growing fruit bearing avocado indoors. can it be done?
fullmetal13
13 years ago
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Growing Subtropical and Tropical Fruit Indoors
Comments (7)Gardeners in the true tropics may hate me for saying this but I find the flavor of our native passionfruit to be pretty equal to P. edulis or any of the purple round ones or the large yellow forms found in the tropics. You just have to let them fully ripen (fall off the plant) and start to wrinkle to get the tropical tones to the juice. Otherwise they taste fine but not extra fine. The problem with potted papayas is that flowering and fruiting are affected - you'll see what I mean if you get somewhere that you can grow one outside (even in your zone). The trees just grow better with their roots in the ground. In pots the fruit struggle to size up and ripen. The Mexican types have better flavor when greenhouse grown but those are the ones that get extra tall and have watermelon sized fruit - no way to grow them inside a house. You might want to try the little Strawberry Guava - the bushes don't get covered with fruit like a kumquat but you'll find yourself wanting more and more of them once you start eating them (I think they are even better than regular guavas). They are hardy to like 28 degrees so you can wait until it really gets cold to move them indoors. I don't grow Mango but the few that I have seen only produce a few fruit when grown in pots. I'm lucky that I live near a large Asian market that has all sorts of mangoes to choose from. I'm in zone 7b and move all my potted plants into a simple hoophouse that I only keep above freezing so the winter heating doesn't cost too much. I think the cool winters does a lot to improve blooming in the citrus. It seems to me that the tropicals that produce smaller berry type fruit do best when grown in pots out-of-zone....See MoreWANTED: Wanted indoor citrus vaieties that will bear fruit
Comments (4)If you go after Jan 26, you can get almost all the plants 50% off. Most Chinese people buy flowering plants (azalea, narcissus, citrus) and cut flowers (forced pussy willow, plum, forsythia) before the actual day so they have them blooming on the day of in their house, but I've learnt that prices drop dramatically, sometimes more than 50%, after the day of. My grandparents have always kept with the tradition of buying them before. :D Make sure you barter! The citrus usually run $20+ in 2 gallon or bigger pots....See MoreAvocado - Can we grow it in Georgia?
Comments (8)You can grow _Persea borbonia_, a close relative of the edible avocado, outdoors in Georgia. _Persea borbonia_, the red bay, is native to the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Delaware southward. It's a beautiful, broadleaf evergreen whose leaves can be used in cookery like the familiar bay leaf. There is a beautiful planting of _Persea borbonia_ surrounding UGA's famous Arch on Broad Street in Athens. The fruit of _Persea borbonia_ is dark blue and attractive but too small to be useful as a food source for humans; however, some songbirds enjoy it. You should be able to grow your own "grocery store" type of avocado very easily. First, buy an avocado or two and remove the seeds. Use about three toothpicks, gently pressed into the outer surface of the avocado pit to suspend the seed, blossom end down, over the surface of water in a regular-sized glass or small jar. The end of the seed should barely touch the water. In a few days, roots should emerge from the avocado pit, followed soon by a growth shoot from the other end of the pit. Pot your plant into a good growing medium when it looks ready for independent living. The "grocery store" avocado requires a frost-free climate to be grown outdoors year round....See MoreWhat banana trees can be grown in zone 7b? Where do they bear fruit?
Comments (7)Hardy banana, Musa basjoo, will grow in zones 5 and above but is a fully herbaceous perennial (dies back to the roots in winter) in colder zones. In mild winter zones, these can maintain some height as a tree and in very mild zones (9 and above), they are nearly fully evergreen. They do produce fruit but it is small, green and inedible. You need at least a very mild z8 climate to produce second year pseudostems (no winter dieback), which will then flower and produce fruit. Edible bananas are produced from very tropical locations - hybrid plants that need a frost free zone (z10 and 11)....See Moredenninmi
13 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years agodenninmi
13 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years agogreenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
13 years agofullmetal13
13 years agodonzuke12
10 years agocampv 8b AZ
10 years agobrandon7 TN_zone7
10 years agosmithmal
9 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
9 years agosmithmal
9 years agoMark Rees
6 years agoMichelle Lerch Sedlak
6 years agoYu Hwa
6 years agoDave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agomkirkwag
6 years ago
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