Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 30 Aug 2024

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"The fruit of your own hard work is the sweetest." - Deepika Padukone

Labor Day is the perfect time to transform your yard into a tropical paradise! Join us this weekend to find large, well-developed fruit trees and stunning flowering tropical plants, ready to add beauty to your life. Take advantage of the summer growing season and give your garden the boost it deserves. Don't miss out on these incredible plants to make your yard a true oasis!

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Date: 14 Nov 2018

Recovering Soursop after shipping and cold

TopTropicals.com

From Irene & Marjorie, PA: We wanted to share our pics with you (after Summer). I attached also the photo of the way the tree looked before your advice (back in April). The big is the one we almost lost and you gave us these instructions and it came back. These were your instructions:
"The soursop is one of my favorite fruits and I was so sad to hear yours may be dead. Good news - the tree looks great! Yes, it does have some cold damage but I'm surprised it still has leaves on it at all! In cooler weather, they typically drop all of their leaves and stay that way until spring. You can remove the damaged leaves and it will resprout new growth with the warmer temperatures."

Taking care of Soursop after shipping
Soursop - Annona muricata trees are very sensitive to temperature drops. This always causes leaf loss. After shipping, do not water until the soil gets slightly dry; keep it in bright shade. No fertilizer until the plant shows active new growth. Be patient with your plant, and it should recover soon.
Soursop is an ultra-tropical tree and doesn't take any freeze. If you live in a cooler climate, keep the plant in a pot (the good news is, Annonas, in general, have a compact nature and are perfect for container culture). Bring the tree indoors during the cold period, providing bright light.
We have a very interesting article about growing and fruiting Soursop in an apartment. Check out 4534 Tropical Treasures Magazine # 7

Date: 1 Oct 2018

Information on new exotic fruit variety:
Artocarpus x integer (Jackfruit x Chempedak), Cheena cv. TopTropicals

TopTropicals.com

FRESH SEEDS! Grow exotic Chempedak from seeds and you will have the trees for only $1 each!

Check out a short video of the opened fruit.

Cheena is a natural hybrid between jackfruit and chempedak. Comes true from seed. This highly recommended variety has grown in TopTropicals garden from a seedling of Cheena (Jackfruit x Chempedak) that fruited within 3 years from planting. The fruit (20-25"size) is probably the best we ever tasted! It is super sweet, crunchy and has a rich, pleasant, excellent flavor. It has very little latex which makes it easy to handle when cutting up. The tree produces at the very base of the trunk, so you can prune it as short as you want. Our tree survived light frosts as well as 48 hours of 3ft flooding, with no damage!
The tree has an open, low and spreading growth habit and can be maintained at a height and spread of 8 ft with annual pruning. It is very easy to grow and is not as cold hardy as we thought for a Jackfruit x Chempedak types of plants. The only two recommendations are - good fertilу soil with a high content of compost and regular watering.
Cheena is a consistent producer. The fruit is up to 5 lbs, long, narrow and uniform in size and shape. The skin is green, with blunt spines that yellow and open slightly upon maturity.

Check out Chempedak Cheena seeds - FRESH - FRESH - FRESH
Check out Chempedak Cheena plants - special offer $30 OFF!

Date: 24 Jun 2018

White Sapote from under graft

Q: My super sweet white sapote died back all the way to the roots but it's growing back from the roots and I'm wondering if that's just the rootstock growing back or if that's good fruiting wood that's going to make a nice healthy super sweet tree?

A: The "super sweet" White Sapote, or Casimiroa edulis, was probably variety Young Hands, Super Sweet White Sapote. It was grafted on seedling of White Sapote that has a pleasant somewhat-sweet flavor. The grafted variety you had is a little sweeter than that. So to answer your question, it is worth to give the tree a second chance as far as fruit quality is concerned, although it won't be the a grafted variety, if the new growth coming from under the graft point. The only problem is, non-grafted tree may take longer until it fruits. Grafted trees may fruit right away, seedlings may take a few years.

We suggest to use SUNSHINE-Sweet

Date: 24 Jun 2018

TopTropicals

Winter Flowering Plants

Take advantage of the late season tropicals! Brighten up your winters with spectacular flowers and winter producing fruit trees!

Many Floridians move up North during hot summer months, our snow-bird season usually starts late September and ends by Mother's Day in May. Many of our local seasonal customers planting those flowering and fruiting species that they can fully enjoy while staying in Florida. Below you will find a few specials that are in bloom right now.
Check out full list of winter bloomers and late season plants, and download a PDF chart of the most interesting tropical plants that will flower and fruit for you in Fall, Winter and early Spring. Some of them are ever-blooming, others are late- or early season.
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