Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
Date:
Go Bananas!
10 good reasons to plant bananas in your garden
Adding banana plants to your subtropical garden or plant collection can enhance the aesthetics of your outdoor and indoor space, provide fresh and nutritious fruits, and offer a fun gardening experience with relatively low maintenance requirements. It's a delightful way to connect with nature and enjoy the benefits of homegrown produce.
1. Tropical Ambiance: Banana plants bring a touch of the tropics to your subtropical garden. Their large, lush leaves create a lush and exotic atmosphere that can transform your garden into a tropical paradise.
2. Homegrown Flavor: Growing your own banana trees allows you to enjoy the freshest, most flavorful bananas right from your garden. Homegrown bananas often have a superior taste compared to store-bought varieties.
3. Nutritional Benefits: Bananas are packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. By cultivating your own banana trees, you gain access to a nutritious and healthy snack option right in your backyard.
4. Quick Results: Banana plants are known for their fast growth. In subtropical climates, they can produce fruit in as little as one to two years. This means you don't have to wait long to savor the fruits of your labor!
5. Low Maintenance: Banana trees are relatively low-maintenance once established. They require regular watering, but their hardy nature makes them a relatively easy addition to your garden. They are not messy in a landscape.
6. Versatility: Bananas offer versatility in your garden. You can choose from dessert bananas for snacking, cooking bananas like plantains for culinary experiments, or even ornamental banana varieties to enhance your garden's aesthetics. There are so many varieties to enjoy! You can't find this big selection in a grocery store.
7. Sustainable Living: Growing your own bananas reduces your reliance on store-bought produce, contributing to a more sustainable lifestyle. It also minimizes the carbon footprint associated with transporting fruits to market.
8. Educational Value: Cultivating banana plants can be an educational experience for both adults and children. It offers insights into tropical horticulture and can foster an appreciation for gardening and botany.
9. Landscaping Appeal: Beyond their fruit-bearing potential, banana plants add visual interest to your garden. Their unique form and striking leaves make them an excellent choice for landscaping and providing shade in your outdoor space.
10. Resilience: While bananas thrive in tropical conditions, many banana varieties are hardy enough to withstand cooler climates, making them a durable addition to your garden.
Why Bananas? They are good for you and are fun to grow!
Red Banana
Praying Hands Banana
Banana fruit
Rojo Banana
Variegated Banana
- 💛 Bananas are berries, not fruits!
- 💛 They float in water like apples and watermelons.
- 💛 Bananas are high in potassium, which helps muscles work properly.
- 💛 They can improve your mood because they contain tryptophan, which your body turns into serotonin.
- 💛 Bananas are great for your heart because they have lots of fiber and potassium.
- 💛 Eating bananas can help with digestion since they are rich in fiber.
- 💛 They are a natural energy booster, perfect for a quick snack.
- 💛 Bananas can help keep your blood pressure in check due to their low sodium and high potassium content.
- 💛 They contain vitamins like B6 and C, which are good for your immune system.
- 💛 Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on mosquito bites can reduce itching and swelling.
❔ What is your favorite Banana or Plantain variety?
Share in comments👇
🛒 Shop Banana varieties
#Food_Forest #Bananas
🏵 TopTropicals
Date:
Easy,
stress-free plants
for Summer planting
Q: With the rising temperatures, I'm concerned about shipping my plants safely. Can they withstand the heat during transit? Also, is it okay to plant them in the ground now, or should I wait for cooler Fall weather?
A: Your concern about shipping plants in hot weather is valid. For sensitive plants, we'll delay shipping until conditions are more favorable in your area. However, there are plenty of heat-tolerant tropical plants that handle shipping well with minimal stress. These plants adapt easily when planted during the hot summer months. Simply follow the included planting instructions, gradually acclimate them to full sun, and they should thrive.
Certain flowering tropical plants, such as Allamandas, Calliandras, Caesalpinias, Adeniums, and Clerodendrums, are excellent options for shipping and establishing during the summer. Flowering vines like Jasmines also adapt well. Consider using Sunshine Booster fertilizers to promote robust growth, they are safe to use right after planting.
Additionally, many fruit trees flourish in heat. Mangoes, Avocados, Pomegranates, Pineapples, Loquats, Eugenias - Tropical cherries, Bananas, Jackfruits, Dragon Fruit, and Olive trees are great choices for summer planting. Noni trees are hardy survivors and usually ship and grow well during the summer, in spite of their lush tropical leaves.
Feel free to check with us about the specific plant you plan to order for its suitability in summer shipping. We're here to take care of your green babies and address your year-round planting needs!
Pitaya, Yellow Dragon Fruit, Selenicereus megalanthus
Jasminum sambac Maid of Orleans thrives and blooms in hot sun
Kalanchoe synsepala Magnificent - Walking Cup Kalanchoe, spectacular plant, loves dry and hot conditions
Longevity Spinach Superfood Recipes: how to make healthy food delicious
Can healthy food taste delicious?
Healthy Longevity Spinach... It tastes like... spinach? You can add it to your salads, but let's face it, you can only eat so much of a salad. So try it cooked - you will be so surprised and want to eat it every day!
🍳 Eggs with Longevity Spinach
You will need:
🌿 Longevity Spinach or Okinawa Spinach: 2 handfuls
- 1 cup Bacon (optional), sliced or chopped, or: 2 tbsp Olive or vegetable oil
1 large Onion, sliced in semi-rings
1 sweet pepper, red or yellow, sliced
3-5 cloves garlic, chopped (optional, to taste)
5-6 eggs
1 cup ground beef or turkey/chicken (optional), or mushrooms
½ cup shredded cheese (regular or Parmesan)
salt and pepper to taste
🌶 Sweet Chile Sauce (optional. Tastes great with this dish!)
- 🍷 a glass of your favorite wine or cocktail to enjoy your dinner
Preparation time: 10 min
Makes dinner for 2
Open detailed recipe
🛒 Order Longevity Spinach
#Edible_Forest #Recipes
TopTropicals.com
We Grow Happiness
How to learn the Truth about fertilizers
Spring is here and so is the time to give your plants more food for active growth!
❓ How to decide which fertilizer to chose with so many of them on the market? The basic idea is -
❗️ All fertilizers and good for plants, because it's food!
But like with every food in must be in right time, right kind, and right amount.
Basic types of fertilizers:
❇️ Controlled-release fertilizer is coated and release nutrients slowly and constantly within labeled amount of time (3-6-12 months). Good for stepping-up and transplanting.
❇️ Slow release granulated fertilizer breaks down quickly, especially in the heat, and should be used as a top-dress only occasionally (for example, to green up a plant quickly).
❇️ Liquid fertilizers are the most efficient in a long run. They make plants strong, resistant, healthy and productive, slowly but surely building up energy in their system. This is why all professional food farms, from veggies to hemp, stick to liquid plant food.
We suggest Sunshine Boosters, they are safe to use with every watering and year around. Their formulas are natural (based on organic amino-acids) and great for edibles.
🛒Get your plants some food
#Edible_Forest #Fertilizers #How_to
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We Grow Happiness
What are the health benefits of Gardening?
Therapeutic effect of gardening is not just a modern discovery. Throughout history, various cultures have recognized the mental and physical benefits of gardening...
🏺 In ancient Egypt, physicians prescribed walks through gardens for patients struggling with mental health issues.
🕯 During the Middle Ages in Europe, monastery gardens were designed not only for sustenance but also for meditation and relaxation.
🔮 Gardening has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression while promoting relaxation and a sense of well-being.
😅 The physical activity involved in gardening also provides exercise, contributing to overall health.
🌳 So, whether you're tending to a small indoor herb garden or cultivating a vast outdoor plot, the act of gardening can be a powerful tool for both mental and physical wellness.
🛒 Shop tropical spice plants and herbs
#Edible_Forest #Remedies
🏵 TopTropicals
How to get a HUGE crop
🍝 Your answer is SUNSHINE C-Cibus - eco-friendly concentrated nutrition booster for fruiting plants.
🟢 Helps to produce strong growth, high yield, larger fruit size.
🟢 Improves quantity and quality of flowers and ability to set fruit. Encourages profuse blooming and reduces bud-flower-fruit drop.
🟢 Can be used as often as with every watering and year around.
🟢 Scientifically-balanced stable formula is organic Amino-acid based and has NO EDTA chelators to eliminate nutrients lockup; it does not affect crop taste.
🟢 Great for edibles! Based on Organic Amino Acids.
🟢 Pollinating insects friendly!
🐞🐝
🛒Get food for your Grape Vines
#Edible_Forest #Fertilizers #How_to
🏵 TopTropicals
Like the sweet, deep colors of tropical flowers, the fruits of the earth inspire and enrich our lives
Exotic tropical fruit on a tray
📸 Bael Fruit, Mangosteen, Sapodilla, Rambutan, Mango, Maprang - from Thailand fruit market
🛒 Shop rare tropical fruit trees
#Edible_Forest #Quotes
🏵 TopTropicals
What fruit tree will produce right away?
Strawberry tree, or Cotton Candy - Muntingia calabura, fruit
Strawberry tree, or Cotton Candy - Muntingia calabura, fruit on a plate
Strawberry tree, or Cotton Candy - Muntingia calabura branch
- 🍒 Want a fruit tree that will produce for you right away? That's the one. Strawberry tree, or Cotton Candy - Muntingia calabura. So, why Strawberry and why Cotton Candy?
- 🍒 Pretty white flowers with 4-5 petals look exactly like flowers of a Strawberry plant - hence the name.
- 🍒 The fruit as so sweet and tasty, have no acid whatsoever - this is why it is also called Cotton Candy!
- 🍒 This is probably the most profuse and rewarding fruiting tree! From spring to fall, you will harvest 2 crops a day once the plant is established.
- 🍒 Easy to grow, fast growing tree of a medium size 20 ft tall, and graceful umbrella-like shape. Drought tolerant, once established. Requires almost no care, however, it is sensitive to freeze. But if you live outside of Tropics - it grows well and fruits non-stop in containers!
🛒 Get a Strawberry Tree
#Edible_Forest #Fun_Facts
🏵 TopTropicals
Do you know what is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world?
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Answer:
#Edible_Forest #Nature_Wonders
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We Grow Happiness