So I have moved to NZ and am starting over from scratch, looking for land, and planning to build a year round tropical greenhouse (using inexpensive geothermal pipes / GHAT).
I had a lovely, smallish, tropical greenhouse in the USA that grew all tropical plants- citrus, avocados, starfruit, Musa bananas, passionfruit, etc.
I plan to repeat this in NZ (year round tropical greenhouse with tropical plants), but ALSO was also wondering if it's reasonable to keep young blueberries and stonefruit and other 'chill hour' needy plants in the tropical greenhouse for the first few years, and after about 2 years move them outside and plant them in the ground. (and yes, I know there are no chill/low chill blueberries...)
My rationale/goal is that young blueberries/peaches/etc don't produce fruit, so would they need chill hours at all? Would I get more growth (and earlier fruiting) if I put temperate plants in a tropical setting for a few years?
I imagine in the US that many varieties are grown in nurseries in FL and TX and later moved to retail shops in colder climates? Is this a thing?
Basically, would young temperate fruiting plants benefit from a few years in a tropical setting? In a greenhouse that doesn't get below about 45F or 7C throughout the winter (plus warm days all winter). Would this give me a massive head start on growing a larger plant and getting fruit earlier, once transplanted outside?
Any help and real world experience is appreciated.
