I don’t have a greenhouse yet, but thanks to a few members here my citrus are doing fantastic when brought indoors for the winter. I’m wondering if there’s any other tropical fruits I can successfully fruit if under the same conditions.
I’m in zone 7 near Philadelphia, so putting them outside during the growing season & bringing them inside in my grow room during the winter is my only option. I know some things would take forever to ripen if at the appropriate size… like bananas or avocados… does anyone have any experience up north growing other tropicals that won’t take nearly as long indoors?
My indoor conditions:
Constant 80 degrees
Grow lights
20-30% humidity
I’m trying guavas inside for the first time this year. They’re a more shrub-like plant so hopefully they’ll do all right. Peppers tend to do well being brought inside for the winter.
I’m successfully growing Mango, Lychee, Longan, and Orange. But that defines “successful” as “not dead”, instead of “Fruiting”. The only things I’ve fruited indoors are blackberries (Prime Jan, which seem to keep bearing…) and strawberries.
Similar to Ross, I’ve been bringing them outside in the summer and in for the winter. In fact, I just brought them in last night, when the temp dropped to 36. It was a good call, as it continued lower to 32.3F, which probably would have been fatal for some (most?) of them.
One thing which may yet fruit is figs. I got these tiny plants back in August and brought a couple of them into the office. I have a South facing window, which they seem to like. In fact, one of the figs even seems to have a few baby figs growing on it, even though the entire plant is less than a foot tall.
Left: Longue D’Aout
Right: Gris de St Jean (several small figs)
Orange plants are good to grow indoors.It would be better to grow them in smaller pots so the growth of the plants will be smaller.Plastic pots would be easier to move around the house.
I’ve got a small growlight for starting seeds. So, once I start seeds, they get a bit of residual from it. But in general, no most of the light they get is from the windows and sliding doors.
I started it from seed in June 2013. It almost died when I forgot to water it for a while, then re-sprouted from close to the roots. This was about a year ago, so it has grown pretty well to get back to 5’ tall.
I’ve been noticing that the (3) oranges have grown pretty big, pretty quick. I think I’ve only had them for 1-1.5 years and am already considering pruning them back.
Yes, Anne. This chili plant has been with me since the spring of 2015. It has been outdoors from May to Oct.
Then, I move it in the house near the window. It gets sun from about noon to the end of the day. I water it when the soil is almost dry and use Miracle Grow liquid about every two weeks. So far, it has been producing well all year round.
