Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 6 Jan 2017

6 easiest fruit trees and 5 spices to grow in containers indoors

Q: This is why I want to move so that I can grow absolutely anything I want from your catalogue. Prefered Puerto Rico. Right now I live in New York and there is absolutely nothing I can grow there.

A: Of course living in Puerto Rico brings more opportunities to grow tropical species. However, you can create your unique tropical paradise even living in New York. We have many customers from up North who successfully grow tropical species (and get them to flower and fruit) in greenhouses, and even indoors.
Here are a few suggestions of tropical fruit trees that adapt well for container/indoor culture - for both beginners and advanced gardeners.

Top 6 fruit trees great for indoors / container culture / beginners
1. Mango (Mangifera indica). Select from one of smaller mango varieties
2. Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa)
3. Guanabana, Soursop (Annona muricata)
4. Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum)
5. June Plum (Spondias cytherea)
6. Guava (Psidium guajava)

5 top spice plants (the spice will be with you right away, you don't have to wait for it to grow)
1. Allspice (Pimenta dioica)
2. Cinnamomon or Campor tree
3. Bay Leaf (Laurus nobilis)
4. Mint Tree (Satureja vimenea)
5. Vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia)

See a brief article of growing tropicals outside of tropics.

Don't forget to get some SUNSHINE boosters for your plant collection - for both successful indoor culture and cold protection!

See also our magazine Tropical Treasures) - Pushing the Limits of Tropical Gardening, with list of issues.

Date: 19 May 2016

Care of mail-order plants during hot summer

Q: I live in California and about a month ago ordered several plants from you, including fruit trees (Carambola, Mango, Avocado) and flowering trees (Xanthostemon, Adeniums, Champaca, Ylang Ylang). They were all doing well until I tried to move them into full sun, when they got leaf burn immediately. Ylang Ylang was doing great in a shade, but I repotted it from 1 gal into 3 gal and it is drooping leaves now. It has been very hot (over 100F) and dry (humidity is less than 25%). Any suggestions?

A: Hot summer can be pretty challenging time for establishing new plants. These are some guidelines to make your summer gardening more successful and rewarding.

1. You can order plants at any time, but keep your eye on your local weather forecast and try to chose cooler periods to schedule your plant shipments. Here at TopTropcals we monitor weather at destinations, and we can also delay shipment per your request until more favorable conditions.

2. During hot Summer months, many plants are still OK to ship, and to be planted, many species are heat tolerant. It's usually safe to ship most succulents, including Desert roses and Euphorbias. Some fruit trees are pretty easy too, like Loquats, Mango, Eugenias. Many flowering trees can take heat: Acacias, Clusias, Jatropha, Sausage Tree, Plumerias and many others. Check our full list of plants suitable for hot and dry conditions. Most jasmines, including Jasmine Sambac and Trachelospermum make also a safe choice for hot weather planting.

3. Use shade cloth or simply white sheets to protect young plants and new plantings from hot sun.

4. When establishing mail ordered plants during hot weather, keep them in shade for longer period of time than average recommended 1-2 weeks. Give them a chance to establish really well. In areas with low air humidity, try to create a simple mist system. It can be purchased in your local Home Depot for only $20 and set up takes only 10 minutes! It makes a big difference and can help you save many plants from hot weather stress.

5. Although it may seem that during hot weather plants need more water due to high evaporation, be careful with watering, and check soil with your finger before watering - don't water if it is still wet. Combination of "hot and wet" can be as harmful for the root system as "cold and wet" during winter. Protect root systems from overheating: covering black pots with white cloth will work. Remember when temperature is above 90F, most of plants slow down their metabolism, which means roots slow down or even stop pumping water and become more vulnerable to overwatering. For the same reason, do not hurry to step up into bigger container if roots haven't filled yet the existing pot.

Date: 18 Feb 2021

Healthy Plants - Q&A from Mr Booster: Feeding Avocado Tree

Q:We bought one of your avocado grafts and it's doing great, lots of buds for fruit. It's still in a pot and fertilizing with the Sunshine Boosters. Should we continue with this product? We'll plant it in the ground in March. Thought you'd enjoy pictures of our wonderful tree. No freezing temperatures in Riverview, but when it got down into the 30s, the plant came in. One good thing about growing in the pot. I'll be buying some more Sunshine Boosters. This stuff is working great on all our plants.

A: Congratulations with a good job on growing avocado over winter. Avocado trees are not easy, we are happy to hear that your plant is ready for production, this is amazing! We've noticed that Sunshine Boosters perform miracles. Here are some suggestions for you:
1) Continue fertilizing with Sunshine Boosters according to the feeding chart
2) When ready to plant, dig a large hole and fill it with good soil full of organic matter (compost mixed with existing sandy soil will be good). Make sure to plant the tree on 3-4"high elevation, like on a little hill. Avocados need perfect drainage and can't tolerate wet feet. See more info on planting and planting instructions (pdf).
3) Water daily with a hose, do not rely on sprinklers. Avocados like water (considering perfect drainage)
4) Continue applications of Sunshine Boosters at least until the tree is established and starts growing new branches with lots of leaves. After that, you can switch to slow-release fertilizers once a month if it makes it easier, but if you can, continue Sunshine Boosters at least on weekly basis - they really boost plant growth!

Date: 19 Nov 2020

Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster

Feeding Indoor Plants

Q: I am moving all my potted plants indoors as weather is cooling down. I still have Sunshine Boosters that I got from you in Summer. Do I need to continue fertilizing and how often, or should I wait until Spring?

A: Indoor plants add a vibrant warmth to your home, and can even improve the air quality. But most importantly, indoor plants give you access to year-round gardening. While majority of house plants are easy to maintain, they still require proper care to thrive.
Too many gardeners overlook the importance of fertilizing plants indoors. However, proper feeding is essential to grow healthy, vibrant plants. With outdoor plants nature sends rain and a plant will send new roots to find food, an indoor plant is limited to only what you will give it. That is why it is essential to feed your plants a healthy nutritious meal even indoors.
Many granular and slow-releasing fertilizers will recommend that you only feed your plants occasionally, but this is not the healthiest for plants, since they need to "snack" every day to satisfy their daily nutrient needs. When you feed a plant a large meal rarely, it cannot absorb the nutrients effectively, leftovers creating build up in soil (it's called "locked up nutrients") and that is why we specifically designed our fertilizers to be a light, daily nutritious meal for your plants - Sunshine Home for houseplants...

Date: 5 Sep 2019

How to get Jasmines to flower

Q: On the picture, these are a few of the jasmine plants that I have from Top Tropicals. I have bought so many plants from you over the years, not just jasmine. I have several varieties of jasmine. They were all doing very well. However this year I didn't get a single flower. There are a lot of buds... But before the buds open they become brown and withered. I bought fertilizer from you. Fertilized the plants once a month like I always do. I water the plants once a week. I repotted the plants hoping that would take care of this problem. Some of the jasmine plants I pruned... the plants came back vigorous growth with a lot of buds... BUT it is the same problem! Please help.

A: One of the possible reasons why they have flower issues is - maybe they don't have enough sunlight. They need to be in full sun all day long for profuse blooming and proper flower forming. However since the buds are forming, there may be just enough light. In this case, dropping buds may be a sign of overwatering.

Important steps - how to make Jasmine Sambac flower:

1. Soil. Use only well-drained soil

2. Water. Keep plants on a dry side and never over water. If the top of the soil is still moist, do not water.

3. Sun. Keep in full sun all day long. The more sun, the more flowers.

4. Bloom booster. Use Flower booster fertilizers:
Pink N Good Daily Plant Food - Flower Booster
Fragrant Plant Special booster, this 90-day Smart-Release container plant food:
Plumeria Top Dress - Smart-Release Booster
Do not use fertilizers with high Nitrogen (1st number in NPK formula) - those will promote more leaves instead of flowers.

5. Micro-elements. Use Apply micro-elements, they will help the plant to develop healthy and long-lasting flowers:
SUNSHINE SuperFood - plant booster

Here is more information on growing Jasmine

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