Container Gardening Tropical Fruit Trees: Why Some are Easier than Others

Some thoughts about container gardening, and which tropical fruit trees lend themselves to being grown in a pot, and why.

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flying fox fruits. This video today is about container gardening and then which trees are going to be easiest and which are going to be hardest and why. You got to kind of think about that if you’re going to be growing fruit trees and pots, especially in this case. This video is for pushing the limits of tropical, subtropical trees in areas that are marginal or maybe even areas where the temperature doesn’t get so cold, but maybe it’s too dry or you need a greenhouse. These will grow in the ground in a greenhouse and they’ll also grow in the ground in a lot of locations where they’re marginal. But this is mainly about container gardening right here. And I guess you could also consider for greenhouse gardening because you got to keep them short. So behind me we have a anomaly jabba which is a really good one for growing in a container. You know first off it it’s not going to like the soil so much at every location. It’s got particular soil requirements. When you grow it in a container you can control those requirements easier. And so it fruits a lot. It stays pretty small. You could keep one of these in like a 25gallon pot for maybe like a decade. But now this one is getting to be right around seven or eight years or more from grafting. And it need it needed to go into a larger pot into like a 45gallon here. And it will stay on this pot for another 5 to 10 years. As the trees get bigger and bigger, if you’re keeping them in a container, you it would be wise to look at how the bonsai growers do their trees. Go look at the video. They take the tree, the tree will get rootbound. It’ll have nowhere else to go. They take the tree out of the pot, pull it out, prune the roots just like you would the canopy. Also prune the canopy because if you don’t prune the canopy as well, some of the trees can show a lot of stress because you’ve reduced the ability of the plant to take up water through the roots and you have all this surface area on the leaves where it’s all out there and the water’s not coming up through the root the leaves. If it’s not in a greenhouse, the thing will wilt. So if you damage the roots, there’s a roots to shoots ratio or something I’ve heard of, but you want to damage the shoots, too. So anyway, the bonsai treers take bonsai growers take the trees out of the pot when they get rootbound, prune the roots, prune the canopy as they would, and then put it back in the same pot, but add some soil to it and fluff the soil up. So you can do that several times as the tree is getting too big, and you don’t want to put it in a new container. You’re going to have to lay it down, prune the roots, prune the canopy really nicely, put it back in the same pot, and fluff it up. And uh you can also grow them like in a pot like this, you can have it only filled three quarters. And so the next time when you go to step it up finally, you can fill it up all the way. And it’s almost like stepping up a plant in the same pot. So these are just some ideas and thoughts about what it’s going to take to keep these fruit trees alive. I want to go through kind of species by species and rank them kind of. I wouldn’t say rank because I don’t think we’re going to go in order, but we’re going to look at some fruit trees and I want to tell you why they’re easy or why they’re hard to grow in a pot or maybe a greenhouse or something where you’re trying to keep it small where the tree normally doesn’t grow. So, we started with the anomaly jabba. This is a variety that I selected. It stays small. It flowers a lot. It’s fickle when you put it in the ground. This is a much better option than just growing the sabra alone in a pot. The sabra, which is the rootstock, is very good as a rootstock, but if you grow the tree long term in a container, it’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger, and you’re going to have to do that root pruning thing that the bonsai growers do eventually. Now, I’m talking about over a long time that’s going to take. And honestly, the sabra is a good choice for container gardening in my opinion. And they do really good bonsai work out of them. You can keep them really small, but there’s just better options within the genus of plenia for growing in a container. And the anomaly represents one. Some of the patranthas represent those. The griml is kind of borderline where that’s a big tree and you can keep it in a pot, but man, it gets big and so it’s borderline. The griml is like a borderline one. Look at this one over here. Right over here. This one’s called the watermelon. I forget the the it’s like brona riada. There’s some name. I got to look up the name, but they call it the watermelon jaba cabba. It hasn’t flowered yet. It’s very close, but it was in a 25gallon and I just had to put it in like a 45 and it’s so big. This is a hard one to grow in a container for sure. It hasn’t flowered yet. You can do it, but look at the size of this thing. And imagine keeping that alive as opposed to Let’s go back to the anomaly. You know, this thing has been flowering for 5 years and it’s maybe like, you know, eight years since grafting and it’s just look how bushy and small, same size pot about the same age. One’s grafted, one’s not. That’s another big thing to consider is the propagation method. Some of these trees that are so big will stay small and flower very well in a pot if they’re cutings, air layered, and grafted. So seedgrown trees are a lot more difficult in certain situations to fruit in a pot. Certain stuff for sure. You know, mango, longan, leuchy, those are air layered, the longans and leuches. The mangoes are basically grafted. But if you had them from seed in a pot, it’s a much different story. Most of the time they’re a lot bigger trees that are harder to fruit. So, always consider if there’s something that you think you can’t grow because it’s too big, like some of the garcinas, think about maybe getting a grafted tree. That’s going to make a big difference. And make sure uh you know, air layered stuff can work and cutings, but those can be difficult when you have a lot of high wind. And sometimes the air layered stuff I’ve found is weaker because you’ve only got those roots that are adventitious roots and no tap routt. And you don’t have that what’s that called? Synergy between two organisms where they come together to make a stronger unit. As with the sabura and the fickle pineas, you know, you graft onto sabra. Now you have this super unit that is able to handle harsher conditions because you have harnessed the jabica, the sabra’s rootstock. Anyway, it’s like a it’s like a what is that genetic modification but by hand where you’ve taken two organisms put them together. You don’t get that when you air layer stuff. You just have the one organism and then you have a different root system that’s a lot weaker. But that’s all right. If you’re growing them in a greenhouse and it’s controlled conditions, you can do very well. Mulberries, figs, those do really well. Those are really good for growing in pots because even if they do get big, just make some more cutings, you know, cut them back. They fruit on the new wood. Um, and it’s just a lot easier to manage those types of trees. So, let’s move on. We We didn’t even walk two feet. Two feet. And I had another thing to talk about, but this is a Eugenia. Eugenia is a relative of the jabba. You’re going to find a lot of eugenas are very good candidates for growing in a container and a lot of their close relatives. Some of the reasons are they handle the cold. They handle a lot of different variable climactic conditions and soil conditions. They’re very strong, stay small. You typically only need one tree. They’ve got selfruing or perfect flowers. And you got to consider that with a lot of trees. Do they come male and female? This doesn’t do that. And so this is one called Eugenia Observa and it’s a decent fruit. It’s got a really astringent flavor. It tastes almost like a grapefruit jelly bean. It’ll leave your mouth dry if you eat it at the wrong time. I think they’re fun. They’re really easy to grow though. This one’s probably like five or 6 years old at least, maybe even older. And it’s just been fruiting like crazy. There’s a lot of these species that are eugenas that will fruit very well in containers, but that doesn’t mean they have a good tasting fruit, per se. Some of them are sour, aringent, bitter, have a, you know, whatever. Some are just not that good. And I guess this one kind of falls in that range of being really easy to grow in a container, but not the best tasting fruit. That’s not to say I don’t like to grow it because it’s beautiful and they’re fun to eat when you want something a little weird. You know, some people are going to love those. Some people are going to hate them the way they taste. I got to find out where. And so, look at this one over here, hun. Now, I I just looked up the name on this. It’s called a monkey plum or a monos plum. It’s from uh Puerto Rico or the Caribbean, maybe. I think it’s Puerto Rican. I I can’t quite remember, but this one seems to be decent for growing in a container because you can see how small it is. The tree is probably like 6 or 7 years old by now, and it’s finally started to flower in a pot. I just put it out of a 3gon into this 15. It’s about half full with soil. It’s kind of flopping around, so I put some rocks on it. But this one seems to be a decent one for growing in a pot. Even though it gets really big, it handles the cold kind of well. I’ve heard the flavor is uh kind of interesting, but just trying to give you some ideas of some stuff. You can grow it in a pot and at least get to taste the fruit for like five to six years and then the tree is going to get so big and be so demanding, but at least you got to taste it. Maybe you can sell it to the local arboritum or botanical garden or university, you know, or I’ve seen that happen. People like in Ohio and other states where New York, they’ve got some big tree and like they’ve got it up so big and there’s no one locally to buy it cuz who want who’s local that wants to buy the thousand tree that you have to keep in a greenhouse? Think about that. Okay. Oh, wait. This too. You still going? Yeah, you are still going. Okay, good. Anyway, this is another one. It’s called a sugar apple. A no. A squamosa. This represents to me one of the best anonas and one of the best fruits to grow in a container. Needs full sunlight. That’s the big problem people have that are pushing the limits in other areas. They usually have them in like a greenhouse and it’s just too much shade. The sun goes down in the winter time and they don’t give them enough light and so you don’t get decent fruit. But man, if you put the sun on these things, keep them in a pot, they fruit really fast. These are only like 2 years old and they’re starting to flower. I’ve seen them flower at like one and a half, two years old, they’ll fruit. But in order to get decent fruit, it’s about four years, 5 years. But man, these are really easy. It’s a short-lived tree and it has soft wood. But man, they’re they’re really fun to grow and really delicious and there’s a market for them. So the hybrids of this, like the atamoyas are just a little more difficult in some situations to keep alive. For me, it was long term. Or maybe to fruit them, it took longer. Maybe they’re easier to grow actually in some situations, but you want those grafted on cherramoya rootstock. And then these grow really well on their own roottock. They grow really well grafted on cherramoya. And um I grow them from seed. That’s my favorite thing to do. And it’s a lovely fruit and it does really well in a container. You keep them in a pot for at least 10 15 years and keep them probably in like a 45 gallon by the time it gets 15 years old. And they die back every winter. or they like go dormant and die back and it it’ll look like it’s dead and then put out all this new growth with all the flowers and it’s been really rewarding for me to grow these. But the reason I never liked them, they have soft wood, they grow fast and they’re short-lived. I always like the job because it was like an investment where I could like see my work pay off and remember every cut, every nick, every wound, and every branch that broke and I’m like, “Yeah, yeah.” But a job Cabba will outlive you. Where a sugar apple you I don’t you ain’t going to pass your sugar apple tree on to your kids. That thing will be dead in 25 years. You know, I’ve seen they don’t seem to outlive that long in Florida at least. Maybe in their native range, but it’s a shortlived tree and I never like that about it. Um this one right here, it’s a it’s a meier and it’s cold sensitive. It’ll get killed right about 25°. Right about 25 it’ll die back to the roots. It’s called Miieria Vexiator. It’s from the Osa Peninsula in Central America, I believe, or maybe South America. Central South America. Uh, good for coastal regions, but it has like a big fruit with a thick skin and a big seed and a lot of resin in it. A lot of people don’t like the flavor. I like them, but you have to know how to eat it. And but this one is kind of easy to grow in a pot. This one’s already flowering and it’s only like four years old, 3 years old. So, a lot of people don’t know that Vextor, even though it’s a pretty big tree and it demands more and more container size, this thing will need a 45gallon in the next 3 years, 4 years, it just grows so much faster. It’s so much more demanding than a sabura even uh a regular jabo. But it’s fun to grow and if you’re looking to push the limits, you could do it. fruits on the the newer growth like second year’s growth and um beautiful tree but uh just trying to show you that this is very small for a typical jaba relative to be already flowering. I don’t see flowers on it but I know it has. I just put it into like a 15gallon pot and it’s probably like 5 years old, 6 years old at the most. I’ve seen those flower in 3 years but the fruit’s not the best. And behind it is one called uh it’s like the Grimmel. It’s back there. It’s the one with the dark leaf. This big one. Yeah. It’s one that I got from a collector in Brazil. His name was Carlos and he didn’t know what variety it is, but I called it Carlos after him. It’s a lot like the Grimmel except it grows way slower. The skin is thinner and it’s a little more fickle but in a container. This is a good one. It’s This is a old tree and it grows so slow and it doesn’t like the ground here. So it grows maybe better grafted. A seedling does really well in a pot. Carlos is really good. I’m gonna I’m gonna give that a high ranking in my opinion. Uh down there we got some Ptoa tuba. That’s the hybrid of the patanga tuba and the ptoa. It seems to be a really good one for container culture. They just fruit pretty fast in about 3 to 5 years and they stay pretty small. I’ve got one over here that’s like a fruing size one. It’s here in like a 15 gallon pot. These will get demanding and need a 45gallon pot after about 10 years, I bet. But it’ll be a fun trip on the way there. And you could plant a lot of seeds and have those coming up. And don’t worry if the tree gets too big. You know, you can always just let it die and plant a bunch of the seeds or give it away or get a bigger pot. Get a team on it. These lowquats here, these are kind of in between. I would say growing an air layered lowquat may be the best bet if you really want to push the limits because that’s going to maybe stay smaller. This is a grafted tree and that’s a lot better than growing a seedling too. They’re good choice, but longterm, man, these things are going to need a big big pot. But I think they’re they’re a good long-term choice cuz they’re so strong and you can do the root pruning trick I told you about and they’ll fruit on the new wood. So even though it’s a really big tree, the loquat represents a really good choice. Maybe growing cutings in air layered is the best choice for that. I don’t know. Uh let’s see what else we can dig up. Look at this one. This is a lowquat seedling from the paluchi in a pot. And this one’s about 2 and 1/2 years old. This lowquat seedling. It’ll be interesting to see how big it gets, but I’m going to try to let it fruit in that pot. See what else we got. So, I wanted to talk really quick about some of the garcenas. Some of them I think represent good candidates for growing in a container for a while, but they’re big trees and they’re demanding. And the thing about them is is they have really long tap roots. I’ll see if I can find one that has a tap routt, but they have these containers that have got these like graduated holes in them. There’s a lot of different designs. They call them root pruners, root accelerator pots, uh pots, air pruner pots. There’s a bunch of different patents and things, but these make it so that the tap routt when it comes down, it doesn’t coil up. It kind of branches out. It air prunes the root. That can be essential for some of the trees that I’m mentioning today that have a bad tap routt. Can really help. But the problem with the root pruning pots is that they dry out really fast. So, and they get weeds all along the sides. So, I always recommend sleeving those. you know, take that root pruner pot, buy a bigger pot, put it inside the bigger pot, and that way it will block the weeds. It’ll keep in the moisture more. It won’t dry out as fast. You can even put that whole setup into a little shallow dish, and that’ll keep it wetter. But that’s always been my method of dealing with that was to sleeve it, put a dish underneath it cuz they’re going to dry out faster. But this is a Luke’s Garcinia in the ground. I had these things in pots and I had to plant them out. They were too big. Way too big. They’re seedlings. But, you know, I had some that were grafted that fruited a lot faster and smaller. So, maybe growing these as a grafted tree is a better option for pushing the limits. For sure. It has to be. But these are a big tree that’s a little bit cold sensitive like a mango is. And so, I kind of recommend it. But longterm, you’re up for a challenge. That thing’s going to get big. This is a a Luke Scarcinia seedling that I I threw it I threw it into one of those root pruning pots. I almost pulled the jabba out. But I don’t see any roots really coming out yet. That’s just a stick. But this will be really nice. It could stay in this pot. It’s only about a year old. Two years old actually. It’ll stay on this pot for another year and a half. No dish underneath right now. I’d like to show you a tap routt on one of these Garcinia to show you how crazy the tap routt is. Maybe I can pull one out. So, uh, these are just some, uh, lemon drop mango steeen seedlings. They were in the greenhouse where it was getting like 120°. Look at these things cooked. They’ll be fine. They’re just stained by the water. It’s got like iron stain on it where you can just kind of rub that off. I don’t know if you can see kind of rubbing off. These will come right back. But let’s see about these roots on it. Look at this. This is where the air pruning pots come in handy. But look at these roots are just crazy. It had a main tap routt that got kind of rejected and now these are the laterals coming out and just they I’ve seen them like six, seven foot easy for a onegon pot. So you just want to think about that growing them long term. It’s not good to have them coil up like that. It’ll it’ll just kind of stunt the tree, but it’ll still fruit. I mean, I wonder I’ve heard people say it can kill the tree, but man, I’ve had these in pots where they coiled up and they did fine. It just stunted the tree. So, that’s probably a debate where I always like to keep the root pruner pots in the beginning if I could. But, does it really matter if the root gets coiled up and the tree gets stunted? H probably long term it does. But So, you’re going to keep it in that same pot? No, I shouldn’t. But I’m going to have to. I just coiled it back up. I got to address that at some point, but right now it’s going back in that same pot. Let’s move. Oh, wait. This one right here, Garcinia Akumanada. That’s a hard one to fruit in a pot. This one right here, unless it’s grafted or like an air layer. This one’s a hard one to fruit in a pot. I have it. It’s already like 8 years old and it hasn’t even thought about flowering and I’ve got it in a 45gallon pot. So, just think about that. That’s the problem of growing a seedling verse a propagated plant like a cutting or air layer. Take a look at these. Now on the other hand, we have the squat Garcinia from Jim West. These have been fruing for me and they fruited in 15gon pots, 25gallon pots at the age of about seven, eight years old at the most. These are really good choice and for some people that are pushing the limits and yeah, these are all the same age trees. They have a nice bushy growth habit. They take a little bit of cold. They take a flooding. They take some heat, but these are nice ones. It’s fun. And then, but look at this. This would be a bad choice to grow as a seedling and a pot. This is a bad choice right here. These ones, the big ones right there, Garcinia Zanthyus, uh, Gambbo or whatever, false mango steeen. They’ve got all these names for it. It’s called Garcinia Zanthicus. That is a big tree and it’s going to be so hard to keep that and to fruit it in a pot. Look at the size of it. It just started to fruit like 3 years ago. There’s the other one. Hasn’t even started to fruit yet. So if you grew that as a grafted tree even, yes, you can get it to fruit, but it’s so big. And then imagine imagine if you had a tree like this that handles the cold, but it gets that big and it comes male female. That’s like come on, man. That’s going to be cool though that you did it. But I mean, imagine having waiting 20 years for two trees that you had this big to start fruiting. I mean, that’s a that’s that’s a thing. Starf fruit. I think starf fruit is a good option even though they get pretty big. Just grow one as a grafted tree and prepare for it to get too big. But that’d be a fun one to grow for anyone pushing the limits. I mean, I don’t rate it too high, but it’d be a fun one. I would try it in a pot even though it’s going to get too big. But on the other hand, the uh kambuka, I wish everyone could grow this, but look at the size of these trees they have to get before they start to fruit. Man, it takes so long. 7 to 15 years or more sometimes. So, if you could get the kambuka as a air layered or a grafted tree, I’d say it’s worth it’d be fun to try, but the tree gets huge. It’s going to be a hard one. The kambuka is a hard one. You could do it, but I don’t rate it that high. It’s a wonderful fruit, but if you’re trying to push the limits, it’s like a challenge based on the size of it. It is really is. So, we’re out here by all my sapadilla trees. And I’m going to say the sapadilla is one I’d recommend cuz they’re so strong and they grow so slow. And even though they get really big, you can kind of cut them back. I’ve had this one here. It’s called a mock variety. This is such an old tree. It’s o over 12 years old from grafting. But this one stays way smaller than all the other ones I’ve seen. So maybe it’s the roottock. I don’t know what it is. These all need attention and to be repotted. Yeah, weeds pulled repotted. Let’s see if I can pull this one. These are bad weeds. They’re so strong. But I’m strong. Anyway, these have been really lovely. Even though they’re a little cold sensitive, some of the the right variety of sapadilla can be a joy to grow in a container. This one would just kind of represent one to show you some of these trees. They get so big. But this one’s called Marula. It’s from Africa. It comes male and female. Mine haven’t even flowered yet. They handle the cold pretty well. They die back a lot. But look at the size of these things. Imagine trying to grow that in a pot. At least from seed. That’s crazy. Spanish lime is another one. Try to grow that from seed in a pot. You’re crazy. It’s going to be hard. You can do it, but you’re crazy. Durian, it’s going to be a hard one, dude. It’s going to be a tough row to hoe. Uh I’m just kind of going down the list. I got bit up. Mango. Mango. you can do. So, just pick the right variety like pickering or there’s the right ones that you can do for a while, but they’re going to get so big. It’s going to be might you’re going to have to use my bonsai trick. I got a little bit up by ants right now. I’m a little flustered, but I feel like I I dropped a lot of info. I feel like I I don’t want to talk. I’ve been talking a lot. I’m talking too much today. But, but I’m thinking of anything. Pangatuba is a great one. Pumba is a little harder, but Pumba tuba is a good intermediary, but Pangatuba is a good one. Surname cherries are good. Cedar Bay cherry, you heard of that one. It’s okay. It’s so easy to fruit in a pot, but I don’t like it like the fruit, but other people like it, so you might like it. Eugenia Matosi is a fun one, but it doesn’t fruit a lot. It’s so frustrating. It’s such a beautiful tree. It’s so easy to keep in a pot. Just doesn’t fruit a lot. But Eugenia Legastrina available on my website is a good one. It’s it’s small leaves. It fruits a lot. If you’re pushing the limits and you’re somewhere in the middle of nowhere, that one is a fun one up in Canada or something. You could fruit it and be like, “Oh, look at these berries. They’re edible.” It would work. I would say red jabba. That’s a great one. Scarlet, some of the fratranthas. Um I would avoid trunk flora. Uh, avoid seedlings of anything that takes a long time to fruit that’s big. If you can get them grafted, then go for it maybe. But I’m worried about you growing grafted grimls, grafted trunk of floras. Those are those are going to be difficult for you. Even though they handle the cold, they’re a big tree. You’re going to have to prune that canopy back in such a way that you just keep big sections of old wood almost like a crepe myrtle. So mulberries, I’m going to say that again. Catly guavas. Those are good ones. Doviialis, the tropical apricot. There’s some big trees way back over there. The tropical apricot. That could be a cool one. But I’d really say mostly look into your eugenas a lot out of what I grow at least. The anona was the sugar apple. Be wary of a lot of these really cool seeming anonas that look cool. They’re rare. No one has them, man. and they’re full of seed and they’re not worth eating unless you want to the whole thing. So that’s my opinion. A lot of stuff looks really cool like this right here. Anona cornogia. Look, it’s got a fruit. It makes a really pretty red fruit. It has beautiful flowers. You could fruit this in a pot really easy. But you know what the fruit tastes like? Like you took sugar and put it on toilet paper and a little and then put water on it and it’s got that’s it’s sugar water light with toilet paper water texture. It’s never been good to me. Maybe they’ll get better. I haven’t tasted a good one yet. But that’s and it’s full of seeds. But it’s a beautiful fruit. It looks like a red strawberry when it’s ready. It looks like a red strawberry. Anona cornoglia. But this may not even be the real one. This is one that looks like it maybe. I’ve heard there’s like a similar lookalike one, but that’s what I got it labeled as. It’s a seedling. There’s so much stuff I’m sure I left out, but I tried to give you a good idea. You want to shoot for the eugenas. Um, Jabi Cabbas are great. Some of the anonas, but very few, in my opinion, are worth it. Garcinas are going to be problematic, but go with the right ones. Grafted, propagated the right way, you can do it. I’m sure I’m leaving out a ton of stuff. Figs, I already talked about those, but figs are are fun and they’re doable almost anywhere. So, figs. I think that’s it for now. I really want to say thanks to Railene and thank you for watching. Keep growing in some place where they’re not supposed to be grown. Look at these. Oo, those are called fire throwers. flamethrower. We forgot to mention this one, but it’s a really fun one to grow in containers. Really easy for me. Miracle fruit. It’s got the most best smelling flower. They smell like coconut jasmine, but pretty easy to grow. I say but too much. We got to censor out all the bits. PH is going to be the hardest part with these, keeping the pH right. But it’s a fun one to try to grow in a pot. It grows it grows so slow and you can get them air layered and they’ll stay small for a long time. Really fun one to try. Thanks for watching.