Growing Tropical Fruit in California

[alexiskilgannon]

Hello everyone!
I want to start this off by saying that I have absolutely no experience growing tropical fruit. When I say tropical fruit, I am referring to things like Pineapple, Coconut, Mango, Papaya, etc. I know it may seem like California would be the tropical paradise, but honestly it's pretty difficult to grow here at times. I'm wondering if we have the right climate and such to grow Tropical fruits here.

I live in Southern California. Right now it's a bit cold outside, but once it warms up for Spring and Summer, would it be possible to grow anything like Pineapple? I know it might take some time to actually produce fruit, but any help would be wonderful.

 

[Chuck]

Hello everyone!
I want to start this off by saying that I have absolutely no experience growing tropical fruit. When I say tropical fruit, I am referring to things like Pineapple, Coconut, Mango, Papaya, etc. I know it may seem like California would be the tropical paradise, but honestly it's pretty difficult to grow here at times. I'm wondering if we have the right climate and such to grow Tropical fruits here.

I live in Southern California. Right now it's a bit cold outside, but once it warms up for Spring and Summer, would it be possible to grow anything like Pineapple? I know it might take some time to actually produce fruit, but any help would be wonderful.

They grow Kiwi, Papaya and Mango in South Texas and it gets colder there than southern Cal. A coconut palm takes years to grow and produce and a pineapple takes at least 2 years

 

[Corzhens]

My father-in-law had brought camias and calamansi seeds when he went back to the US (in Covina, CA). The camias seeds did not prosper but the calamansi grew up and bore fruits. Calamansi is a citrus fruit like a small lemon that is very juicy and very sour too. It is mostly used in cooking but can also be good for making juice similar to lemonade. From what I know, the calamansi tree is more than 6 feet high with a yield of a basket of fruits every month.

 

[IcyBC]

Dragon fruit would be a tropical fruit too, wouldn't it? My sister lives in the Bay area, and she grown dragon fruit which has given her one or two fruits already. I am asking for her to grow some guava fruits. I love the taste and smell of guava.

 

[Greenhorn]

Hi - try this website http://www.crfg.org/ and as your in southern California you might be interested contacting or joining one of the local chapters. They often do a booth at local gardening fairs, home and garden fairs... where you can talk, ask questions... An old-timer from the local around here did a grafting presentation one day for my propagation class. Very knowledgeable and skilled, it was a good class.

 

[spiffyg]

You can grow Pineapple in SoCal. What I do is plant the stems of pineapples I buy at the store in some potting soil, keep it moist and set it aside. I believe they fruit in about a year. Feijoa (or Pineapple Guava) grows exceptionally well in Southern California, and it's delicious! Our yard was neglected for many, many years. So many plants died in that time. The feijoa tree survived through drought, terrible pruning, and just overall neglect.