Hi Mike, love your project! So envious! You must have made some progress by now. Hopefully you come back to post an update.
I’ve been collecting more unusual delicious and “tropical” plants or fruit trees. I tend to get one or two a year to add to my collection. Having just one new one at a time to watch and baby and monitor, when I do have a full time job and other gardening, makes “learning” the new one and getting it right more manageable and do-able.
I don’t have a greenhouse, so everything’s final home is outside. I have a surprising amount in pots, (everything?) and they are doing great.
When I can I buy ones that are already living outside because they are hardened off and doing fine in our climate. I generally start with smaller plants, because they’re cheaper, but also where possible that are bigger than seedlings, so I’m not going to immediately kill them while I’m getting it right. If they are young plants I start with them inside, or maybe if I get them during winter, and then when they’re bigger I gradually harden them off and then put them outside.
I have found it easiest to get new plants in the spring or maybe end of winter, and then they can adjust to the climate and change in temperatures more naturally.
Where I live there is no snow, we have mild winters, and it’s a tiny bit humid in winter. I live in Auckland, New Zealand, which I guess is technically sub-tropical, but I’ve found out that a lot more “tropical” plants can grow here than I thought. It’s been great. So I hope you have similar luck.
Probably your greenhouse will be similar to or even more “tropical” than our climate here. So if I can do it, you can do it!
I recommend feijoas because they are very hardy, (probably they aren’t tropical, just subtropical) cherry guavas, cherimoyas, and tropical guava. They all do fine and are actually easy in our climate. I didn’t know that before! Yams, boysenberries, blueberries, yacon, choko, lime, satsuma mandarin, figs, ginger and galangal, potato and sweet potato are all also great and very very easy. I have everything except feijoas in containers, and they are all growing and fruiting beautifully. I have some young peaches and peachicots, so we will see how they do.
I didn’t manage to keep my mango alive, but now I have a papaya that I’ve grown from seed, and I’m keeping it inside for the first 2 years, and I have my eye on getting starfruit (surprisingly, them seem to grow fine here!) or babaco (it’s apparently more cold tolerant than papaya) next. I think mango need more heat than papaya, and papaya need more heat than tropical guava, and tropical guava like more warmth than babaco / star fruit / cherry guava / feijoa. The yellow or red cherry guava can handle different conditions, and feijoa can handle cold too. So they are surprisingly adaptable and hardy.
I would love mangosteen!!! 😋 Such an amazing fruit. 😍 But according to what I’ve read it might not work here. But who knows…
Hopefully you can come back and update us!
