Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 8 Aug 2025

Why your gut is begging for papaya

Papaya fruit and trees (Carica papaya)

🍊 Why your gut is begging for papaya

  • 🌴Papaya (Carica papaya) is more than just a tasty tropical fruit - it's a natural remedy for your gut. Thanks to an enzyme called papain, it helps with digestion, bloating, and even supports immune health with high levels of vitamin C and A.
  • 🌴But here's what makes papaya a must-have in every garden: it's fast, space-saving, and super productive. Many trees start fruiting within a year!
  • 🌴Dwarf varieties only reach 6-8 feet but still give you full-sized fruit that's easy to harvest.
  • 🌴Grow it in the ground or in a container - it thrives in sun, handles light freezes, and even stands strong in high winds.
  • 🌴Low effort, high reward. Sweet fruit, strong plant. What more do you need?


📚 Learn more from previous posts:



🛒 Your gut will thank you - plant Papaya

#Food_Forest #Papaya
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 24 Nov 2024

What does Sugar Apple look like and how does it taste?

🟢 What does Sugar Apple look like and how does it taste?



😋 Annona squamosa - Sugar apple, is considered by many to be the most delicious tropical fruit. The fruit is a true treat, with pulp that resembles creamy custard, offering a flavor experience that’s hard to beat.

🕺 This very small, compact tree is perfect for containers or small yards, making it an excellent choice for home gardeners. It starts fruiting within just three years from seed and is remarkably easy to grow and undemanding.

📚 More about Anonnas in previous posts:


Guanabana - the most delicious Annona fruit
Top 10 fast-fruiting trees: #1. Annona
Why everyone wants the Sugar Apple?
The best tropical fruit tree for container growing, and the fastest to fruit: Annona
Spiny Hedgehog fruit: what does it taste like?

🛒 Order Sugar Apple

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 11 Oct 2025

What fruit contains an enzyme that is used as a meet tenderizer?

Papaya - Carica papaya

🍊 What fruit contains an enzyme that is used as a meet tenderizer?

  • ✔️ Papaya (Carica papaya) is more than just a tropical treat - it's a natural digestive aid packed with powerful enzymes. The most famous one, papain, is so effective at breaking down proteins that it's actually used as a meat tenderizer! That same enzyme helps your body digest food more efficiently, easing bloating and supporting gut health.
  • ✔️ Beyond its digestive superpowers, papaya is rich in vitamins A and C, making it a strong ally for your immune system and skin. It’s a fast-growing, space-saving tree that starts producing fruit within a year, and dwarf varieties can fit even in small gardens or containers.
  • ✔️ For home gardeners, dwarf papayas are quickly becoming favorites. These compact varieties grow beautifully in containers, making them perfect for patios, greenhouses, or small yards. Even in cooler climates, they can thrive with a bit of protection. This season’s top picks are TR Hovey, Lady Red, and Wang Deng.
  • ✔️ Papayas are endlessly versatile in the kitchen - enjoy them fresh as a dessert, blended into smoothies, tossed into salads, or even used in cooking.
  • ✔️ Fun fact: the fruit and even the leaves can be used to tenderize meat naturally. Sweet fruit, strong plant, easy to grow - papaya really does it all!


📚 Learn more:



🛒 Grow your own meat tenderizer - Papaya

#Food_Forest #Papaya
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 1 Feb 2021

The Passion Fruit - Juicy Maracuya

by Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

...There was an unexpected confusion with the name of this plant. Most people understand its name literally: passiflora - a flower of passion, and its fruits - the fruits of passion, implying human, earthly passions. Nevertheless, the passion fruit is so called because it is one of the many  species  of  passion flower, the English translation of the Latin genus name,  PassiFlora.
Learn more about this delicious, flavorful fruit and how to grow it in your own garden in no time...

CONTINUE READING >>

SUNSHINE C-Cibus - Crop Booster, an ultimate natural plant food for fruit and edibles.

Date: 10 Mar 2016

Do-It-Yourself Support Structure for Dragon Fruit

This interesting do-it yourself project was sent to us by our customer from South Florida. Many tropical gardeners want to grow fascinating Dragon Fruit, and their most common question is - what kind of support I should use for this amazing fruiting cactus? We hope you find this information very useful. Happy Gardening!

Dragon fruit is a terrestrial/epiphytic fruit baring cactus, which may grow fleshy stems up to 30 ft high, given sturdy support. However, downward hanging or horizontal branches stimulate production of flowers at the tips of the branches. Commercial groves in different parts of the world use different method to achieve this. The traditional Vietnamese way is to train the plant into a “fountain”, which consists of a vertical central trunk about 8ft tall and a horizontal structure, such as a wagon wheel on top of it to support the horizontal branches (see picture on the right).

This picture served as my inspiration to build my own structure. I used five 4”x4” 10ft wood beams as the trunk, shaped as a cross. I attached the beams to each other with 10” long screws.

I dug a 2 ft deep 12”x12” hole in the ground and positioned the trunk inside, such that about 8ft are above ground. I covered it with several layers of burlap top to bottom.

The horizontal structure on top is made of four 4ft long 2”x2” wood beams and two 12”x12” wood plates to hold them together. I attached this structure to the top of the trunk.

I used old watering pipe to form two rings around the trunk to support the branches. Here is the result!... See step-by-step full size pictures and the rest of the article...