Hi everyone! Can all the gardeners who follow me please reply to this post so that a couple of my friends (new to mastodon) can find you and follow you too? #gardening #nativeplants #foraging #permaculture #tropicalgardening #tropicalfruit #growyourown #sustainability #indoorgardening #Costoflivingcrisis
@jblue I somehow missed this post before! I only dabble in most types of #gardening but I've been interested in zone pushing #ColdHardy #subtropical #FruitTrees for awhile, and that led me to organize the #avocado breeding project this account is focused on. It's a long shot, but I'm hoping we can find or produce avocado trees able to survive and maybe even flourish here in the #pnw #cascadia
@drymifolia you should really get in touch with @virginiafruitgrower He’s been growing subtropical and tropical trees in zone 8 for over 20 years and basically knows everyone else who has doing a long time. He’s really knowledgeable and could introduce you to people.
Have you ever tried growing canistel just for yourself? It’s self-fertile, pest resistant and will fruit indoor(winter)/outdoor(spr-fall) method. It’s my favorite. Especially when it’s gushy.
@jblue @virginiafruitgrower Honestly, I've never really been a fan of canistel. They are ok as smoothie ingredients but I wouldn't seek them out. Here are just a few of the "hardy subtropicals" I've tried outdoors in recent years (besides Mexican avocados) but mostly these haven't fruited yet:
Seeded #banana (a few types, none have fruited because p-stems die back in winter)
Loquat (still small but they are doing fine)
Guabiju (growing slow, but so far hardy)
Ubajay (suffer winter damage, but keep coming back)
Psidium longipetiolatum (suffers winter dieback but slowly growing bigger)
Luma apiculata (fruits prolifically)
Feijoa (stubbornly refuses to flower for me, but I've added grafts of other varieties over the last couple years, maybe this is the year)
Chilean guava (most of them have been killed, one is barely clinging to life)
... and others...
@jblue @virginiafruitgrower In the #greenhouse, I've got a few others planted in the ground (though that's mostly dedicated to the collective avocado efforts):
Dwarf Cavendish #banana that's around 7-8 ft now and I'm hoping for a flag leaf soon.
Various types of #dragonfruit but most of them seem to suffer pretty badly from the greenhouse winter lows and slug pressure. None have fruited yet.
A seedling mango (ataulfo) that has grown slowly and steadily.
A "TDE3" (aka Tahoe Gold) #citrus, which flowered and set fruit last year, but a squirrel got in the greenhouse when the doors were open and picked them early.
And some others are potted (so in the greenhouse in winter, outside in summer):
Tropical #guava
A few types of citrus
Smyrna figs
Coffee
... and more...
@drymifolia @virginiafruitgrower I don’t know Luma apiculata. Does it taste good?
I don’t trust the internet when it comes to fruit flavors. I got some seeds to a fruit that were supposed to taste like pineapple and they ended up tasting like sugary battery acid.
@jblue @virginiafruitgrower Well my toddler loves it, but there is definitely a resinous taste reminiscent of citrus skin that can be very strong when slightly underripe and still somewhat present when very ripe. The seeds are also large and crunchy, but don't bother me. The fruit looks similar to a blueberry inside and out, other than the large seeds. It ripens in late fall into early winter, which is one big plus since there's not much else that's ripe then here.
@drymifolia @virginiafruitgrower thanks for this info. I don’t think I’ll grow it then. Have you tried hackberries in your climate? There are some native species. They fruit truckloads in the fall and don’t really rot unless it’s damp. There isn’t much fruit on the flesh but it is sweet. The nut has a lot of protein and it’s really hard but if you steam it, it softens and you can grind it into a paste.