Cool pics, Stephen!

I see your Cavendish & Orinoco trees in the third pic, but where's the dragonfruit?

Rodney,

Dragon fruit is hiding in there. Most of them are not over 3ft. I had slow growth on them, probably the weather we were having. How are all your plants doing? You should post them up here.

Wow- nice collection. And everything looks so healthy and happy. You must keep on top of the watering- do you have to do it everyday? Do you ever get frost? What do you do with your plants then?
You container growers get my respect.

ray,

Frost is very rare in my zone. There are commercial avocado groves a couple miles down the road from my area. If I expect cold temps, I simply move all my frost tender plants close to the side of the home. I don't usually grow any ultra tropicals. My most tender plant would be the Acai Palm.

Watering is done depending on the weather. If its in the 80s with low humidity, its done every other day. If its anything over 90 degrees its done every day and sometimes twice a day in a heatwave. Most of the time its in the mid to high 70s. In this case watering is done every 2 days.

Most everything is very healthy, its not perfect though. I got some plants that don't do so well or are on my watch list. I pamper my plants with good liquid fertilizers and foliar spray. My biggest battle sometimes is keeping the alkaline water from impacting the plants health and growth (I use pine bark mulch and vinegar to help with this).

My feeding schedule is close to this:

About once a month, I will water with a fertilizer mix.

Occasional vinegar is mixed in to lower water PH.

I also add new compost from my bin every 2-3 months as a top dressing.

Small cut pine bark mulch is added about every 2-3 months as well. Alternate months with the compost adding.
--------------

As for the containers they come in all shapes and sizes. With the smallest being 1 gallon (these have more water retentive soil mixes usually unless cactus or drought tolerant plants are growing in them). My larger containers are half wine barrels, a large wood tree container (+30 gallon), and 30 gallon plastic drums cut in half (I make these containers to save on money). I also have a few SWC totes and SWC 5 gallon buckets I made as well. I plan to standardize most of my containers however with the homemade 15 gallon drum ones. For me 15 gallons seems like the perfect size, not to big or to small.

The soil mixes vary, on average they consist of Peatmoss, Perlite, Pine Bark, Sand, and compost.

Here's pics of new growth on the dragonfruit cuttings since September

Vietnamese Giant(is it aka Vietnamese Jaina on Pine Island's viewer?)
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Purple Haze
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Yellow Dragonfruit
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Rodney,

Looking good, you have your DF in 3 gallon containers?

Great updates nullzero, looks like you will have some nice citrus really soon and hopefully your Elixir Cherimoya fully ripens. I am very interested in how the Elixir tastes as I have never tasted it. It is supposed to be a very good variety. Keep us updated, I've never grown papaya but if you can do it in zone 9, I'm willing to give it a try here in zone 10.

Simon,

I am hoping the Elixir makes it to full ripeness. My main concern is critters getting to it. I plan to bird netting wrap it nicely when it gets slightly bigger. I believe my zone is a borderline zone 9b closer to a zone 10. Its interior orange county about 12-14 miles NE from the ocean. Temps usually never go below 35

Papayas are sunrise seedlings, obtained from Rodney. They are growing vigorously and looking good. I figured we get good heat most of the year, ripening sweet papayas should be obtainable. I plan to up the papayas into a 15 gallon pot in about a month.

You may notice in the pictures, most of the containers are setting on top of concrete pavers. I believe this helps create a nice micro climate at night when the pavers dissipate the heat. Another micro climate is the proximity to the home. This is nice since the home also stores heat and releases it during the night. The white color of the house, seems to help too. I believe the plants receive extra light to the shader parts of the tree (since the white bounces off around 85% of the light).

People often overlook the microclimate possibilities. You can get a lot of extra yield and zone pushing just by painting things white and black. On my homemade plastic containers, I spray paint them dark grey. I figure dark grey will absorb some of the light for heating the root zone but not to much where it can cause problems in a heatwave.

Nice container plants! Also, thanks for the tips on how to microclimate plants.

-Bo

Nice plants Nullzero,
are you renting, I see open ground there? Perhaps you need some more plants?
MWAH HAH HAH HAH ( thanks for posting,
-Ethan

DF is looking good Rodney.

Ethan,

Yeah I am renting. When I do decide to purchase my own home, I may still keep a lot of container trees going. Perhaps keeping the container plants as mothers for propagation. I still have a wish list lol of about 4-5 trees. I want 2 new mangoes, another avocado, and a star fruit. I also have some cuttings from UC Davis, which I should expect around March.

Nullzero,
I "own" my home and have many more plants potted than in the ground. Many of them have to be placed in a heated greenhouse for winter, some even come inside. With the combination of some pretty incredible people that I trade with plus the purchases of plants and seeds, I have ended up with lots of plants I never knew I needed. Careful, it can be an addicting hobby......you still need figs, wampi, guavas, sapodillas, black sapote, yellow sapote, green sapote, rambutan, pulasan, durian, mangosteen......:)

good luck,
-Ethan

Ethan,

Lol, I know what you are saying. I already have the guava (2 strawberry guava plants). I have a fig growing too. I was not really interested in the ultra tropicals, because of the special care needed and lack of greenhouse. I am pretty happy with my collection atm. Will maybe update with some new pics this sunday, will take some pics of the plants I did not get last time.

@ Nullzero

Oh my , I need to get me some Yacon, where did you get the plant? or rhizomes? any chance i could get some rhizomes from ya when your plant matures?

I know they don't produce viable seeds.

from research i have done seems it was once cultivated in the Dominican Republic, but had vanished decades ago, I assume that natives taught some of the Europeans, but eventually was lost. the plant will not propagate on its own, it requires human assistance.

More on Yacon:

A clip from herbalguides.com:

"However, a visionary Italian agronomist called Mario Calvino was the one who initiated the cultivation of Smallanthus sonchifolius in Europe, before World War II, in the temperate lowlands of Sanremo, Italy, where this plant species prospered vigorously. He met Smallanthus sonchifolius by chance, while he was working in the Dominican Republic, and decided to take some tubers to Northern Italy, hoping the plant become a high-protein content palatable fodder, as well as a possible source of sugar in order to produce alcohol as fuel.

From CalvinoâÂÂs fields, Smallanthus sonchifolius spread to other zones in Southern Europe, although with scarce success. Hence, the cultivation of this plant species in order to produce alcohol and inulin from its roots, as well as fodder and vegetables from the whole plant, resulted successful in Italy, although not in Germany Bredemann, 1948). However, war interrupted abruptly its diffusion. After the war, Calvino and his plant were forgotten."

All I can say , is that nobody in the D.R knows anything about Yacon now, seems the plant has become extinct here.

I have read that Yacon wont propagate on its own but from reading the website seems there may be some varieties that are do. they are related to Jerusalem artichokes.

REally impressive container orchard! And very true advice about micro climates, and manipulating climate using materials to absorb, reflect sun. This is common knowledge in other growing areas of the world, but not too utilized here.
Are the orange buckets with the hose cut showing self watering, if so may i ask what wicking material you find most successful?
Do you grow your blueberries in containers? I am trying this, but they seem not too happy. Any advice?
I have a yacon that I am just now harvesting. It is a HUGE plant, so be ready for that cute little plant you have now to
grow much bigger!

tropicdude,

I purchased my Yacon from Fry's Road Nursery. If you can't obtain a plant, I could possibly send some cuttings in a month or so. I hear the Yacon can produce viable seed (although its finicky). Creating viable seed depends largely on the variety from what I hear. Another neat fact about yacon, is it can be grafted on a sunflower to help induce flowering.

Tanya47,

The buckets are indeed self watering containers. Peatmoss soil mix works out the best with wicking. However other materials such as perlite and vermiculite will work to a degree. I even use a sand mix in some of the self watering containers, was mainly an experiment but it seems to work as well.

I do grow blueberries in containers. Here is what I have learned. The water in SoCal, mostly leans alkaline high 7s to low 8s. Therefore we are at a disadvantage to growing blueberries and other acid loving plants. This is what I have found works out well;

Mulch nicely with pine bark every 3 months. Insure the soil mix has a good deal of peat moss and or pine bark mixed in. Try to use rainwater when able, collect it in a large barrel and use it mainly for the PH sensitive plants. Water with a tablespoon of vinegar added per gallon. Also watering with fertilizer usually helps lower PH. Grow Sunshine Blue variety, it has a much higher tolerance then the other blueberry plants I have grown.

we have very alkaline water too, a layer of mulch in the yard definitely helps to combat that.

i grow my blueberries in a mixture of peat and sphagnum, same thing i grow miracle fruit in.