Gold Coast Gardener

July 2, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

Many people enjoy growing tropical fruits in their landscape and having something they can pick on a regular basis and enjoy themselves or share with friends and family. Although citrus is the most popular fruit tree in the area, there are literally dozens of other types that enjoy high popularity, too.

The biggest problem for most people is availability. Many of the more rare and unusual tropical fruits are only grown by a few limited nurseries and unless you’re lucky enough to hear about them you don’t know where to go to purchase the trees. In most cases it’s not that the fruits don’t do well here because once planted and fertilized properly they thrive and produce good crops.

Some of the fruits you’re seeing this time of year in the stores come from local commercial groves and Palm Beach County does have a small tropical fruit industry primarily located west of the turnpike.

If you want to grow tropical fruits though a good place to see examples of ones that are used in the area would be the Mounts Botanical Garden at 531 North Military Trail in West Palm Beach. The garden in the front part near the main entrance has many tropical fruits that have been there since the late 1960's.

If you’re thinking about how big some of these fruits get, most tropical fruits should not be allowed to grow to full maturity. Many in their native countries are large forest trees and here in Florida, too, they can grow to heights of 40 even 50 feet. That’s certainly impractical for harvesting fruit in most cases so the average size of most tropical fruits in the landscape is anywhere from 10 to 20 feet so that the fruit can be harvested without having to get on ladders or other types of equipment. In many commercial operations trees are actually hedged and topped on a regular basis to keep them 20 feet or less so they can be harvested more effectively.

If you like to grow fruits in containers, many tropical fruits make great container plants. For people with small size yards, this is an easy way of having your fruits in a small area and you’ll get enough from those plants to enjoy.

Certain tropical fruits make house plants, too. A good example would be pineapple which can be grown in a 6 inch pot inside in a well lighted location. Outside in small areas things such as bananas and papayas are well suited and can be kept in very tight spaces without overcrowding other ornamental plantings.

If you want shade trees, some fruit trees can be allowed to grow up and make shade, but just remember once they get real big harvesting the fruit is going to be a problem.

If you’re not sure what types of fruits you like, always the best policy is to try samples when they are available for purchase in stores, roadside stands or other locations. This way you can decide what you want in your landscape and then once you decide you want one try to find local sources where it can be purchased.

Some types of tropical fruits can be grown from seed so if you can’t find one locally and want to start one from a seed, generally that takes a little bit longer to produce fruit but in most cases the fruit is acceptable quality.

If you’re interested in talking to other people that grow tropical fruits, attend one of the monthly meetings of the Rare Fruit Council here in Palm Beach County. This organization meets the second Friday of each month at 8 o’clock at the Mounts Building Auditorium, 531 North Military Trail in West Palm Beach. The club features excellent speakers and a tasting table at the close of the meeting which members that bring in fruit have it cut up for everyone to try. The club also has several commercial nurserymen as members so you can often at the meetings find out what trees are available.

The club will have a summer fruit tree sale on Saturday July 8 at the South Florida Fairgrounds Agriplex arena. The sale is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and it will have hundreds of trees in a variety of sizes and price ranges so if you really want to find fruit trees go this weekend to the South Florida Fairgrounds and hopefully you can find that one you’ve been looking for.

The Palm Beach County Extension office can provide free advice on growing any type of tropical fruits in our area and they also have many printed pamphlets on many individual tropical fruits which are available free from their offices. For information dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.