A mature Cherry of the Rio Grande can take temperatures down to low teens without dying. I had one in a 30 gallon pot that I left outside all last winter. Christmas spell got down to 12 to 13 degrees. It lost all of its leaves but came back in the spring with about 25% die back. Did not fruit this year. Takes about 6 years to produce a mild cherry flavor fruit.
If you can find a Ujukitsu lemonade tree, they are hardy down to the mid teens in ground. They have a mild lemon flavor without any tartness.
I mentioned these two due to the winter hardiness. I know they may need to be brought in when temperatures fall in to the lower 20’s, but it reduces the time needed they need to be inside, and you may even be able to bring them into the garage for a couple of days and take them back out when temperatures warm up a little.
Honestly not much in the way of Solanums over here. Naranjilla is relatively poorly known, but it is starting to grow in popularity with fruit growers and hobbyists. We use Solanum torvum to graft eggplant, and we grow lots of aji dulce peppers for use in sofrito. Tomatoes see frequent use in several recipes, but Tomatillos are barely used here, and ground cherries of any kind are about as poorly-known as Naranjilla. We would definitely benefit from the importation and popularization of the more exotic Solanums.
I tried to grow a vining tropical solanum (I think it was S. pachyandrum… ?). No dice. Naranjilla fared poorly for me in the heavy clay soil and full sun, but I did manage to harvest one small fruit after fertilizing… I don’t recall the nuances, but it tasted great. I think it reminded me of a sweet and slightly tart fruity candy.
When I was visiting, I read that there had been a trial program to grow naranjilla in PR. I think its heyday may have been in the 80’s or 90’s though, so Im not sure those plantings still exist. Ive read that its grown in almost full shade in Ecuador and surrounding countries, which seems counterintuitive to me, but Im apparently works well. The biggest hurdle to growing it elsewhere seems to be daylength/photoperiodism, which you can probably swing. Ive seen them growing in SW Florida, though I dont know how successfully they were able to fruit
I’m looking into exactly the same question as the topic of this thread, specifically looking for tropical plants that I can grow in my new greenhouse. The greenhouse has a concrete pad, so everything will have to go in pots. It’s unheated so temps will likely dip into the low 40s or even 30s briefly at night, but it should remain entirely frost free.
One thing I’m wondering about is how well the bigger trees fare in pots and how well they actually fruit. How well does a tree that wants to grow to 40+ feet in it’s native range adapt to a 25ish gallon pot?
Some options I’m considering:
Apparently dwarf mangos can do well for some people but I’m not sure how many fruit to actually expect. Is it worth it? Good mangos aren’t terribly difficult to buy in Asian grocery stores.
Lots of reports of tropical guava (Psidium guajava) doing well in pots. I can grow lemon guava (P. cattleyanum var. littorale) well outdoors, no need to put that in the greenhouse.
Among the Sapotacea there are several interesting options, but from what I can find online some are more narrowly adapted to the tropics than others:
Sounds like sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) is a good bet so I’ll probably get one of those.
In the Pouteria genus there is:
Mamey sapote (P. sapota) - Seems to do poorly in summer dry climates and is marginal in climates only as far north as LA/San Diego and even then only fruits near the coast.
Green sapote (P. viridis) - I found some reports of it growing and fruiting as far north as the SF Bay Area, but not sure if it can handle the potted life.
Canistel (P. campechiana) - Based on what I can find on the tropical fruit forum, canistel sounds promising for a pot.
All of the various tropical and sub-tropical “cherries” are a bit less interesting to me, since I can grow true cherries outdoors.
Have you eaten them? I find them to be very unpleasant, even ones that fans of them claim are wonderful. The flavor and texture are… chalky.
Fruit texture varies a lot, but the good ones are among my favorite fruit, period. I’m sure any named variety will be great. I’ve never tried growing them, just eaten them in Miami where they are commonly planted and usually create a huge mess of uneaten fruit. I doubt I could keep one happy in my greenhouse, which spends most of the winter with lows in the 30s and highs in the 40s, but yours sounds more in their happy range.
they remind me of a sweetened hard boiled egg yolk. ive only tried them a couple of times. ididnt think they were bad, but dont think id eat them in quantity
Mamey sapote (P. sapota) - Seems to do poorly in summer dry climates and is marginal in climates only as far north as LA/San Diego and even then only fruits near the coast.
I don’t know much about the other fruits on your list but this one is a huge tree, as in like 50 to 150 feet tall, so I wonder about how well they could be grown in a pot. But they’re delicious, one of my favorite tropical fruits.
Yeah that was my thinking too, I’d love to grow them. They’re delicious and I haven’t gotten my hands on a good once since I was in Mexico years ago. But 2 lb fruit on a gigantic tree seems like a poor fit for an 11-foot tall greenhouse, even if I put it in a really big pot. From what I read online, green sapote tastes quite similar.
I live in 6a CT. Tropicals can be quite a challenge up here. Barbados cherries are fun. The Florida Sweet variety is my favorite. Im trying to get a Veinte Cahol banana in a 15 gallon pot through its 3nd winter. It has done better then Cavendish and Double Mahoi. I have a 2 year old grafted Black Surinam Cherry that had a few fruit that fell off last summer. I had a Christmas loquats fruit in a grow tent a few years ago. Strawberry trees aka Jamaican cherries grow well in containers and produce often and early.
Im sure youve checked out Logee’s. I hear its a great place to visit. Its not that far from me but I seldom get down that way unless Im taking care of business in some way
I grow too many tropicals in pots so I’ll only talk about the ones that are fruiting as the collection is relatively new
Jamaican cherry fruited in its first season and the taste is really cool, however due to how quickly it grows and to me the fruit I find myself ignoring now I wouldn’t recommend it really, but it’s definitely a fruit worth trying
My pink Barbie guava produced lots of great tasting fruit and always seems happy
Acerola does well also, and I just grow it as a vitamin basically
Moringa, Okinawa spinach and Logevity spinach are great easy edibles that can be grown easy in pots and they propagate so easily so you could grow them annually in your yard from cuttings off the parent plant.
I have an ice cream mango and Silas woods sapodilla that stay happy but I haven’t allowed them to produced yet.
Dragonfruit has been really easy and vigorous for me too, similarly they take cuttings so easy and grow so fast you can try multiple times. Mine have yet to fruit but I bought 4 small cuttings in June and now they are 7 foot long or so and have nice branching and look bearing size to me so this year we will see.
My kary starfruit puts out a lot of fruit also, it just hates the wind and I have plenty of that so I found myself moving it often in the summer/fall, but the fruit is far better than any store bought starfruit.
Too early to comment on the jabos, lemon drop mangosteen, COTRG, imbe and achacha
Seeds I started in fall consist of jackfruit, mamey sapote, miracle fruit, sugar apple, soursop, and shockingly they look great
They all seem happy in the greenhouse which I keep above 40.
Long and short I’d say grow whatever you take a liking to with minimal investment (ie seeds) and really only concern yourself over purchasing things which may struggle. I think anything 9b/10a and above you can keep happy enough to thrive in a pot (excluding the things aforementioned mainly avos)
Citrus is my favorite but I don’t think you were looking at subtropicals so I left them out.
I had 3 dragonfruit plants and I moved them in and out yearly until a couple years ago. I got tired of having to remove tiny thorns for weeks after moving the plants in and out of the house.
A spiny vining cactus, though the flowers are spectacular…
I had/have a number of citrus and my fingerlime (dead) and meyer lemons have produced pretty well over the years.
I added a Shoshone mulberry a couple years back. It has grown well (it started off about 12 inches tall and is over 6 feet tall now. I have not gotten it to bloom or fruit, maybe next year.
I’ve tried to grow chilean guavas a few times and if they die again, I’m done as I’ve spent too much money trying to try this fruit…lol
Haha I only count one of the ones I killed, as two of them were tiny little starters that had no business being planted directly, and one I planted in winter and moved in spring so my real record is 3 surviving to 1 death
I’ve killed all 3 that I’ve tried (outdoors in the ground, though). Winter freezes did them in here, not summer heat. 16°F one winter killed two of them, and the third one barely survived that winter and grew slowly the next season and was killed by 17°F the next winter. So I’ve given up on them for the time being and I’m focusing on things that don’t die so easily. Like avocados?
Haha I’ve killed two avocados also in summer one from sunburn and one from lack of water. My remaining two seem to be also thriving haha I’ve found I can’t overwater here and now that I dug a well this past fall I’ll irrigate much more. Nothing has been killed by my winters yet
I wanted to start some seedlings of Ziziphus jujube, Cornus mas, and Maclura pomifera to use as rootstock for jujube, cornelian cherry, and che here, so I figured I might as well try out some of the Solanaceae offered by tradwindsfruit to get to the $30 free shipping.
I figured I’d try out Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) and Dwarf Tamarillo (Cyphomandra abutiloides) since I might actually be able to get them to fruit here, and I figured for a few dollars it would be worth trying out their Bolivian Tree Tomato (Cyphomandra uniloba) and Tlanoxtle (Lycianthes moziniana) since there’s roughly a 0.001% chance I ever encounter those unless I grow them myself.
Edit: I almost ordered some Noni seeds but figured my family wouldn’t appreciate the likely fruitless effort over the course of a few years just for a quick laugh…
Cornus mas is a bit of a pain to germinate. Needs cold/warm/cold.
Curious to hear how naranjilla works for you. Im guessing not well, but will be glad to hear what your experience is like. I grew a bunch of dwarf tamarillo this past year. It did great in the high tunnel. Friends who grew it outside had small plants and pretty small yields. Mine got 14 ft tall and produced a bunch from Sept-Nov when they were finally frosted out. The flavor took some getting used to, but they grew on me. I have pictures etc on another thread or two yoi can find by searching.
The Bolivian Tree Tomato (Cyphomandra uniloba) and Tlanoxtle (Lycianthes moziniana) sound interesting. Ill have to read up on them. I bought several interesting solanaceous plants from radianceseeds.com. He has some really interesting stuff. I especially want to try growing the pondaland coconut! Unfortunately he’s sold out currently. Pondaland coconut ( jubeopsis caffra) — Raindance seeds
A couple are close naranjilla relatives that i want to trial since naranjilla is supposed to be hard to grow outside its range. The casana sounds really promising! My last order I bought hardy tamarillo and some interesting Vasconscella (mt papaya) partly because babaco has proven to grow well for me here.
