Lemon guava close to the house and with simply a water can beside it
“Vivaldi guava” from @a_Vivaldi seeds without protection
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I brought them inside and keep them covered with a box. I had them in my greenhouse before, but it gets a little chilly in there now. They formed buds last week and are pushing new growth now.
I also received Kei Apple cuttings from Marta. They are pushing leaf growth as well.
Grafted a side branch on the loquat. I overestimated the thickness that a scion would be (never grafted before and have only bought fig and sugarcane cuttings before now) so it really only fit on a side branch. At least with a cleft graft. She sent extra of the feijoa (and I also ordered two on accident) so I multi-grafted it. Trimmed alot of the lower branches away. Wasn’t an idle time to graft, but they don’t store for long and if I waited I couldn’t get the cuttings I wanted.
Also got Australian Green mulberry scion and grafted that to some 1 year old rooted cuttings. Already starting to push growth. These guys are in the greenhouse along with a carob graft.
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Well I use incandescent lights on a smart outlet to turn on when the temperature drops below freezing. Woke up this morning to 32 and no lights on, this year I’ve had a lot of issues with it going offline, glad it didn’t dip too low as I have it set to turn on at 34*. Everything should be fine, but I need to come up with a better solution than this haha.
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In my experience the grafts really have a much higher chance of succeeding if you graft at the right time of the year and when you cut off all the other branches. New branches will then grow from the graft itself and you will be able to graft to those next year.
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In my experience psidium robustum isn’t hardy at all and will die at first frosts. Psidium Longipetiolatum and some varieties among the Psidium Cattleianum species are the most hardy ones that have survived for me. But in my mind P. Cattleianum has turned out to be the most cold hardy.
I just made a video about my experience with different cold hardy guavas:
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Hi. The most hardy psidium is the true longipetiolatum… By far!
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Its been a few days since we dipped into the 20s (official low of 28, so somewhere between 27 and 32 throughout the yard), and what is and isn’t damaged is clear. Nothing is outright dead and most things will recover. The only stand out things I saw where that the younger pigeon pea leaves are fine while the older are all dead and my miracle fruit continues to not care at all about cold weather. Otherwise, it went as expected. Lots of dead leaves but lots of green trunks and branches. Hopefully this will stim a bunch of new growth in my Ice Cream Beans.
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@Gkight how are your Chilean guavas? Did you get to taste and compare?
Does anyone grow the Black ugni myricoides? How does it compare with Burbank? I’m thinking about picking one for a container.
Anyone to comment on whether the villarica strawberry really is hardy to 5 degrees? Tempted to get one to plant.
follow up question- has anyone grown it from seed? How long to mature and fruit? Would variegated seeds likely yield a variegated plant?
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My strawberry villarica and Jim gerdeman both died during summer. I only have one surviving and it’s doing well but it hasn’t fruited. The villarica fruited prolifically but nothing became fully ripe and it died from it and the heat. If my final surviving plant dies I won’t replace it. I feel like I’ve given more than enough effort, but the winters haven’t been an issue for me.
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I’m sorry to hear that. I found a discourse in some best fruit thread of you and @a_Vivaldi talking about it. It sounds like you had them in shade?
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Yeah the remaining one is tucked away behind my greenhouse and against its north is my neighbor’s fence. It hasn’t grown fast but these plants grow slowly anyhow. It seems to thrive off of neglect here, so I will continue to ignore it until I can possibly taste the fruits, of which are very tiny.
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Dare I ask which one is still alive? Did you test the black one?
Sub 25 for 2 nights is when my miracle fruit finally took some damage. It is probably my most cold hardy tropical behind jaboticaba which took no damage. Both of these plants have some protection, but they also hade ice all around them both of those nights. I either have an exceptionally cold tolerent miracle fruit, or the reports of it dying below 45 and even in the 30s are speculation as opposed to trialed.
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Just the generic one, so likely Burbank as that seems to be what is the most common.
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Similarly my miracle fruit died in summer also, so I never got to test its cold hardiness. It doesn’t seem very heat tolerant
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I wonder if they need mild everything and dry air like their higher altitude homes, has anyone tried one as a house plant?
I decided a doomed project was better for 27, so I’ll (likely) corroborate your results in a slightly cooler environment next year.
It is not a direct sun plant, despite places claiming it is. Mine is in dappled light for most of fall through spring, and in the summer some structures block most of the early sun so it only gets about 6 hours. And since it usually rains in the evening it doesn’t usually even get that.
The 45 gallon ones we have at work were in full shade until we had to move them into the greenhouses. They almost instantly started to see sun damage, but they are big enough to survive until we take them back out.
I think luma (another Chilean plant) has the same issue. They seem to like climates that are mild and consistent, which the Southeast is not.
Mine wasn’t in direct sunlight, basically no sun, dappled at best. But I think the heat and drought got it.
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I just found this thread. I really should be more active on this site its nice to talk to other people who care about fruit trees and plants as much as i do.
Anyway I’m growing Jelly palm ( this might be my favorite fruit), feijoa, going to try some citrus next winter, sabal minor i guess if it counts it is edible and sometimes can taste good. ill definitely try more and more every year since I’m a little new to growing stuff. I’m in zone 7b by the way.
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Is jelly palm really tasty? A nearby neighbor of mine has one and I remember seeing it loaded in fruit, but didn’t think to ask if I could try one. Most of them (if not all) fell to the street but it’s not very close to me so I was always just driving when I noticed it. What time of year is the fruit typically ripe?
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