of owari that maybe I could try in a protected spot in my Seattle yard.

Does anyone know of any commercial operations growing owari satsuma in Oregon?

I've never grown any type of passiflora before, so not sure if this is just normal, but all three of my P. maliformis seedlings have these interesting looking little wet droplets forming on the leaf stems, usually in pairs. Does anyone know what these are called or why they are there?



The plants have been quite vigorous, they are barely 2 months old and starting to push out new leaves every few days. I'll be keeping 2 in pots indoors with window trellises, and planting one out in the spring to see if it can survive next winter, or at least the roots since the ground never really freezes here. Probably not, but I figure no harm in trying.

I just received a feijoa plant from the local nursery, and it looks to me like it is slightly diseased in some way, but I don't have much experience with feijoas and can't find any photos online of similar problems.  I'd say it's some kind of mold/mildew on the bottom of the leaves, and the tops are discolored with some of them curling upward. I was planning to plant this in the ground as soon as it arrived, but I do have room for it under the lights for now if I should be treating/nursing it back to health first.

Does anyone recognize this issue, or know of a good treatment?  Thanks in advance!

I have a couple small grafted avocado trees (Winter Mexican and Choquette) indoors under lights this winter, after they spent a month on my patio at the end of summer and then a month in sunny windows in early fall. I've been trying to read up on the growth cycle of avocados because I've never grown them before (though growing up in Miami I might have raided some of your yards to steal your fruit -- sorry!). It looks like generally the trees go through (sometimes overlapping) periods of dormancy, vegetative flush, and flowering. One thing that I can't find a clear answer on is whether/how much to prune them, and what parts of their growth cycles are the best for pruning, especially when they are small like this. 

The Choquette appears to have been in the middle of a vegetative flush when it spent a week in a cardboard box crossing the country back in August. While it lost a few of the most tender leaves shortly after it arrived, it has since exploded with what I would call an excessive number of new leaf shoots:



This has led me to wonder: should I be pinching off some of these shoots? It just seems so excessive that I wonder if I should be directing the tree to focus on fewer tips, or whether I should just let it grow for a bit before I give it a snip snip.

The Winter Mexican seems to be on the opposite end of its growth cycle, where it has been dormant since it arrived. Oddly, in the last week or two it has started to form what appear to be flower buds rather than vegetative ones:


If these are in fact flowers (and they seem to be?), I'm tempted to let it flower, but I know I should probably remove flower buds on such a small tree, so that it will focus on growing a bit instead.

I have overly ambitious plans to fill my house with avocado trees and eventually build them a greenhouse (or get some varieties that are cold hardy enough to actually survive zone 8b winters!). However, I hope that they will make it at least a few years as winter houseplants and summer patio/porch plants before I have to find them a winter home outside my house.