Best places to live - For Growing Fruit

[BobVance]

@joehewitt

Hawaii is the only correct answer.

Yeah, you can’t grow peaches or apples there. So what? There is so much diversity in tropical fruit it boggles the mind.

I think you may be able to grow apples- see the following thread:

High Chill Apple in a Low Chill Climate

[image] This 3-year-old tree shows typical growth of a “high-chill” apple in a low chill climate. While some branches are leafing out fully, others have lots of blind wood. It’s hard to see, but there are a few apples the size of grapes, some the size of peas, and other branches just blossoming here the end of June. The branches have a funny shape because they were long and vertical before being pulled down horizontal, which is also what is causing all the blossoming. Despite all this, fru…

I also saw some pages which seem to indicate that there are some low-chill peaches which are doing OK in Hawaii. Sounds like a work in progress, but promising.

https://manoa.hawaii.edu/kaunana/hawaiian-peaches-could-have-a-bright-future/

@VSOP

You can get used to the heat here if you don’t use air conditioning.

Not an option when you are still working. I’d prefer doing without compared with how much they crank it in the office sometimes. At home, I can go without, but sometimes use a bit. The rest of the family insists I do prefer to get temps down to the mid-80’s for sleep. With some planning, open windows and a fan can do that though.

@Hillbillyhort

Cost of living in Costa Rica may be close to US.
…
Would be a good time for a scouting trip. Or just a break from the cold.

I did visit Costa Rica in 2007. It was nice and we did the usual things- walk in the rainforest, zip lining, cliff/waterfall rappelling, and horseback riding. The horseback riding was the most painful and scary. We went on a 2 day ride from one location to the next in our trip. Cowboys must have real tough rear-ends, as I had broken skin after the first day…

My horse also gave me a scare by climbing up on a thin strip of grass to have a snack. No problem, except on the other side of the strip is a sharp precipice. I wasn’t all that confident in the best way to control the horse in that situation- best to not make him run off a cliff. So I just waited and he eventually got back on the path.

@Austro_PawPaw

If i could choose a place to live it would be Australia.

Especially Queensland (Coastal Regions)

I was there when i was 6 years old and i totally felt in love with this land.

I went there for my honeymoon in December 1999. It was very nice and I liked the barrier reef as well. Here’s a pic of me with some random fruit I found in the rainforest in Queensland. I don’t think I ever found out what it was. We did see jack-fruit in a more cultivated area.

While the tropical Queensland was beautiful and had great weather, I also liked the outback (Alice Springs).

We went out walking the first day and found some wild melons and later a kangaroo.

One cautionary note though- weather in the outback changes pretty quickly. A day after we were hiking around in 95F, we had a cold, windy, rainy day with temps in the 40’s & 50’s. Of course, we didn’t prepare for that type of weather, so we were going around in garbage bags to keep some of the rain off…