Guava, the easiest container fruit tree

Grow Your Own Food

Guava is one of the most popular and well-known tropical fruit because it is so tasty, sweet, juicy and flavorful! Many people are familiar with it because of the large number of products made from this aromatic fruit. But very few people know that Guava tree culture is very easy and this plant can fruit in a pot right away. Guava tree start blooming and producing fruit as small as 1 gal pot size. It can be kept in compact shape, responds well to pruning, stays bushy and grows very fast. It is a perfect container fruit tree or a specimen for a tropical garden of any size.
Upon ripening, the fruit becomes soft and juicy. It may be eaten fresh, made into a juice or nectar contain fruit pulp, or made into preserves, jam, jelly, or paste. A distinctive, savory-fresh aroma of fruit is thermo-stable, thus survives processing. The guava is an excellent source of vitamins C and A.
The plant is relatively cold hardy. Our young trees, 3 months after being planted in the ground were exposed to a short period of freeze last winter (mid-20's) but they grew back without significant damage. Try to keep Guava cold-protected for the first winter, then it will be much hardier once established.
Guavas are fast growers and heavy feeders, and benefit from regular applications of fertilizer. Make sure to get some Sunshine Boosters fertilizer: Sunshine C-Cibus - Crop Booster, and feed them your round.

The fruit of Heaven:
Phyllanthus acidus - Amlak, Otaheite Gooseberry

Grow Your Own Food

This is a fun rare fruit tree to have if you like lemonade and believe in Vitamin C benefits! The tree is super easy to grow, relatively cold hardy and doesn't require any special care. It is a fast growing plant, however the mature tree is only about 20 ft so it will be well suited for any size garden, even container garden. As you can see, it happily fruits in a pot. Bright yellow fruit are beautiful and curious, they always make a conversation piece!

About Otaheite Gooseberry

Otaheite Gooseberry, or Amlak, is a rare tropical fruit tree from SE Asia and India, very close related to Phyllanthus emblica (Amla, Amlaki), however it is much cold hardy than Amla. Known as Amritphala in Sanskrit, which literally means "the fruit of heaven" or "nectar fruit". It is so called because it has many helth benefits. Amlak is one of the favorite fruit of Indian people who definitely know what is good for you! Fruit paste is a major ingredient of Chavyanprash, a popular Ayurvedic tonic. It is the richest source of vitamin C.
Fruits are borne in loose clusters, which hang from the tree trunk and main branches. Fruits are esteemed for jellies, preserves and pastries, and are great for making a delicious lemonade rich in vitamin C. There are no commercial plantings; trees grow only in home gardens.

You need to have one! Or two. We have only limited quantities.

What is the largest succulent flower in the world?
Starfish Flower - Stapelia gigantea

This is one of the most bizarre looking succulents you've even seen! Starfish Flower from Tanzania is one of the largest flowers in the plant world!
It does look like a startfish, and is absolutely beautiful! Being a succulent, the plant is very undemanding and easy to grow, doesn't need much care or water. It also doesn't mind regular irrigation, we have it in Summer Florida rains with no problem. The focal point of this plant is the fleshy, 5-pointed, star-shaped flowers (to 10-16"across), each being pale ochre-yellow with thin transverse maroon lines. It is a great container plant and very fast growing, can fill a large hanging basket within just one season. Flowers on and off during the warm season with the most profuse flowering at the end of Summer (flower buds are triggered by shortened daylight hours in fall). It is a spine-free succulent member of the milkweed (not cactus!).

Grow Your Own Food...
Affordable for everyone!

Grow Food Not Lawns - this is the theme for our Garden party. But it's much more than that. It's a philosophy and a state of mind. One that more and more people are adopting as the world's food supply continues to dwindle and get more expensive...
Like all things plant and garden related, each of us can adopt this state of mind at whatever level we're capable of and comfortable with. Many of our customers just want to start small and see what it's all about. After all, the world of tropical plants can be more than just beautiful, it can be sustaining as well!

Growing your own food is more than just about price, it's also about quality, choices and availability. As you watch the choices, and quality of store bought food go down and prices continue to go up, maybe it's time to grow more of your own food?

Fun Facts

- A mature mango tree can produce 200 to 300 fruit per year
- A single avocado tree is capable of producing 500 avocados in one year
- A mature papaya plant can produce as many as 100 fruits per growing season
- One longevity spinach plant can provide you with a fresh supply of healthy spinach leaves all the time!

At Top Tropicals we offer a wide selection of fruit, including mango and avocado, and even spinach to get you started and to continue down the road on your own self sustaining journey. Even better, to help you with your food project, we have not only added to our varieties, but we have reduced prices on many items to make it even more affordable and enjoyable!

Who is cutting prices in today's world?! - We are, because...

...it's important that we do what we can to make it easier for our customers!

We have Avocados starting at only $49.95 and Mangos as low as $79.95, with dozens of varieties in stock! Use our discount coupons to save even more, and if you're local or in Fort Myers, stop by our Garden Center and save even more!

New Video:
Black Surinam Cherry Lolita

...Black Surinam Cherry - tropical cherry variety Lolita, very hard-to-find. The fruit starts as red and turns black as it ripens. It has an exceptional flavor. The fruit is very sweet, without aftertaste, large 1-1.2 inch, very juicy. Reliable producer. The tree is upright, freely branching. Seedlings come true to seed. These cherry trees are relatively cold hardy and can take light frost. Once established, the plant can withstand upper 20's without damage....

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Revised video:
Garden in Trenches

We apologize for the broken link in our last newsletter and repeat Garden in Trenches per our subscribers request:

YouTube Video from the front line. Ukrainian soldiers continue growing vegetables and herbs at the front line, right in the trenches...