Bulletproof Stone Fruit for the Deep South/Gulf Coast - Zone 8b

General Fruit Growing
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There is a lady on youtube… Jan Doolin… central FL zone 9b that grows many varieties of mulberries.

She has a Jans Best that she really brags on… it is everbearing (multiple crops a season, with pruning) and it loads up with delicious fruit…

It might just work for your zone.

You might try Medlar… some list it as ok for zone 5-9. Ripens very late in season and has to either hang on the tree or sit in the counter for some time to fully ripen… some say they let them hang on the tree and are still eating them in November, December. Taste like cinnamon spiced apple butter per Burnt Ridge nursery.

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I grow a few types of mulberry but I only did not recommend them due to having never actually had a mulberry. But that’s most of the fruit I grow haha and hence why I grow most of the fruit I grow. But by all means grow some mulberries!

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Again really appreciate all the advice. Hope the avos work out for you. My old neighbor in New Orleans had a beautiful 25ft tall Mexican avo in their front yard that I saw loaded with fruit a couple years. Inspired plant envy for sure haha

What other species of Eugenia and psidium are you trying?

Anyone growing nuts like American hazelnuts, chinquapins, Chinese or Chinese hybrid chestnuts, pecans, shellbark hickory or black/white walnuts or any others in 8b/9a? I planted 5 bareroot of each this year since I’m on a couple acres. Wondering if anyone has experience with them or other nuts?

Thanks

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Eugenia- involucrata, speciosa, complicata, repanada, brasiliensis, neonitida, myrcianthes, uniflora, pyriformis, hyemalis, and sp “sweet blackberry”

Psidium- littorale, cattleyanum, “Barbie pink” (in a pot) and seeds/lings (most yet to germinate) longipetiolatum, myrtoides, robustum, and “Vivaldi cattle guava” seeds from @a_Vivaldi which look to be some sort of hybrid

Hopefully some will succeed in ground, but for sure not all, as planting locations are almost nonexistent now haha but I’m sticking and moving

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Thanks for elaborating. I’m trying to send you a message but can’t find the message button facepalm

I’d love a few seeds of the Cattley guava. That’s really nice of you.

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That’s awesome. Where did you find all those varieties?

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A few sources between people selling on The Tropical Fruit Forum - Index
A few Etsy shops but mostly from
https://www.huertasurbanas.com/shop/
And https://www.bellamytrees.com/

It’s been a constant trickle ever since I started haha more like a firehose actually on second thought. There are over 1000 Eugenia so it’s a fruitless endeavor to try and collect all of them, but I can try haha

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Hahaha. Awesome stuff

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I don’t have room for them, but people in Mississippi grow pecans.

The big muscadine breeder at UGA is also into breeding pecans.

I don’t know of any other type of tree nuts that do well in the south. That’s not to say that pecans are the only tree nut that you can grow.

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