I called the distributor today ( in Oregon) and found the Gold Plum I purchased was a Shiro Gold Plum and not the tropical variety (Spondias Purpurea) of Gold Plum although the name tag said Ciruelo Dorado and not Shiro. That's good news to me. I still have a Gold plum tree and don't have to build a greenhouse.

I find it strange that so many people are trying to grow northern vegetables following a northern calendar in FL. No wonder you're having so much trouble! I'm in central FL 9B and I grow stuff all year round - but what I grow changes with the temperatures. For example, this past year in the cooler months (late fall/winter) I grew lots of leafy greens like lettuce, chard, cilantro, garden and red sorrel, bok choy, radishes, carrots, and peas. I've got a few pigeon pea "trees" (they live for ~5 years and produce pigeon peas year round. They are drought tolerant and infertile sand tolerant). I've got straight Myakka sand and I haven't been amending. To my surprise, quite a few plants were very happy in my infertile sand. The only thing I do is occasionally add some coffee grounds once in a while or some diluted urine. I'm now in the process of making and charging biochar to long term improve the fertility of my sand since any compost I added in the past disappeared almost immediately (to be honest, it disappears in my compost bin before I even really get a chance to use it). In October I started tomato plants from seeds - now that it's March they are flowering and fruiting. Everglades tomato is a FL native tomato that can perform even during our crazy hot and humid summers. There's also Floradade tomato, which was developed in south FL specifically to cope with the brutal summers and can handle up to 100F. I've got those sprouting now (mid March) so we'll see how they do. There are at least 10 other tomatoes I know of that purportedly thrive even in FL summers but they will not be the tomatoes everyone knows in the north. If you want to grow northern tomatoes, just do it in the spring; most tomatoes will drop flowers by June due to the heat. If you can keep the plant alive through the summer (usually by shading it from afternoon sun) they will start producing again in the fall when temps cool down. I've also got sweet and hot peppers, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, eggplant, callaloo (amaranth), garlic chives, lagos spinach, New Zealand spinach, Ethiopian Kale, Malabar spinach, Roselle, Cranberry Hibiscus, Chaya, and Moringa for the summer. Rule of thumb for FL gardening: Southeast Asian + Caribbean veggies do particularly well in FL summers and "northern" veggies grow well here in the winter. As for fruit trees... stop trying to grow what does well in the north and grow what does well here. I've got a monster guava that I never fertilize or water and can deal with the occasional cold snap. Mulberries also do particularly well - they are basically zero maintenance (no extra watering, fertilizer, thrive on neglect). They fruit multiple times a year (mine are flowering now). There are plenty of other options if you look.

Ezzirah, I don't grow raspberries because they don't like the heat here, but I would think that any high-quality potting mix would do. You want something that is light and fluffy and which drains well. Avoid the ones that are labeled as 'moisture-control' because they can hold too much moisture and kill plants. I grow blackberries which are very heat tolerant in the ground in clay soil that's been well amended with a lot of composted cow manure and they do great in that. However, if you're growing raspberries in containers, you can't use native soil because it packs down and strangles the roots. Containers need a well-drained soil-less mix. I usually mix up my own container mix from a few basic ingredients and I can 'make' it drain more quickly or more slowly depending on what I use and on which proportions I use. A soilless mix is generally composed of some combination of peat moss or compost, vermiculite or perlite or expanded shale and pine bark fines and often has other ingredients added to provide nutrition or enhanced ability to drain well. The next time you're in a store that sells bagged potting soil and garden soil, look at the bags. Usually the name-brand ones that are labeled container soil or potting soil will be a soil-less mix. The ones labeled Garden Soil or Vegetable Soil likely contain some topsoil or dirt and should be used only in raised beds or added to your native soil. The poor quality mixes often contain a lot of black clay and should be avoided at all costs. For seed-starting, it is best to use a sterile seed-starting mix which is very light and fluffy and has only tiny particles so there's no particles large enough to keep seeds from sprouting. When handling ALL potting soils or seed-starting mixes or soil-less mixes, ALWAYS wear gloves. People who handle these mixes with their bare hands can contract some very serious illnesses from them, including a fungal infection that can get into your body and become systemic and chronic. It is your garden. Plant what you want and plant as much of it as your want and just enjoy the whole process. If you burn out, that's OK, because everything you do still will be a great learning experience and will leave you better prepared for the next garden. If you have lost your marbles, you'll eventually find them again....and most likely you'll find them in the garden under a large and vigorously growing squash plant. Here's my feeling about 'planting too much' 'going overboard' and 'losing your marbles': if those three things are the worst thing you ever do, you'll likely survive and have a wonderful life. Look at the other obsessions some people have.....spending tons of money to attend athletic events or take trips to exotic locales or go on guided hunting or fishing trips or maintaining their own deer lease or bass boat....or buying a new pair of shoes every couple of weeks so you have shoes that match every outfit or whatever..... If you enjoy gardening, then throw yourself into it wholeheartedly and love every minute of it. For me (and y'all probably can tell this already), gardening is not my hobby--it is my lifestyle. It is great exercise, it beautifies your property, it gives you FRESH garden produce, fruit, herbs and cut flowers and it feeds your soul. I can't see a downside to gardening. I find that I hit the 'burn out' stage several times during the gardening year and when that happens, I force myself to 'take a day off' and not step foot in the garden for a day or two. It is surprising how quickly I miss playing in the dirt when I take that day off. Dawn

Ethan, I grew all mine from seed and they are all also dwarf. I think the seeds might even be polyembryonic because from one seed I got 3 plants last time. If they are polyembryonic then a few should be exact copies. Everyone I know who has the dwarf spondias dulcis tree has had it grown from seed, but I think it might be able to grow easily from cuttings like the other spondias trees. Do you have a closer pic of the area you say that might be budded or airlayered? In Trinidad we have both the very large tree and the dwarf. I enjoy the larger tree better because of the larger fruit. I find the fruit to be very good when they're green though. With the dwarf tree you can even eat the entire fruit (skin and seed included) if the fruit is green enough.