Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 7 Jun 2025

From seed to fruit. How to grow Loquat from seeds, step-by-step guide. Part 1: planting seeds

Loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica) - seedlings

✍️ From seed to fruit. How to grow Loquat from seeds, step-by-step guide. Part 1: planting seeds

  • 🍑 1. Harvesting and Preparing Seeds


  • Harvest: Select ripe Loquat fruits (when they are bright yellow color) and remove 1-3 seeds from each.
  • Clean: Rinse seeds thoroughly in cool water to remove all fruit residue. Like with every fruit seeds, any pulp leftover may prevent germination and/or cause rot of the seeds.
  • Storage: If not planting immediately, wrap seeds in a damp paper towel and store in a vented container with moist sawdust or moss (to avoid drying out) at room temperature (if stored a few days) or at 40F if stored for over a week. Seeds can remain viable for up to 3-6 months. Refrigerating the fruit doesn't harm the seeds, although may take seeds longer to germinate. If the seeds are slightly dry, soak them in water overnight.


🍑 2. Planting Seeds

  • Container: Use a pot with a good drainage.
  • Soil: Fill with well-draining, soilless potting mix (no compost or top soil). Perfect seed germination mix is Abundance Mix: peat moss (or coconut fiber) - 80%, perlite - 10%, small pieces of pine bark - 10%.
  • Depth: Plant seeds 1"deep. Place them horizontally.
  • Spacing: Multiple seeds can be planted in one pot or tray (with drainage holes); space them adequately. You can use so called “community pots”, then separate the seedlings once they reach 2-4" in height.


🍑 3. Germination Conditions

  • Light: Place the pot in a bright, warm area with temperatures at least (and above) 70F . The warmer, the faster the germination. We germinate seeds in a "hot house" where temperatures can reach 100F.
  • Moisture: Keep the soil consistently moist but not wet.
  • Germination Time: Loquat seeds germinate within 2-4 weeks.

Continued in next post ⤵️

🛒 Shop Loquat Trees and enjoy fresh fruit benefits

#Food_Forest #Loquat

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Date: 20 Jun 2025

Adenium Rainbow, Part 1

Adenium varieties

Adenium Rainbow, Part 1 🌈
  • 🌸 Our Desert roses at Top Tropicals - Adeniums - were planted in March - and the first video posted in April.
  • Now, in June, they have more and more blooms! We are sharing these amazing colors with you.
    To be continued, check back soon!⤵️
  • 🌸 Check out the varieties still in stock and grab yours before they’re gone. Some are already sold out, but you still have a chance to score amazing blooms!
  • 🌸 Why Collect Adeniums?


· Easy to grow indoors or out
  • · Thrive in sun, shade, and low humidity
  • · Drought-tolerant, low maintenance
  • · Not picky about soil
  • · Stunning blooms and unique caudex shapes

  • 🌸 How Many Varieties Exist?

· Over 200 hybrids at Top Tropicals
  • · 100+ varieties in stock now
  • · From doubles to red, purple, yellow, striped, dotted, rainbow, even black flowers - you'll want them all!


🌸 How to Grow a Big, Swollen Caudex - a simple trick with big results:


Each time you repot, raise the plant slightly to expose more of the upper roots. This encourages new root growth downward and helps form a thicker, more dramatic caudex.
  • · Use a well-draining mix
  • · Water only when dry - Adeniums love dry conditions
  • · Feed with Sunshine Megaflor Booster that supports both caudex and blooms
  • · Grow best in filtered bright light


📚 More about Adeniums:



🛒 Shop Adenium colors and hybrids

#Container_Garden #How_to #Shade_Garden #Adenium

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Date: 25 Jul 2025

Perfume in a pot: exotic Dwarf Chanel No 5 Tree

Cananga fruticosa - Dwarf Ylang-Ylang Tree, Chanel No 5 Tree

✨ Perfume in a pot: exotic Dwarf Chanel No 5 Tree

  • ⭐️ The Chanel No. 5 tree in a pot? Yep.
  • Cananga fruticosa - Dwarf Ylang-Ylang Tree, is the compact cousin of the famous perfume tree. It has the same elegant, drooping flowers that smell like the original Ylang-Ylang - the scent behind Chanel No. 5 - just in a smaller, easy-to-grow version.
  • ⭐️ It stays nicely shaped like a little tree, blooms year-round in warm weather, and does great in a container. Just give it bright light, and if the air is humid, you'll get that dreamy fragrance in full force.
  • ⭐️ A perfect plant for anyone who wants their space to smell amazing - naturally.


🛒 Grow your own Chanel No. 5

📚Learn more:
#Perfume_Plants #Container_Garden #Trees
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Date: 12 Aug 2025

Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava

🍉 Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

  • 🍉 Everyone loves guava! Sweet, fragrant, and packed with flavor. At TopTropicals, we have a whole guava forest, with varieties for every space and taste: Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava.
  • 🍉 Why we love Guava?


💋Fast-growing and sun-loving
  • 💋Thrives with plenty of water but handle short droughts
  • 💋Starts producing right away - no years of waiting
  • 💋Abundant fruit harvests
  • 💋Perfect for containers or small gardens


🍉 What are the best Guava varieties? Our favorites are:

  • 💋Dwarf Guava - stays under 6 feet but produces full-sized fruit.
  • 💋Honeymoon Variegated - leaves and fruit have variegated patterns, turning golden when ripe.
  • 💋Barbie Pink - pear-shaped yellow fruit with thick pink flesh, low in pectin, perfect for fresh eating or juice. Larger than Ruby Supreme and cold-hardy for a tropical fruit.
  • 💋Hong Kong (Hawaiian) - large, round fruit with smooth pink skin, sweet flavor, and few seeds. Very productive, with a spreading growth habit.
  • 💋Kilo White - huge fruit (up to 1 kilo = 2 lbs) with soft white flesh and few seeds. Great container plant, fruits even when small.
  • 💋Tikal - compact tree with yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruit. Fruits year-round and starts young. Great for beginners.


🍉 Health boost in every bite:


Guava is one of the richest sources of vitamin C – even more than oranges. It’s loaded with antioxidants, fiber, potassium, and lycopene, which support immunity, heart health, and digestion.

🍉 Whether you’ve got space for a tree in the yard or just a container on the patio, a guava will reward you with beauty, fragrance, and sweet fruit in no time.

🛒 Pick your guava variety

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Guava #Discover

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Date: 13 Oct 2025

How long does it take for a mango tree to bear fruit?

How long does it take for a mango tree to bear fruit? How long does it take for a mango tree to bear fruit? How long does it take for a mango tree to bear fruit? How long does it take for a mango tree to bear fruit?
🥭 How long does it take for a mango tree to bear fruit?

  • 🥭 A Mango tree (Mangifera indica) grown from seed can take anywhere from 7 to 10 years to start fruiting, depending on conditions. Doesn’t sound too exciting, ah? Besides such a long wait, you never know how good the fruit will be – most likely it'll taste fibrous and not very sweet. Unless your cross-pollination was perfectly set between some top-notch parent cultivars, it's a gamble. Seedling results are always hit or miss.

  • 🥭 That's why you need a grafted tree – it fruits soon (in the ground or in a large container) and guarantees the quality of the fruit. There are hundreds of cultivated varieties to choose from: juicy, sweet, and flavorful. Some taste like pina colada, pineapple, or lemon meringue pie, others like peach sherbet or even guava! The mango flavor spectrum is broader than that of apples!

  • 🥭 So, you’ve got yourself a nice mango tree in a container and can’t wait for your first harvest. How soon?
  • Mango trees start flowering from early winter (early cultivars like Nam Doc Mai) to early spring (late cultivars like Keitt). One little tree can produce hundreds, even thousands of tiny flowers, but not all will set fruit. The younger the tree, the fewer fruits it can hold. Expect just a few the first year. Even if your mango sets a lot, don’t keep them all - let the young tree focus on establishing roots and strong growth. Leave 1-2 fruits and remove the rest. Your tree will thank you and grow fast and sturdy.

  • 🥭 By the second year, you can let your tree keep a bit more fruit. Young trees usually know their limits and will naturally drop any extra fruit they can’t support. Within 2–3 years, you’ll be harvesting good crops – enough to enjoy yourself and share with friends!

  • 🥭 Remember, a strong, healthy tree produces sooner and more. Feed it with Sunshine Mango Tango liquid booster or Green Magic controlled-release fertilizer, and protect it from frost, especially while young. Once established, your mango will reward you with reliable, abundant harvests year after year.


📸 In the photos: the trees in 7 gal pots are 2 years from grafting, and the trees in the ground are 1 year from the time of planting and 3 years from grafting.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Learn more about #Mango and different varieties: #Mango_Rainbow

#Food_Forest #Mango

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