Dwarf/miniature tropical fruit tree
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gnappi
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Can someone explain ultra-dwarf and genetic dwarf fruit trees?
Comments (5)Ashley (just sent you an email), We only live a couple hours apart and we see the same trees at big box and nurseries. You're probably seeing "ultra" on the Pacific Groves trees, right? Some are in bags (bareroot) at various places and some in the fiberpot containers (Lowes). If so, you can drop the term "ultra" and just consider it dwarf. Dwarf and semi-dwarf are what you're aware of: "regular trees on lower vigor rootstocks". These are prolific at nurseries and big box stores alike. Genetic dwarf, aka Miniatures or "true dwarf" are more rare, they are "dwarf trees on whatever (typically regular sized) rootstock". I think you already understand stocks especially how dwarf stocks ideally encourage fruit at younger age (early bearing) and retain a heavier fruit set (precocious). Each stock is different in various properties like size reduction, early bearing, preciousness, disease resistance, soil tolerance, and so forth. The rootstock is *mostly* what makes dwarf and semi-dwarf so small -- the lower vigor. The scion of certain varieties can be somewhat dwarfing and so can their tolerance of summer pruning. It ALL depends on variety, rootstock, and growing conditions. Thus why I've spent countless hours researching the various stocks and varieties before I go buying and planting gobs of them in my yard. Take the Babcock peach, very common. It can be grafted onto Lovell as full sized, on Citation is considered semi-dwarf, on Pumiselect called dwarf (PG calls it Ultra) but Babcock will never be a miniature (genetic dwarf). Just as Necta-Zee (another newer genetic dwarf) will never be a semi-dwarf or full sized tree. The mini's are very small, though their size differs based on variety, but many are 3 feet tall (unpruned) after 2 years old in the ground, whereas the PG ultra-dwarf could be like 6 feet by then. LE Cooke (near Visalia) also produces miniature trees, but I'm not sure the volume since I've only found a couple local nurseries that have ever had any -- and those nurseries don't plan to stock them anymore. The folks at LE Cooke have not responded to my inquiries. Nevertheless, they have an awesome website with cool photos of their genetic dwarfs. Here is a link that might be useful: Take a look at LE Cooke's Site...See MoreDwarf fruit trees for zone 23/24?
Comments (13)Susan: OK, I'll give Anna a little break. It fruits reliably regardless of the chilling hours. Last year it was decent, which is odd because we had a terribly hot spring with April temps over 100 degrees EVERY STINKING DAY. It incinerated the usually reliable Dorsett Golden into mush, but Anna was the best it's ever tasted (which still isn't saying much) but had almost no color. Anna ripened late June in the ongoing heat wave, and we ate them all. The three years before had cooler springs and Anna set big crops, but the taste went from hard and sour to sweet and mealy in a microsecond. They also had a peculiar astringency that made your mouth pucker. I don't know if the lack of heat had anything to do with it. But those years Dorsett Golden was so excellent it made you want to tear out the Anna and Ein Shemer trees and plant more Dorsett. I guess growing Anna is like fishing for bluegill- the quality may not be that great, but you're sure of getting something almost every time. Applenut...See Moreapply SFG to temperate and tropical fruit trees and berries
Comments (1)When getting to more significant plantings, local considerations amplify the spacing considerations that you've already found you needed to tweak for the short-term crops and your ultimate goals can point to radically differnet planting practices. Several of the fruit crops you mentioned have specialized site preparation needs, training, and growth habits that are addressed specifically for that crop in a way not possible in a mixed bed of annual veggies, flowers, and herbs. Some principles do stay the same: lots of compost, mulch, and trying to get the most fruit in as small a maintained space as possible. But its going to take researching each crop to see how to do that in your situation. For fruits there is no better place than GW's on Fruit forum to tap into brainstorming after you've researched the basics and read some old posts to get ideas. For fruit trees, that usually translates to using semi-dwarfs, in extremely confined spaces you can get a larger variety with a slight production loss by planting two trees with similar growth rates and habits in the same hole. Grapes have a variety of trellising arrangements, depending on variety, climate, and asthetic concerns. For blackberries and raspberries, a narrow bed isolated from other beds is recommended....See MoreGrowing tropical fruit trees in raised beds within a greenhouse
Comments (5)The only problem I've seen with trees in raised beds/fluffy soil is the wind knocking them over, but inside a greenhouse that won't be an issue. One of the biggest problems with greenhouses is that over time they build up a healthy population of pests and diseases - which is why greenhouse owners tend to spray a lot of chemicals. An easy way around this (in my experience) is to open the greenhouse up during the warm parts of the year and let mother nature deal with it. Closed up glass houses don't allow for this as well as plastic coated hoophouses with roll up doors and side panels. If you want to grow tropical fruit trees you don't need to keep the greenhouse super hot and humid in zone 8b, plenty of them thrive with winter temps close to freezing. The biggest problem I've had is that citrus and guava trees like new soil almost every year - that's a lot easier to do with container growing as opposed to in-the-ground planting. I would think that in your zone, summer cooling will be a bigger problem than winter heating. Most of my trees suffer when the temps get over 100, which can happen on a 75 degree day without major ventilation....See Morecarolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
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7 years ago
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timetraveler zone 9b Melbourne Beach, FloridaOriginal Author