I'm in the GTA, and I've been trying to grow some tropical fruit trees indoor and wanted to know if anybody else had any success with it. If so what trees, any pics?, where did you get them from? etc...
Success with tropical fruiting trees indoors would require elements similar to those found in their native habitat. Very difficult unless you have an atrium / conservatory type structure. Curious though if there might be some fruiting tropicals that would endure interior home conditions. I can't think of any that would make it long term and provide fruit. Cheers, LPN.
I will probably set up some type of greenhouse in the next year, where i hopefully can mimic the same conditions or even better for these trees to fruit. In the meantime, i'm just growing and trying to manage them as i go. I have: 2x Pomwonderful 1x Guava 1x Banana 1x Orange 1x Lemon 1x Dwarf Pomegranate Working towards (trying to germinate): 1x Mango 1x Spanish Lime (Genip) 1x Papaya
I planted some mango seeds from Haiti that I bought at a local store. In the building were I live there is a boiler room were the temperature is always around 35 C. I have also installed neon’s and in just two weeks the seeds started growing. Therefore my advice to you would be to be careful with the heat and light with are essential elements for the proper growth of tropical plants. Maybe in 3 years I will be able to taste the results :) cheers!
Ondjah, Have you considered that there are no insects indoor to pollinate your flowers, thus they do not take to fruiting.
Who said she wanted to pollinate them? They're being grown (I imagine) as ornamentals. She will need to get some fluorescent fixtures using 35-40w 'full spectrum' bulbs hung 6 inches above the trees (and most of the effective light is concentrated in the center of the bulbs). They should be on for 14+ hours a day. Another way to handle them would be with metal halide lighting for the whole room, with a reflector set-up (see http://www.bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html for a slew of great info. on lighting and growing indoor trees). However, MH's are also expensive, and get very seriously hot, so would be installed on the ceiling rather than just above the trees. You also should have a series of wide humidity trays under the pots, with rocks under them, and water, but the water should never touch the pots or you could get rotten roots. I think you want a serious set-up (from the sound of it), so these tips should help you get there, otherwise you'll just have struggling, non-blooming, too-dry (fodder for spider mites) sad looking trees.
It looks to me that Ondjah would like friut, and that does require that the flowers be pollinated, no?
That's what I had thought earlier but somehow I been made to look silly again. Oh well that's life I guess.
I'm looking to do somehing similar.What type of fruit tree would be best suited for living potted indoors?
At the school I work at we grow several fruits indoors...to get tropical fruits to start germinating...you need bottom heat. As soon as they germinate...light and heat...and in some cases humidity. Once they get to a certain size we transport them from a light stand (with heat pads) to a greenhouse. We grow: Starfruit Guava several types of Banana Pomegranate and a dwarf variety Mango Papaya logan rambutan kiwi Lechee Mangsteen probably more...can't remember off hand
The Papaya, kiwi, one of the bananas and the dwarf pomegranate. The papaya was in a greenhouse with high humidity and warmth. The kiwi is outside all year round. pomegranate is outside for most of the year, brought in the greenhouse for fall to get it to fruit. Bananas is/was dwarf Cavendish...in greenhouse for the winter. outside in the summer. The rest of the stuff isn't big enough to fruit yet.
wow! Thats amazing... i'm struggling with my plants. Unfortunately i don't have a greenhouse yet. How big is your greenhouse? Do you have any pictures of the trees/fruits/greenhouse,etc? My pomegrante will flower, than the flower drops off and no fruit! I've tried to self pollinate it myself but no luck. Any tips?
mango need to be at least a little fresh. if you dry your seed out completely it may not sprout, once you eat it plant it. i used to use crickets to clean off the excess fruit and plant. they grow very fast. cherimoya is my all time favourite fruit hands down. i would think it can be grown indoors quite easily. just takes a few weeks to germinate (4-7 for me outdoors). you may want to watch your papaya. you probably know but they do not take kindly to wet feet. humidity is good but moist soil will rot them double time. we used grow them on raised beds to allow drainage. quite an easy grower though, and VERY fast! may want to try papaya milk, one of the best fruit drinks i have tasted :)
I don't have any pictures here at home, they would be at work. The greenhouse that has the papaya is a heated greenhouse it is around 18x20. Keep in mind that I'm on the PNW not Ontario so it doesn't cost the same to heat. The banana, pomegranate are in a 12x20 greenhouse/polytunnel, unheated, I have more than one of the pomegranate so I would imagine that cross pollination could be a factor...but I would get some one else to confirm if you need more than one.
I'm hoping this summer i can set up my greenhouse in my backyard. Any tips would definitely be helpful! How does the cherimoya fruit taste? And where can i get a seed from?
sweet and soft textured. very good!!!! i sell seeds of various tropical plants but i am not sure if posting sites that sell stuff is allowed. it may take up to 2 months to germinate though, mine always take around 5 weeks. so don't get impatient.
Some time last year, my Siberian Husky was bored, and yes destroyed all my plants! lol... Only thing left is the lemon tree. Going to buy a mature mango tree in the next month and fertilize both of them. And hopefully get them fruiting again.
