zone 9a, Florida panhandle. i am about 6 months in to growing a backyard orchard (i want a jungle!) and most fruit trees are spaced from a few feet to less than ten feet apart in my backyard and i want to keep everything small, no taller than about 7 feet, i don’t want to be using ladders in the future to prune, spray, frost protect, etc. i’ve managed to keep my citrus trees as small bushes. since i’ve read the book “Grow A Little Fruit Tree” i’ve been hopeful that i can keep every tree small and manageable. i’m hoping to get the temperate and semi-tropicals established for a better microclimate so that in the future i can plant more subtropicals in between. the problem is the temperate fruit trees are deciduous in the winter so i really need more evergreen semi-tropicals that can withstand upper teens for the lows, so far i have feijoas, loquats, yerba mate (not a fruit but good for tea!), simpson stopper. i would like to find other semi-tropical evergreens. i have citruses, cherry of the Rio Grande, natal plum, strawberry and lemon guavas, cold hardy Mexican avocados (still in pots, will plant in the ground), white sapotes (still in pots, will plant in the ground) are good but they are damaged/defoliated in the low 20s unless i protect them. any suggestions?
Look into olives, pomegranates, and mayhaws.
Pomegranates are deciduous. Olives could help develop a canopy, however they grow super slow so you’d be waiting forever. For your area I’d imagine Carambola and Acerola would be hardy however they are likely to defoliate in winter. Jaboticaba would also be a good bet in a protected spot. I love the dense planting style also am doing something similar. Nearly capped on space tho.
Opuntia ficus-indica is a delicious tropical evergreen
i have lots of pomegranates, but they’re not evergreen - even the vietnamese pomegranate which is an evergreen cultivar defoliated this winter. i don’t like olives and i have never tried mayhaws but i thought that was also deciduous.
i’ve been killing those prickly pears since i am tired of getting stabbed, they grow wild here, it’s hard to kill them, they keep popping up.
acerola trees are definitely not hardy here, they get killed to the ground here, i gave up on them. i have a small sabara jaboticaba and a kari starfruit but have them in pots, i think they will get killed in the mid to upper 20s.
I have an acerola in ground without any protection for its first winter since I had two while it’s defoliated, it’s definitely alive as I give it a scratch test from time to time. Granted only two nights into the 20s this winter. Maybe a grumichama?
There are plenty sellers of plants and periodicals offering “solutions” to those who dream of pushing the limits of their gardening environment. I include myself in the latter category.
The most heinous of these sellers offer “dwarf” cultivars of plants and either do not state or simply misrepresent the mature size – pruned or otherwise. The truth is that “dwarf” means “smaller than standard”. The dwarfness could be due to a rootstock or a genetic trait.
For rootstock-induced dwarfing, the effect is actually a slowing of growth and not always a shortening of height. Groves of citrus on trifoliate rootstock will reach staggering heights if left unpruned – it just takes longer than standard rootstock. For Prunus and many others, if the standard height is 50 ft in-ground, then the mature dwarf could be 35 ft unpruned and perhaps function at 20 ft with vigorous pruning.
I say “perhaps function” because some perennial species or hybrids will adapt their growth to vigorous pruning. Most Citrus are in this category (except Pomelo and original grapefruits). Regardless of rootstock, others will become a nightmare in the long run (excepting frigid climates). A few examples are Apricot (non-hybrid), most Avocados (not Holiday), Cherry of the Rio Grande, edible Fig (excepting true Bordeaux, aka VdB), Green Sapote, Japanese Plum (non-hybrid), Mulberry trees (excepting true M. nigra on its own roots), and White Sapote.
In the examples just listed, the trunk diameter near the base will expand to 12" within 5 to 15 years. Scaffolds from this trunk will approach 8" diameter. It will not be possible to control the annual height below 12 feet because new shoots from the trunk and scaffolds will grow 16 feet in their first year. At this point your crop will be firewood, not fruit.
i had four acerola cherry trees, i covered them with frost cloths and tents and they still got killed to the ground, only the two largest ones with 2 inch trunks were still alive near the roots. grumichama is only hardy to the mid 20s, i read but i don’t have that plant to test the hardiness. i have and am hoping moringa, surinam cherry, guabiju, pitanga jambo, sapodilla will withstand low 20s, but these have only withstood mid/upper 20s. btw i have planted bananas (which are still green and have been growing all winter) but they are the easiest to protect since they can be tightly wrapped with burlap, moving blankets and covered with a tent, other tropicals (like acerola) with large canopies are hard to protect because of all the airspaces where cold air can get in.
i actually think the winters here will cause dieback and limit growth of subtropicals like avocados and white sapote, whereas i fear the temperate climate fruits will get too big here. i have a 7 year old calamansi tree that is only two feet tall and three feet wide, even though it grows vigorously, i keep the size in check with regular pruning, it bears vigorously too. i’ve done the same for lemon and lime trees. when i bought bareroot temperate fruit trees with no laterals, i cut them all down to 1-2 feet to try to keep them small. Dave Wilson nursery and David the Good have a lot of info on keeping fruit trees small.
You underestimate my experience, but of course I fully appreciate your desire to obtain your own ground truths.
i’m not saying anything about your experience, i just think my growing conditions are not ideal, considering the cold winters here and storms (hurricanes, tornadoes) and other factors beyond my control, that are likely to damage trees and limit growth.
it’s rough here in north Florida, i have sand for soil and termites are endemic to this area. everything wants to eat my trees, from the roots to the leaves in the warmer months, i feel like i am doing pest control most of the year. and i lost quite a few trees this winter already from freezes. that is why i am trying to grow everything and see which survives and actually gives me fruit. if they ever do get big, i will root prune or re-locate.
I think I saw that you’re in Navarre? I’m surprised you hit upper 10s there every year on the coast. Destin’s lowest in the ASOS era (back to 96) is 20° and I don’t think PNS airport has hit teens every season, but they do have some upper 10s in the last couple of decades. Of course your long term climo includes some single digits if you go back to the 1980s so it could get dicey for you if one of those airmasses makes a return visit.
If I lived where you did I’d probably experiment with pummelos and macadamias. Young macadamias need sub freezing protection, but I’ve read of mature trees showing minimal damage with low 20s. I have a couple of potted ones that I bring in every fall. Maybe something like wampee would do well there with protection at times? I believe they’re evergreen too.
i think it’s only warmer right by the water where it’s densely populated. i have lots of woods and fields near me so i am colder than what the weather stations report. i can’t rely on the weather reports for actual current temps, i go by what my thermometers say. i will check the forecasts regularly and anticipate my temps to be 5 degrees colder and look at the other weather stations near me to compare. it’s hit the upper teens here every year in Navarre and Fort Walton for the past 7 years. Pensacola and Destin are more densely populated so they may be warmer. i have never tried wampee, though i did read it is hardy to the low/mid 20s.
yes, i have bananas, i’ve been protecting them most of the winter. i hope they will fruit for me, i planted several short cycle ones. thank you!
We got delicious chunky bananas off our Musa Orinco tree at our old home in Waycross. We bought it at the livestock market in Pearson, GA from a Honduran grower. Put it next to the dryer vent and a/c unit. They called it “Burro” variety that grew at higher elevations.
also when i see a reported low of 20, before i thought that was the lowest temperature recorded but it’s most likely the average low. so if various nearby weather stations report 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 degrees for their lows, the average low would be 20.