Cold protection - winter action for your plant collection

A note from our customer: Last winter was very cold here in Arizona, lower 30's. I used white synthetic sheets (called frost cloth, it is very light and yet effective) to cover my fruit trees, and kept simple light garlands on for the whole night. Sending you couple photos so you can share with others. It worked pretty well for my plants and no cold damage!

With winter approaching, it is time to take some actions to protect your rare plants from cold stress and damage.
If you live in a mild climate, you still need to get ready for the cold nights. When expecting a cold night, individual plants and trees can be wrapped with sheets, or blankets, to protect them from the wind chill. Christmas lights is a good idea for an additional warm up.

For large collections of tropical plants, temporary winter greenhouse doesn't have to be expensive. An easy-assembly mobile carport from a hardware store covered with a plastic or fabric will cost you $100-200. It can fit a hundred plants or more!

If you live in area with a hard freeze, Southern exposure windowsill will work for most of the compact tropicals providing proper care. Larger collections may also move into your garage for a few cold nights, or for longer periods if the garage has a bright light source.

Factors affecting tropical plant winter survival:

1. Duration of cold period. Tropical plants can't stand long periods of cold. A few days of even upper 30's may kill a tropical plant. A few hours of frost may cause leaf drop but the plant will recover.
2. Minimum temperature - of course, the warmer the better. But see 1) - if cold is not for too long, it may be OK.
3. Wind-chill can be more dangerous than low temperatures.
4. Exposure. Southern slopes get warm during daytime and stay warm longer.
5. Protection with a house, fence, larger trees - where a "pocket" of warm air forms and stays - is beneficial.
6. Humidity. A lake or a river nearby (especially ocean) will mild the micro-climate.
7. Individual species hardiness. Don't try to grow Orchid Tree outdoors in New York.
8. Plant maturity and health. A well-established plant with developed root system has more chances to survive cold. If a plant had a good change to develop during warm season (bright light, enough water, fertilizer), it will be more cold hardy. Healthy plant can withstand lower temperature, so proper nutrition is important, including micro-element applications. Large specimens, even ultra-tropical, may survive cooler winter than they normally do in their natural habitat. The Nature provided plants with better hardiness level than it is normally used. To boost plant immune system and improve cold tolerance even more, use SUNSHINE plant boosters. SUNSHINE-T - thermo-protection booster, is specially formulated for winter protection of tropical plants. To improve cold hardiness, spray 1-2 days prior to cold with 5 ml/1 gal solution and continue applications with 2.5 ml/1 gal solution every 10-15 days throughout winter period.
9. Gradual temperature decrease is less dangerous than a sudden drop since it gives a plant a chance to adjust. One sudden freeze in December with prior warm fall may create more damage than a gradual temperature adjustment. If it starts to get cold early in the Fall, plants slow down their metabolism, and the new tender growth won't get hurt later in winter, since the plants are "expecting" the cold.
10. Do not fertilize plants during cool months. Not only because they don't need much food beyond growing season, but also because fertilizer (especially Nitrogen) encourages rapid tender growth that will be damaged by cold and this will stress the whole plant.

Stay warm!

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.

What tree will fruit indoors?

Q: I love your tropical fruit selection and I wish I lived in a warmer climate. Is there any fruit tree that can be happy indoors during winter and have fruit? I am not expecting a big crop but it would be fun to have a small piece of tropics at home. I don't have much gardening experience, can you suggest something easy for a start?

A: Several tropical fruit trees can be grown indoors, in pots, providing bright light that is necessary for flowering and setting fruit. Among them are many varieties of Bananas, Guavas, Annonas and tropical Cherries - these can be easily maintained in containers. Even dwarf varieties of Avocado and Mango are good candidates for indoor culture. You can bring containers indoors for winter and take outside into full sun during warm months so your plants can store lots of energy in Summer.
The easiest fruit tree for indoor culture that doesn't require bright light and can be grown indoors year around is a Coffee tree. Start with it, it is on sale today! Once you gain some experience, you can upgrade to a Chocolate tree!
Remember, all container grown plants need balanced nutrition program. It can be easily provided with Sunshine Boosters your around. For fruit trees, just add some Sunshine C-Cibus Crop Booster to your cart.

Cashew Nut tricks and challenges

Q: I bought a cashew plant in May of this year it has been slow-growing well then all of a sudden it started dying. I have cut it back halfway down. So a plant that was close to 3 ft tall is now 1 1/2 feet. I see new leaves trying to spring closer to the root. Help! It's in a huge 18"wide pot, I have not put it in the ground yet. I am in the Orlando area.

A: Generally speaking, Cashew is not the easiest plant to grow. Cutting it down added more stress to the plant. A few thoughts:

1) Chances are, the tree was over-watered (possibly summer rains, we had pretty wet summer this year in FL). Cashew trees are very sensitive to over-watering while young. Considering it sits in pretty large pot, this may have created soggy conditions. Don't bother repotting the plant now, just try to reduce watering. We have less rains now. If you have automatic sprinklers, move it away from sprinkler so you can control moisture manually. Even better - move it under roof (lanai, etc) where it still can get lots of bright light, but you can control water.

2) In Orlando, winters are too cold for this tree. Make sure to protect it from cold - bring inside when temperature drops below 65F, especially considering that the plant is still struggling.

3) Keep in mind that Cashew is semi-deciduous tree, meaning it looses leaves during cooler period. If all leaves are gone but the stem still green (after nail scratch) - just give it time, it may start growing vigorously in Spring.

4) You may apply Sunshine Boosters with every watering (which should be once a week, or even less frequent if the soil is still moist) - SUNSHINE C-Cibus - Crop Nutrition Booster

Keep the plant in full sun or at least very bright filtered light. It must be always warm. Bring inside if below 65F.

Photo above: Cashew Tree flowers are so amusing!

Harvesting from a young mango tree

Q: About a year ago we bought a mango tree from you folks and planted it in our backyard in Estero. It has done well. It now has several mangoes and I am wondering if the tree is strong enough to support the fruit or if I should just cut off the fruit and wait until next year when the tree is a bit stronger. I am attaching some pictures. I am most concerned about the branch on the right which seems to be sagging. If you do not suggest that I cut off the fruit, can I wait until they ripen on the tree and eat them. They seem to be a bit on the small side for eating.

A: Your mango tree looks very healthy and happy, congratulation with a great job! For young mango trees, it is always recommended to minimize a number of fruit to 2-3 so the tree has enough energy for vegetative growth rather than fruiting. In your case, as we can see from the pictures, your tree is very well established, has a strong root system, nice symmetrical shape, and vigorous new growth. In our opinion, you can save all these fruit and let them ripen on the tree. To support the plant's energy, make sure to fertilize it during summer with slow-release Mango Food, and year around - with Mango Tango booster. Use Sunshine Honey supplement for sweeter fruit.
Secure the heavy fruit branch with a v-shape stake (a big branch may work), it can definitely use the support otherwise may break under strong Florida winds. You are all set to enjoy your first crop and be rewarded with fruit of your excellent work!