Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 21 May 2025

Finally: a sugar that is good for your health!

Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) - the Brown Sugar fruit tree

🍯 Finally: a sugar that is good for your health!

  • 🍩 Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) - the Brown Sugar fruit that loves you back with a health kick! Sapodilla is a delicious tropical fruit with soft, brown, sweet flesh and a malty, caramel-like flavor. It's loved not just for its unique taste, but also for its rich nutritional and medicinal value. Sapodilla is a sweet, nourishing fruit that doubles as a natural energy snack and a digestive aid.


🍴 Culinary Benefits: The sweet you don't have to feel guilty about!

  • 🍩 Eaten fresh - Just scoop the flesh out and enjoy! Tastes like brown sugar or caramel with a hint of pear.
  • 🍩 Smoothies and shakes - Adds creamy sweetness without the need for added sugar.
  • 🍩 Desserts - Used in ice cream, custards, or fruit salads.
  • 🍩 Jams, preserves - Makes a rich, flavorful jam.
  • 🍩 Dried sapodilla - Can be sun-dried like dates for a chewy, candy-like snack.


💚 Sapodilla's Health Benefits:

  • 🍩 Rich in fiber - Helps regulate digestion, prevent constipation, and support gut health.
  • 🍩 Natural energy booster - High in natural sugars and calories, great for quick energy.
  • 🍩 Packed with antioxidants - Contains polyphenols and flavonoids that help fight inflammation and cell damage.
  • 🍩 Vitamins A, C - Supports eye health, immune function, and skin regeneration.
  • 🍩 Iron, potassium, and folate - Supports blood health and may help maintain heart function and blood pressure.


🛒 Grow your own Sugar Fruit

📚 Learn more:


When does Sapodilla start fruiting and what is the best variety
New variety of Sapodilla: Thai Brownie

#Food_Forest #Discover

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Date: 29 May 2025

Why does everyone want a Miracle fruit plant?

Miracle Fruit - Synsepalum dulcificum

❓ Why does everyone want a Miracle fruit plant?



✨ Because it's pure magic for your taste buds! The small red berry of Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) contains a natural compound called miraculin that temporarily makes sour things taste sweet. Lemons taste like lemonade, vinegar like candy! It's fun, fascinating, and even helpful - especially for those undergoing chemotherapy who need help enjoying food again. A miracle? Pretty close!

📚 Learn more from earlier posts:



🛒 Bring the magic home - plant your own Miracle Fruit!

#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders #Remedies #Fun_Facts

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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: 15 Jun 2025

How to grow the Amazing Peanut Butter Tree - in one short video

🍯 How to grow the Amazing Peanut Butter Tree - in one short video


  • Peanut Butter Tree (Bunchosia argentea) earns its name from its fleshy fruits that boast a delightful peanut butter flavor. One of the most fascinating exotic fruit, as amazing as Miracle fruit, Peanut Butter Fruit is loved by both kids and adults... and yes, it tastes exactly like peanut butter!.. Yet it is much healthier food, with many medicinal benefits...

  • Compact in size, small tree reaching only 10-15 ft or kept as a bush, it's a perfect choice for limited spaces. Can thrive indoors, starting to fruit within just 2-3 years from seed. Watch the video how easy it is to grow:


📱

📚 Learn more:



🛒 Shop Peanut Butter Tree

#Food_Forest #How_to

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Date: 29 Jul 2025

Strawberry Guava for best Margaritas - the easiest fruit tree youll ever grow!

Strawberry Guava, Cattley Guava - Psidium littorale

🍓 Strawberry Guava for best Margaritas - the easiest fruit tree you'll ever grow!

  • 🍓 If you're looking for a cold-hardy tropical fruit tree that thrives on neglect, you’ve found it: Strawberry Guava, or Cattley Guava (Psidium littorale). It's our favorite Guava at Top Tropicals!
  • 🍓 This fast-growing, evergreen small tree or dense bush doesn’t mind poor soil, limestone, or salt. It’s hardy to the low 20s F, drought-tolerant once established, and can even handle short-term flooding. Great as a hedge, windbreak, or container specimen, it also adds beauty year-round with glossy green leaves, peeling reddish bark, and soft red new growth.
  • 🍓 You’ll get round, tangy-sweet fruit from spring through fall - perfect for snacking, jams, or jellies, juices, and adding to all kinds of drinks, especially Margaritas and Mojitos! 🍸
  • 🍓 The red and yellow types are both tasty, with the yellow often a bit larger and sweeter. The sweetest and the most flavorful Cattley Guava variety is Hawaiian Gold - Psidium littorale var. Lucidum. This one is our favorite for eating out of hand!
  • 🍓 Cattley Guava is productive, low-maintenance, and ornamental - one of the easiest tropical fruit trees to grow in poor or alkaline soils.


🛒 Add a sweet guava hedge to your yard

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Guava

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