Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 19 Apr 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

New Complete Guide to Avocado Varieties

New Complete Guide to Avocado Varieties. How to choose the right type of Avocado.
How many varieties of Avocado are there in cultivation? Did you know that there are hundreds of them? You probably thought there were only 2 kinds - black and green?

You may not realize is that this basic (but practical!) classification doesn't encompass all the wonderful qualities avocados have to offer.

There are numerous hybrids in cultivation, and once you plant your first tree and taste the REAL fruit (not from the grocery store), you'll be eager to explore other varieties. It's a guarantee! While it's true that avocado fruit can vary in "butter" content, most superior varieties are equally delicious.

This Avocado Variety Guide helps to choose the right variety for you. With its interactive tool, you can sort cultivars by fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, crop season, flower type A or B, tree habit and more.

🛒 Shop Avocado Varieties

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts #How_to

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 30 Apr 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Brown thumb? No problem

Peperomia x scandens - Emerald Girl

👍🏾 Brown thumb? No problem. This is how to get an indestructible massive indoor plant that is easier than a plastic plant!

🌿 Peperomia x scandens - Emerald Girl is the most exceptional plant we've ever seen.
- doesn't care about water
- doesn't care about light
- doesn't care about cats messing with it
- just keeps growing, and growing, and growing...

😵 It is an indoor miracle!

🛒 Get the plant no one can kill

#Fun_Facts #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

JOIN 👉 @TopTropicals

Date: 29 Apr 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Fun Facts: Cacao beans

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

📖 Fun Facts: Cacao beans (Theobroma cacao) were used to make chocolate, and the ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations valued cacao beans as currency 💰 Can we use chocolate as money?

🍫 Chocolate tree has large dark green leaves that shade the fruit pods which grow directly from the trunk and branches.
🍫 The flesh of the fruit is eaten as a dessert, and the seeds are the raw material of chocolate. Hot chocolate can be made by drying the seeds, roasting, grinding, and adding milk.
🍫 This exotic rare tree makes a gem of a houseplant collection.

🛒Get your own Chocolate Tree

#Fun_Facts #Food_Forest

JOIN 👉 @TopTropicals

Date: 25 Apr 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Why this Akee taste of deliciousness always follows me?

Akee fruit, Ackee

Why this Akee taste of deliciousness always follows me? Definitely the favorite fruit (it's actually a vegetable).

Can't wait for the next crop this year 😼

📖 Fun Fact: Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and is a key ingredient in the traditional Jamaican dish, ackee and saltfish. However, it must be properly ripened and cooked due to its toxic properties when unripe.

‼️ Check out our previous post about Akee.

📚 More about Akee

🎥 YouTube Recipe: How to cook perfect Akee?

🛒 Grow your own Akee tree

#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders #Recipes #Fun_Facts

🏵 TopTropicals

Plant of the month: Callisia Variegated Golden Tendril

Callisia fragrans x soconuscensis Melnikoff - Variegated Golden Tendril

An ultimate plant:
- perfect low maintenance house plant
- easy to grow
- has multiple holistic medicinal properties
- can grow fast as grownd cover
- needs almost no water
- sun or shade
- no fuss, no kidding!

This is an extremely rare variety of the European Holistic Medicinal Plant - Golden Tendril. It has showy variegated leaves and makes a beautiful houseplant on top of its medicinal value. It tolerates wide range of conditions and requires very little water; takes both bright sun or shade and is very fast growing and easy. The plant has wide medicinal use in Europe, literally every household uses this plant as a home remedies... just like Aloe Vera! According to scientific research, active biological substances from steroid group contained in this plant can struggle with any types of infections, stimulates metabolic processes, strengthens immunity and circulatory system, has a positive influence on growths and much more... some people consider it a virtual panacea. Whether it works for everybody or not, it is definitely fun to own such a legendary plant!

These are pictures of actual plants for sale!

How to get Canistel tree to produce
without dropping flowers and fruit

Q: My Canistel tree is 3 1/2 years old and is growing very well, see the picture below. It gets hundreds of pea sized "berries" but then they fall off. No canistel fruit. What's wrong?

A: You have such a nice looking tree, it is a shame you can't get any fruit to ripen.
In our experience, Pouteria trees dropping fruit prematurely is a very common problem. There may be one of the following reasons, or a combination of them:
- Cold winters may affect production, and while Canistel is generally pretty hardy tropical plant that can easily withstand short periods of chill, the fruit may never form properly if it had a cold winter.
- Lack of water. Canistel tree is pretty drought tolerant, but for the proper production cycle it needs regular irrigation. Especially during hot summer.
- The tree may be not strong enough; young trees drop fruit very often when they don't have enough "fruiting energy" built up in their system.
Your tree looks well established and vigorous, however, flower/fruit drop is often a sign of insufficient nutrients of particular kind, usually Boron (B) and/or Molybdenum (Mo): either when a tree is too young and not strong enough, or because of poor soils and lack of necessary elements.

Here is what can be done, considering you live in a warm, frost-free climate.

1. Provide regular fertilizing program. We recommend liquid fertilizers Sunshine Boosters that are safe to use with every watering and year around. It is beneficial to switch plants from traditional "slow-release" fertilizer to the liquid one because it makes a huge difference in plant growth and flower/fruit quality and quantity. See also:
- Why liquid fertilizers are better than dry
- Article about benefits of liquid fertilizers.

Use this plant food for your Canistel tree:
SUNSHINE C-Cibus - Crop Nutrition Booster

2. Apply micro-element remedies that are very effective for improving fruit production, especially when flower or fruit drop occurs:

SUNSHINE Honey - promotes more efficient blossoming and pollination, makes flowers bigger and reduces bud drop.
SUNSHINE SuperFood - improves plant vigor and quality and size of flowers These are all natural, eco-friendly supplements that work great for fruit trees and other edibles.

Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

New Complete Guide to Avocado Varieties

Brown thumb? No problem

Fun Facts: Cacao beans

Why this Akee taste of deliciousness always follows me?

What fruit contains 65 times more of vitamin C than an orange? Now you know - its Barbados Cherry

What is the bluest flower of the Tropics?

Tamarind

Plant of the month: Callisia Variegated Golden Tendril

Callisia fragrans x soconuscensis Melnikoff - Variegated Golden Tendril

These are pictures of actual plants for sale!

Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster

How to get Canistel tree to produce
without dropping flowers and fruit

Cat of the Day - Mr B

New Complete Guide to Avocado Varieties

Brown thumb? No problem

Fun Facts: Cacao beans

Why this Akee taste of deliciousness always follows me?

What fruit contains 65 times more of vitamin C than an orange? Now you know - its Barbados Cherry

What is the bluest flower of the Tropics?

Tamarind

Plant of the month: Callisia Variegated Golden Tendril

Callisia fragrans x soconuscensis Melnikoff - Variegated Golden Tendril

These are pictures of actual plants for sale!

Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster

How to get Canistel tree to produce without dropping flowers and fruit

Cat of the Day - Mr B

How to get Canistel tree to produce
without dropping flowers and fruit