Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
Fun Facts: Cacao beans
Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)
Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)
Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)
Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)
🛒Get your own Chocolate Tree
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Fun Facts About the Guava Flower
Guava Flower
- 🌸 Frilly and Fabulous - Guava flowers may be small, but they're packed with fluffy white stamens that give them a soft, powder-puff look.
- 🌸 Pollinator Magnet - Bees and butterflies love guava blooms, making them a great addition to a pollinator-friendly garden.
- 🌸 Scent-sational - The flowers have a light, pleasant fragrance that adds a touch of sweetness before the fruit even arrives.
- 🌸 Bloom to Fruit - Each flower can turn into a delicious guava fruit, making them both beautiful and productive.
- 🌸 Part of the Showy Family - Guava (Psidium) belongs to the Myrtaceae family, which also includes eye-catching bloomers like Eucalyptus, Bottlebrush (Callistemon), and the stunning Rose Apple (Syzygium).
📚 More from previous posts about: #Guava
🛒 Shop Guava Trees
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How to Live Longer? Surround Yourself with Plants!
Gardening not only helps you stay active and healthy but can also be a fun and rewarding way to extend your life. Let nature nurture you!
Living Longer with Green Spaces
A study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health found that a 10% increase in vegetation within 1,600 feet of your home can lower your death risk by 4%.
Why Gardening Could Help You Live Longer
- Nature Exposure: Being outside boosts your mood.
- Exercise: Gardening is a great workout.
- Healthy Eating: Grow and eat your own fresh produce.
- Mind Exercise: Gardening can reduce stress and keep your mind sharp.
Gardening and Longevity
- Many centenarians (people living to 100) garden.
- In "blue zones," where people live longer, gardening is common.
- Gardening promotes daily exercise and a plant-based diet.
Natural Movement vs. Gym Workouts
- 100 years ago, 90% of jobs involved physical activity; today, only 10%
do.
- Walking 2 hours a week can lower the risk of major diseases.
- Gardening offers fresh air, exercise, and fun.
Gardening vs. Gym
- Gardening can be as effective as gym workouts.
- Research shows 3 hours of gardening equals a 1-hour gym session.
- Tasks like weeding, digging, and mowing burn significant calories.
Calories Burned in 1 Hour of Gardening
- 340 cal: Chopping wood, using power tools, tilling, mowing with a hand
mower, shoveling.
- 272 cal: Carrying wood, digging, clearing land, wheelbarrow work.
- 238 cal: Blower operation, planting, trimming, weeding.
- 224 cal: Raking and sacking leaves.
- 136 cal: Picking fruit, gathering tools, walking.
- 102 cal: Fertilizing or seeding a lawn.
- 34 cal: Watering plants.
Fun Facts
- Half an hour of weeding burns 150 calories.
- Gardening five hours a week burns 700 calories.
- Over a year, that's 20,000 calories, equivalent to running seven
marathons.
- A lifetime of gardening can burn a million calories.
Grumichama jam: quick-n-fun exotic recipes
🔴Cook Grumichama cherries with sugar and lime juice.- 🔴A deep red jam with a cherry-meets-blackberry flavor.
Grumichama Jam: Quick-n-Fun Exotic Recipes
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh Grumichama cherries (Eugenia brasiliensis)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- Remove seeds from Grumichama cherries.
- Place fruit in a saucepan with sugar and lime juice.
- Simmer over low heat until thick and glossy, stirring often.
- Pour into sterilized jars and let cool before sealing.
🛒 Plant Grumichama tree (Eugenia brasiliensis)
📚 Learn more:
- ▫️The best tasting and most beautiful tropical cherry
- ▫️Why grow Grumichama? Benefits of Brazilian Eugenia Tree - Cherry of the Tropics
#Food_Forest #Recipes
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Secret Banana Daiquiri Recipe: Healthy Never Tasted So Good!
🍹 Banana Daiquiri Recipe Ingredients:
- · 1 ripe banana
- · 2 ounces light rum
- · 1 tablespoon sugar
- · 1 ounce lime juice
- · 1/2 ounce triple sec (optional for added depth)
- · Ice cubes
- · Slice of lime or banana for garnish
- 🍹Instructions:
- · Prepare the Banana: Peel the banana and cut it into chunks.
- · Blend the Ingredients: In a blender, combine the banana chunks, light rum, sugar, lime juice, and triple sec.
- · Add a handful of ice cubes. Blend on high until the mixture is smooth.
- · If the mixture is too thick, you can add a small amount of water or more lime juice to adjust the consistency.
🍹Garnish and Serve:
· Pour the mixture into a chilled glass. Garnish with a slice of lime on the rim of the glass or a small wheel of banana. Serve immediately and enjoy the refreshing tropical flavors!- · This Banana Daiquiri is not only refreshing but also offers a creamy texture and a perfect balance of sweetness and citrus. It's a fantastic choice for hot days or when you're in the mood for something a bit exotic. Cheers!
📚 About Banana from previous posts:
- 💋Top Ornamental Banana Varieties - Which One Belongs in Your Garden?
- 💋Best Edible Bananas to Grow - Sweet, Unique, and Delicious!
- 💋How Many Banana Varieties Can You Grow? (More Than You Think!)
- 💋Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits: #5 Banana growing and fun facts
- 💋How to make tasty Carambola Banana Whip
- 💋Why Bananas? They are good for you and are fun to grow
- 💋Bananas help you feel fuller and enhance your mood
🛒 Banana Bliss Starts Here
#Food_Forest #Recipes
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How many varieties of Bananas can I grow?
Bananas (Musa sp.) in containers
- 💛 At Top Tropicals, we have a few dozen varieties of Bananas (Musa sp.) - ranging from popular commercial and plantain types to spectacular ornamental bananas with colorful, tropical foliage.
- 💛 Banana plants are a favorite in Southern gardens, indoor plant collections, and greenhouses in cooler climates. Fast and easy to grow, they transform any space into a tropical paradise in just one season and can produce fruit for you in as little as 8–18 months after planting.
- 💛 Bananas are a powerhouse of nutrition, packed with potassium for heart health, fiber for digestion, and vitamins B6 and C for immunity. They’re a natural energy booster, great for snacks, smoothies, and even baking. Plus, their tryptophan content can improve your mood, and their low sodium helps regulate blood pressure.
- 💛 With so many delicious and unique varieties, growing different types of bananas lets you enjoy a range of flavors, textures, and uses - whether fresh, blended, or cooked - making them a must-have in any tropical or indoor garden!
Discover the most popular edible and ornamental bananas in our next post 🔽
🎥 Banana selection today at TopTropicals farm. Come over to pick the best one!
📚 More about Banana from previous posts:
- 💋Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits: #5 Banana growing and fun facts
- 💋How to make tasty Carambola Banana Whip
- 💋Why Bananas? They are good for you and are fun to grow
- 💋Bananas help you feel fuller and enhance your mood
🛍 Shop Banana varieties
#Food_Forest #Bananas
🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Sweetleaf tea: quick-n-fun exotic recipes
Sweetleaf tea with Mexican Aztec sweet herb (Lippia dulcis)
- 🟢Delicious Sweetleaf tea can be made with Mexican Aztec sweet herb (Lippia dulcis).
- 🟢Steep Aztec sweet herb leaves in hot water with lime peel.
- 🟢Naturally sweet, no sugar needed!
- Fresh or dried Aztec sweet herb (Lippia dulcis) leaves
- Hot water
- Lime peel or a slice of lime
- Bring water to a boil and pour over Lippia dulcis leaves.
- Add lime peel or a slice of lime.
- Let steep for 5–10 minutes.
- Enjoy this naturally sweet tea—no sugar needed!
Sweetleaf tea: quick-n-fun
Ingredients
Instructions
🛒 Add sugar-free Mexican Sweetleaf (Lippia dulcis) to your herb garden
#Food_Forest #Recipes
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Avocado shrimp boats: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes
🟢Halve an avocado, scoop out a little extra.- 🟢Fill with sauteed shrimp tossed in garlic-lime butter.
- 🟢Enjoy instant tropical feast!
🛒 Grow your own Avocado tree
Avocado shrimp boats: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes
Ingredients
- 2 ripe avocados
- 1 cup shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Instructions
- Halve the avocados and scoop out a little extra to make room.
- Sauté shrimp in butter with garlic and lime juice until pink and cooked through.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Fill avocado halves with shrimp mixture.
- Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
#Food_Forest #Recipes #Avocado
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Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!
TopTropicals.com - the World's leading authority on tropical plants - is now in Telegram. If you grow a tropical garden or indoor collection of rare plants, this is your channel!
Join to get exclusive updates on tropical gardening:
Fun Facts and Nature Wonders
🌺 How to make your plants flower and stay happy
How to get the biggest fruit crop
🏆 Sweepstakes and Contests
Butterfly and Container Garden
Food Forest
⚜️ Perfume Plants
🍲 Exotic Recipes and Remedies
...and of course, your favorite -
🐾 PeopleCats in the Garden!
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How easy is it to grow a Papaya tree?
Q: What is the easiest to grow fruit tree? It must tolerate, heat, rains, and hurricanes! I live in Florida.
A: Papaya is the easiest to grow fruit tree. In our garden in Florida, newly planted Papaya trees survived several hurricanes, frosts, drought and heat, and keep producing year around!
We all enjoy eating Papaya fruit every day. It is great for digestion and is a perfect naturally sweet, healthy snack. Even our PeopleCats love Papaya. Check out this short video how our cat Cash is begging for his daily Papaya treat!
Why do we love Papaya? Fun facts about Papaya:
Not a tree: Papaya is technically a giant herb with a single, straight trunk that can grow up to 30 feet tall.
Gender flexible: Papaya plants can change their gender based on environmental conditions. This complex mechanism ensures better adaptability.
Cold and wind resistant: Papayas can withstand light freezes and strong winds, making them surprisingly hardy for a tropical plant.
Solo cultivars: These smaller, round or oval papayas are incredibly sweet and less susceptible to fruit flies.
How to grow a Papaya Tree: Practical Guide
Papaya is one of the fastest fruiting plants to grow. Often starting production the same year from planting a seed, papayas are ideal for gardeners seeking quick rewards. Many dwarf varieties reach only 6-8 feet tall, yet produce large crops of full-sized fruit that are easy to harvest. Papaya trees are space-efficient, making it possible to plant multiple trees in even small gardens. Plant 2-3 different cultivars to enjoy year-round harvests of healthy, delicious fruit.
How Easy Are Papaya Trees to Grow?
Papaya trees are exceptionally easy to grow. Technically a large herbaceous
plant rather than a true tree, they are resilient and adaptable. They can
tolerate light freezes and even hurricane winds without significant damage.
Additionally, many varieties are self-fertile, but planting multiple trees
encourages better pollination and higher yields.
What Light Levels and Soil Types Are Ideal?
Papayas thrive in full sunlight, so choose a sunny spot in your garden or
balcony. They prefer well-draining, fertile soil enriched with organic matter.
Add compost or manure to improve soil quality and ensure healthy growth.
Avoid waterlogged areas as papayas are sensitive to standing water.
How Much Watering Is Required?
Papayas need some watering to thrive, especially during the growing and
fruiting seasons. Water deeply once or twice a week, depending on your climate,
ensuring the soil remains moist but not waterlogged. Mulching around the base
helps retain moisture and regulate soil temperature.
Growing Papayas in Containers
Papayas can be successfully grown in large containers, making them ideal
for gardeners in cooler regions or those with limited space. Choose a container
at least 7 gallons in size with good drainage. Use a rich, well-draining
potting mix, and place the container in a sunny location. Select dwarf varieties
to keep the plant manageable and productive.
Health Benefits of Papaya
Papaya is considered a superfood due to its high nutritional value. Rich in
the enzyme papain, it aids digestion and promotes gut health. Papaya is also
an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and E, as well as antioxidants that
boost immunity and overall wellness. Additionally, papaya leaves can be used as
wraps for cooking meats, naturally tenderizing them.
Papayas are a low-maintenance, high-reward addition to a Southern garden or greenhouse collection, whether in the ground or in a container. Their fast growth, year-round fruiting potential, and health benefits make them a must-have for gardeners and fruit enthusiasts alike.
Photo above: For small gardens, limited space, or container culture, choose dwarf varieties that remain compact and short (5-8 ft tall) while producing a tremendous amount of fruit! Most productive dwarf varieties: Red Vietnam, Lady Red, TR Hovey, Wan Deng. Semi-dwarf: Waimanalo, Sunrise.