Chobrego, wow everything looks great! I'm mostly envious of your RV though, ha ha. I've always wanted one.. but kinda pointless here. In particular, what do you have espalier'd? I'm attempting to espalier some pomegranates (they're in the ground), but the growth is SO painfully slow. I'm seriously considering taking them out and training them as trees in containers. If I take them out, I'd like to put a lamb Hass avocado tree there since their growth is more upright compared to many other varieties.

I have a small backyard that can only support maybe three fruit trees in the ground. I have a baby Rapoza mango, a Eureka lemon, and those pomegranates in the ground (although like I mentioned, I may put a Lamb Hass there). We also have a ginormous palm tree. Front yard, I have tons of bananas and one day, I'll plant a Hawaiian Malama avocado tree there- it is in a pot now and so tiny. Everything else is in containers. Sigh.. I'd move to the countryside in a heartbeat if it meant tons of room for fruit trees, but of my family of four, I'm the only one who would prefer the "country" here in HI. We live in a little established town and yard space is a HUGE luxury, especially when the prices of houses here are already stratospheric. Honestly though, I can't complain as my yard space is bigger than most here.

I espaliered the peach trees and the fig. Tropic beauty and Tropic Snow are two fantastic varieties from the University of Florida that produce large excellent quality peaches in our climate. They only need about 100 to 150 chill hours (below 40) while a normal peach may require 600 or more. I'm also envious that you live in Hawaii -- you can grow several trees that I can't since we're in the subtropics; breadfruit, mangosteen, rambutan, etc. I hear it's such a beautiful place.

That's really impressive. What is your watering system?

I use a rain machine wifi irrigation ($80 I think) and dedicated a zone for drip irrigation. I mainly use rain machine 8 nozzle drips on pvc. They are cheap and easy to install. Works great and very low maintenance. The plants get about three minutes of 4gph in the morning and in the afternoon each day. The soil stays moist but not oversaturated this way.

Thanks very much for the details.

ETA I'd love to see a video tour of your yard sometime.

Chrobrego nice setup!! Hey quick question, what nursery did you find achacha? I want one for the yard

I wish I had found them at a nursery. I got a couple of small just-sprouted seedlings from a lady who bought the seeds from someplace in Brazil. They are SLOW growers -- looking healthy but only about 8 leaves after a full year. Garcinias I'm told start off really slow but rapidly catchup later on -- about 4 years to fruit. You have to start them out in partial shade too -- the full sun will burn the leaves quickly.

I'm going to have to buy seeds or a tree online but I hate dealing with Internet Sales with trees.

For Achacha you might want to check with Pine Island nursery. At the Brevard Tropical Fruit club's tree sale back in April this year, Pine Island brought about 30 of them up, all about 3 and a half feet tall. That is where I got mine.

Thank you dangermouse! I'm going to have to call tomorrow. My wife is from Bolivia and her and I both love the fruit but haven't had any for a while now since the last time we went.

Wow is all I can say!!! I was expecting a jungle but you've done a beautiful job planning it all out. I love that it still looks like a backyard oasis and not a farm You will be eating healthy all year long!

Thanks wanna_run-faster. Our family is eating a lot of fresh produce now and have PLENTY to share too. My 80 yr old mother routinely does her 'shopping' trip by walking through my yard. My wife is the reason it doesn't look like a jungle -- a quick 'no' from her usually keeps my planting limited to the better positions.

Chrobrego

we are 2 peas in a pod.

i am maximizing space, and sun. i think my yard is a little smaller, or maybe its just the greenhouse i built that is taking up space.

anyway, i am in New Orleans (9a) and am growing almost the same list as you

Mamey bottom-left, Pomegranate, bottom-center, mulberry-right, papaya-left

barbados cherry -center-rear, Feijoa center-right, autumn olive-right, starfruit center-left, mango in containers, 4 jujube and 2 strawberry gauva yellow and red are hard to see. Mex-cream guava in container bottom left.

Jaboticaba, chickory, passionflower vine on house

Jujube fruit

blood orange -center, autumn olive, mango (against fence, with fruit) Jaboticaba-red, fig

pink guava-left, Mex Cream guava-middle, Black mission fig center-front, Mutingia-right, moringa left-rear

Cherimoya, Black Sapote

Kiwi -Loquat (old pic, they are much larger now)

large Mamey =left

Greenman62, love the yard. I would definitely feel right at home in your garden. You've maximized your space incredibly well! Very brave of you to grow Mamey in 9a. How's it coming along? I would love to have one, but I'm afraid a freeze will zap it; same for growing jackfruit.

Mamey is 3yrs old

2 years ago in winter it lost all leaves and even a few small branches, and the very top as well.

Last winter was not as bad. we had one frost. it hit 32F for a few hours. it had lost a couple of leaves and stopped growing, but besides that it is doing well. I heard green sapote is more hardy and tastes just as good. i wish i had gotten seed for that instead.

Jackfruit are not doing so hot. i lost 2 thier first year (3yrs ago). i have 1 in ground that frose back to a nub, and 1 in a container that had lost leaves and a twig or 2. last winter, again, was not harsh at all, and they did better, but still lost leaves, and it took months for them to grow new ones.

this is the container plant. - recent pic

this is the in ground plant - pic is from April

it looks MUCH better now, it has lots of green leaves. just hoping we get another mild winter

I think tropical fruit growers are the few people in the world happy with global warming. I may just buy a gas guzzler to help speed the warming up a bit -- might let me finally grow that jackfruit I've been wanting.

Chrobrego,

it's amazing how you can plant so many plants and still be able to maintain a spacious yard. Do you have a double or triple lot there? My double lot is quickly filling up ... I haven't counted how many plants, but I have bought more plants than I can handle .. lol. I have put some in the ground this year. I'll post some pix later. Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures of your plants and yard.

Greenman,

I love all the pictures of your yard too. You really do have a huge collection there and they all seem to be growing so well for you. I can tell you've put in a lot of effort there. I hope you'll be able to enjoy your harvest all summer long. Right now, only my mango, banana and gojiberry and pineapple guava are fruiting. We've just harvested all our lychees in June and earlier in Apr/May our blueberry.

Chrobrego - very inspiring to see how you maintain your yard. I'm curious where you got those black plant stands under your pots? I have mine all huddled together on the brick so they kind of shade each other, that brick gets pretty hot in the summer. My small collection that I have here in Jacksonville FL includes:

3 dragonfruit (Halley's Comet, Physical Graffiti, and a Vietnamese white fleshed one)

3 jaboticaba (Sabara, Grimal, and a red jaboticaba)

4 mangos (lemon zest, carrie, pickering, mahachanok)

1 pitangatuba

2 sapodilla

In the yard not pictured I have 2 murcott oranges, 2 yuzu, and a celeste fig

noobfruit, I like how you potted your dragon fruit with the wooden frame. Do the pots tip over when the wind is strong? I have one dragon fruit that is so twisted that I dare not even try anything on it for fear of being stabbed by it ... lol. So, it's still in its original pot when I bought it. I should have done something to i when it was younger ...

So far no issues with the pot blowing over, but the dragonfruit are only a year old. Before they get too top heavy I will probably have to build some sort of box...

noobfruit, I have absolutely no room left, but I really want a pitangatuba. Heard they are great.

Your Muntingia calabura tree interested me since I'd never heard of it. Upon further research I found;

"In Florida, in recent years, the fruits are infested with the larvae of the Caribbean fruit fly and are accordingly rarely fit to eat."

Do you find this to be true in Orlando? I'm concerned since I live near Miami which is obviously much more south and therefore closer to the Caribbean and their fruit flies.

Source: https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/jamaica_cherry.html

Hi,

I've had the trees for a couple of years now, and haven't had any issues. The fruit is excellent here. I'm not sure about Miami (fruit flies are more established there), but Orlando is fine. I also can grow guava without bagging so I think we must not have many flies here.

FWIW, I live in Stuart and have been investigating getting a muntingia calabra and I haven't found anyone in this area who has fruit fly problems, either.

Does achacha handle Florida 9B winter frosty nights without protection?