re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Very interested to see your results. I'm trying the veinte cohol this year. Considering kokopo as well.

For our Louisiana guys, tonight was a great example of how unreliable the weather forecast can be. Projected overnight low was 43F. Actual overnight low 34.5F. So nearly 10 degrees off and we went from no chance of frost to strong chance of frost. This is why I am ultra cautious and cover anything risky in the ground like mangos anytime I see the mid 40s.

New Banana trees!

These are Variegated Pink Nono Bananas. They are considered quite rare and largely decorative; but, there are some who say the fruit is edible.

Costa Farms dropped them at several Lowe’s locations here in Florida. I showed up at 10:30AM and more than half were already gone. They did a drop a few months back and they sold out in hours. Craziness..

I’m thinking we’ll keep one inside and plant the other. We’ll see how they do.

I’ve only seen one Florida for sale in the wild. Perhaps a foot tall and the seller wanted $400. Hard pass…

The Nono’s were selling for $200+ just a year or two ago. Was pleasantly surprised to see these 3+ feet tall examples for only $45.

I suspect the Florida’s will follow suit.

Freeze warnings for Sunday are not backing off. 26F low and below 32F for over 6 hours. This is a hard freeze so get your stuff ready today! If it's not a fig/kumquat/loquat/feijoa/stone fruit it may get smoked. Any fruit/flower of any kind is not likely to make it unprotected. I would even be covering young satsumas. Whatever the projected low is, plan for 5F lower. I'm gearing up for 21F. Luckily it's going to rain over an inch and that will help the soil hold some heat.

ETA: 2 greenhouses packed like cans of sardines. Let's see how it goes.

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Love Ti plant (cordyline). Everyone thinks you can't grow it year round in south LA but they're wrong. They do fine in mostly shade so you plant them under dense tree canopies. Mine took no damage in the 28F freeze a couple of weeks ago. Even if there is a hard freeze, if you mulch them they come back every year. They are also the easiest plant on earth to clone. When they get too tall, clip them at the height you want at a 45 degree angle to give the cutting a spear shape and then jam that thing straight into the dirt wherever you want a new Ti plant. They root with zero help or fuss. And yes hot direct sun burns them if exposed for too long.

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Yea, I have a good many of them planted. I have 4 good size palms growing around my pool cage and I planted some under those palms. Two Christmas palms and two Foxtais. Mine are starting to flower the past few weeks. I Where I have them, they dont get as much direct sun as other parts of my yard. They are doing great right now. I cut about 32" off the top of all of them about two months ago. They just came back like crazy

Those Adonidias are gorgeous. My second favorite palm tree. Wish I could grow them here.

I posted on the outdoor page yesterday but the damn deer are rubbing my foxtail palms.

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Ever try a flamethrower? Chambeyronia macrocarpa. My all time favorite and they are slow growers, do well in pots, and are surprisingly cold hardy. Also takes shade well. I've got a small one going now but it only throws like 3-4 spears per year. Just a very slow and beautiful palm with an amazing crownshaft.

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Love that. I actually have a couple big pots that will need something in them this spring. I have never seen one of those down here. I will have to see if one of the nurseries can get one.

Projected low: 25F

Actual measured low: 28.4F

Greenhouse measured low: 45.3F

That's a win!

Very good ingenuity in a pinch. You will know in a could of days if the blooms all start dropping. We only hit 28F here and the threshold for loquat flowers/fruit is about 27F so there is a good chance you succeeded.