Hi Ch3rri,

Wow, fantastic tropical fruit trees. I have to say I can't do this although my weather is only about one zone cooler than yours. You really have a green thumb to grow all these. Besides the trees you purchased recently, I am surprised by the vigor of many trees you grew from seed, that requires experience and dedication.

So what's your secret to care for plants in winter?

Two thumbs up.

Beautiful trees. What sort of soil do you use? Thanks.

-Brett

I use potting soil. I add in some of the peat moss and perlite. Recently I add in some osmocote fertilizer with the soil.

I have a morning room so I take all of them in and leave them there. As for the dragon fruit, I leave it in the basement with some florescent lights. Oh, I forgot to take picture of my santol and guava. Will take it another day. :)

Hello Ch3rri,

Very nice pictures. I checked out your blog page and found a picture of your star apple. Is that grown from seed? My star apple seeds just sprouted so I am just a little curious.

Tomas

Boson,

I think most are grown from seed. When I purchased this a few years back they didn't have any grafted one available. I think it will take 5-7 years before you can get any fruit from the seed grown plant. This one is around 4-5 yrs old but still no fruit. So will have to be patience. :) It's a nice looking tree thou.

Really nice pics Ch3rri. The trees are looking very healthy.

Great pictures! All your fruit trees are looking so healthy, and seems to have really grown from last year! Great job! I'm with you, I can't wait to taste some of the fruits from these trees, we do so much work and give it so much TLC. All we want is to taste some of the fruits of our labor, lol...

Very cool! I grow tropicals also and I'm in zone 5a Pa. Trying to figure out how to post a pic to show but cant seem to figure it out! I have cocoa tree, avacado, dragon fruit, vanilla bean vine, banana trees, bay leaf tree then other oranges, lemon, kumquates.

Hi bluespiritartist,

You will need to upload the pictures to photobucket or some other host. Then you copy and paste the direct or html link here.

Hey ch3rri, how long have you had your dragonfruit in those pots? The dragonfruit can grow and fruit very well in small containers but the larger the better. Sometimes their roots grow very thick in the pot and you have to scrape the soil to let the roots breathe a little. Your DF looks very green and branchy so I would recommend reducing or eliminating the nitrogen you are giving it ( if you are giving any) and only give it phosphorus about a month or so before flowering is expected.

I have American Beauty, Halley's Comet, Yellow, and several experimental varieties from breeders and universities. All of my DF has fruited except for the Halley's Comet but I think it will fruit this year. You may want to foliar feed with some Super Bloom or other flowering fertilizer with low nitrogen if you want some fruit this year.

Hi Simon,

I changed the pot last year and it was so painful. :) Got scratches all over the arms from the thorn. I think it is too big for me to do anything with it. I'll leave it like that and going to spray more fertilizer on it.

I just went crazy again and ordered a whole bunch of fertilizer online hoping I can feed and get them to bloom. I ordered Kool Bloom 0-10-10, Rainbow Mix Bloom 1-9-2 with Mycorrhizae, Rooters Mycorrhizae Endo/Ecto Mycorrhae, and Maxicrop Original Liquified Seaweed. I'm still waiting for it to get here. I will spray a lot this year.:)

Hey ch3rri, you want to be sure not to give it any nitrogen at all because your plants are already so green and have enough mass to start bearing fruit. I always recommend people go organic and use the mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria but your small pot may not hold enough organic material for those large plants. The liquified seaweed is great but it will have some nitrogen which will make your DF grow even larger instead of producing flowers and fruit. You may want to fertilize with just phosphorus and foliar feed with the Kool Bloom. Let us know how it goes:)

old front yard, aggressive ficus tree, stringy wild mango tree and Aurica palm

broke out the chainsaw this weekend:

my new front yard.

Kampong Mauve SA

48/26 (Lisa) Atemoya

Rollinia, Biriba

Red Malay Apple,

im friends with a local nursery owner here that gets wholesale trees from Pine Island. the SA and Atemoya were both 7 gallon trees i planted yesterday in the ground. i got the SA for $30 and Atemoya for $40 :)~

the rolinia i got from the Broward County Rare Fruit Council for 25, it was a 1 gallon.

i wonder which will grow largest and fastest

Good prices for the 7 gallon. You might want to prune the some of the sugar apple limbs shorter to get a stronger form.

yeah the sugar apple is really lanky. i tried tying up that long branch because it was bare other than the leaves at the end so i wanted it to grow upright and form a canopy. its longer than the leader. is that how they normally grow or are they supposed to be bushy?

i need to get a longer post like i have on my atemoya.

i have to give you credit for growing tropicals in PA. i couldnt imagine the amount of dedication it takes, here you can pretty much forget about them for most of the year. i moved down here from NY two years ago and havent missed the winters at all.

Hi Boom,

I think if you prune it it will grow out more and stronger branches. I pruned my seedling twice already since the branches were long and skinny. I don't want it to weep like the weeping cherry since it might not be strong enough to hold the fruit later on.

Your so lucky that you could move to warmer area. :) We got a house and family here so it's hard for us. Actually it's not a whole lot of work since I move them out on the deck in the summer and move them back in the winter. Not a whole lot that I need to do.:)