To avoid posting in the west coast thread, figured we should start our own.
Anyone growing tropicals and subtropicals, experimenting with zone pushing etc please post your failures and successes.
My acerola in ground didn’t survive the winter somehow, I provided no protection other than the fence it was along, thought it would come back from the ground but has no signs of waking up. Everything else I’ve expanded on in other threads but very curious of people’s experiments in this field
@a_Vivaldi curious to hear how your myrcianthes do, I have some seeds yet to arrive from Marcus I’m excited about it. What are your germination rates
My Myrcianthus from Anderson Tropicals came pre-germinated for some reason, so they had a 100% germination rate for me…
That being said, I’m not convinced all of these are going to live. The roots were already getting bend into weird shapes and the sprouts look damaged. They’re on bottom heat in amply-sized pots to help keep moisture consistent. Here’s hoping…
My acerolas, which had been indoors, defoliated from a single night in the low 40s. Sure, they had been comfy indoors, but still, the guavas, CORG, pitangatuga, figs, and citrus I moved outside at the same time all were perfectly fine. I don’t think acerola has any hardiness at all. I may or may not keep mine, waiting to see if their fruit quality improves as they size up over the summer (the only ones I’ve tasted ripened indoors during the winter, not judging off of that).
I agree, anything that says they live in 9a is completely false. Because the low it was exposed to was 24. My potted one in the greenhouse didn’t defoliate, but it’s just not a great fruit in my opinion. I will likely let this one perish as space is a premium, and I’d rather not push a boulder up a hill.
Hoping my sugar apple seedlings will grow they did nothing all winter subjected to routine 38* in the greenhouse. The jackfruit seedlings were really happy too, they seem hardier than acerola imo
Thats interesting that yours lost it leaves in the low 40s. We don’t get frost, but mine have been in the ground most of the winter (they did miss our coldest couple of days). They’ve been fine through the 40s and high 30s at night. I know alot of these tropical plants can handle lowish temps but can’t handle frost at all.
In fairness, they had gone from consistently around 70 indoors to outdoors about a week before the night in the low 40s, so they were not hardened off for that kind of temperature.
That being said, none of my other plants showed any signs of distress, even pitangatuba which isn’t supposed to be hardy either.
Nearly all my tropicals are seedlings or new this year, but my Miracle Fruit bush is looking like a big harvest this year. We got the first fruit off it right before winter last year, but its already filled with flowers and I see some fruit forming. It has the tiniest little flowers, they look like little bumps on the branches.
My Barbie pink guava is full of buds now, looking like another great year of production. I’m gonna let my ice cream mango produce a fruit this year even tho it’s only 2 feet tall, its lifetime will be in a pot so I don’t mind stunting it. I’d just rather try one before it gets too big to move in and out of the greenhouse without significant pruning. The Silas woods sapodilla looks like it’s gonna bloom soon also, which I’ll let it produce also, any ideas on if they need thinning or will they self thin?
Planted my dragonfruit in my greenhouse because I couldn’t move it, it’s so heavy, and I know after a growing season (warm weather at least) it would be impossible to fit it back in. So I dug a hole around it and broke the pot off around it to slide it into a hole. Now I’ll have to use the fans all summer to not overheat it. Good thing is plenty of ants in there so they should pollinate it should it start to bloom.
Ps anyone shipped dragonfruit cuttings know the best way to pack them? I have 10 or so various cuttings callousing on my windowsill I need to sell/give away, but I bet shipping wouldn’t be cheap due to their size and about of packing required. I’d love to sell them locally
Mine didn’t take stress in or out of the greenhouse but it’s just one that I’m not sure I want to take up the room. 20 gallon pots fill my 8’x12’ greenhouse quickly. Kind of surprised it hasn’t pushed new growth or blooms yet
Ah, that might be part of it. Mine are in one gallon pots, they’re still pretty small. The biggest plant I have potted is a fig in a four-ish gallon pot. I’m dreading when I have to start breaking out the ten gallon and up stuff.
I for sure jumped the gun on some stuff into 17-20gallons but it always helped out everything in my case. Tend to go 1g, 3g, 5g, 20
Maybe it’s not correct but it’s worked for me.
Wish I had put my guava into a pot with handles, it’s just hard to move due to a slick pot with nothing to grip so I have to slide it; or bear hug it and carry it.
You use any fabric pots? I don’t love them because they dry out so quick and susceptible to tipping over daily for me. We almost never have no wind, and routinely 20+ gusts which have knocked over the key lime dozens of times. I hate that pot, but also not in love with that tree; which is odd for me because I love citrus. I just barely have use for it, since the meyers produce more lemons than I need already and limes and lemons serve the same purpose in my household.
My Chilean guavas:
2 unnamed basic Chilean guava
1 full of buds, other very healthy but yet to bud
1 villarica strawberry covered in buds
1 flambeau healthy but no buds yet
Kinda odd that they are 3 planted in the same spot and only 1 blooming all similar sizes. However it will be nice if they stagger blooming to spread out the ripening.
I need to knock on wood but I think I’ve gotten over the hump and finally gotten these little guys established. The key is I water them daily, and dappled light from 1pm on. Really excited to try the fruit
Color me impressed. I had four in different spots and not a single one made it. Next year I’ll try one more time in a spot behind the house where it stays cool and wet enough I have a bunch of ferns growing.
I haven’t tried fabric pots, no. I’ve considered it, but we’ll wait and see. If I do, it might just be for winter-pushing summer vegetables. I don’t want to keep anything in pots long enough for it to need more than 5 gallons, mayyybe a bit more for figs since I do have some of those that will permanently be in pots. All the subtropicals will eventually end up in ground. Long-term, aside from a few true tropical plants I might grow a bit just for curiosity about the taste, I’m planning on only having stuff that’s either fully hardy or close enough I can plant in-ground and just protect a bit.
The figs are an exception because some of them I want to keep in pots for season-extension and for brebas.
How is the fruit on it? I have a pinkpop, planted a purple and a banana just curious if they can survive from the root most winters (the latter two)
The may pops I have tried I didn’t love, so if this one doesn’t taste good I’ll try to remove it, kind of regret planting it because it sends runners 12 ft away from where it’s at so I’ll likely never get rid of it.
I haven’t had it completely ripened yet as last year the plants were new and didn’t flower until pretty late. But picked green and left on the counter for a few weeks they changed color. At that point, they had good flavor, classic passion fruit I’d say, just not as aromatic as normal. More tart than a vine ripened local maypop, but there was some sugars there as well. I’m thinking this year will be more of what they’ll actually taste like long term.
Big, great smelling flowers on these. Definitely superior to maypop for that.
A friend wants to grow avocado here in 8A coastal Maryland. Would have to be in pot, right? In winter would it go dormant for storage in say unheated garage, or would it need a sunny window indoors? Any cultivar favorites for this experiment?
Very nice looking plant. Is that the regular Psidium cattleianum? If so, wow, such different leaves for such a closely related sub-species.
My hybrid passifloras are from eBay. There’s a seller called passiflorista who carries them and who is very good. He has good prices, nice plants, and is quick to respond to messages. The plants do get fairly big, but so far I haven’t had any suckering (though honestly too early to tell). The stems are thicker than normal maypop, and the plants overall have a different texture, it’s bolder, more serrate, and I’d say showy than maypop, even before the flowers start.
I would say to skip the avos. They do not enjoy being in a pot at all. Mine in ground do well, but they need a lot of surface roots and are so susceptible to root rot it’s a matter of time in a pot I think. However if he’s determined to, I’d go with a large circumference pot
