FRUIT:

Banana
Musa acuminata

days to maturity: Approx 1 year for fruit
plant spacing: 1 plant per 12 square feet
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: bananas need to be managed
harvest notes: whole stalk should be harvested when one banana turns yellow
perennial

Bananas are some of the most popular and exciting fruit we can grow in a backyard in the tropics, and people love it not just because the fruit is so delicious but also because it can take just one year from planting to get your first fruit. But, dont take that to mean that you just plant the thing and one year later there is fruit, bananas need to be managed properly for fruit production or they’re likely to just sit there in your yard and frustrate you. Definitely read the below resources on care and management and heed our most important warning: keep them well fed with organic granular fertilizer and lots of mulch! we hate to see a banana without a big messy pile of yard debris piled up around it, because we know that banana isn’t going to make much fruit… Bananas are heavy feeders and love having composting material around them at all times.

Varieties: 

Sweetheart bananas grow to be about 12 feet tall and make stout plants. The fruit is firm and sweet but also refreshing because of its hint of citrus flavor. A very hearty and strong plant. 

Nam wah is also known as pisang awak and other names through out the world, this group of lady finger bananas produce large sized bunches of sweet, truly delicious, fruit that is prized in Indonesia and all over the world. Usually grows about 9-10 ft although may grow a little taller.

Orinoco plantains are are the most commonly grown plantain variety, also referred to as "platano burro". The plants reach a height of 16-20 feet and the fruit is typically about 6 inches long and straight with strong ridges down the sides of the peel. 

Grand Nain, which means "large dwarf" in french is a 6-8 foot tall tree that produces the Chiquita style banana. Each bunch has up to 100 bananas on it if your plant is happy. Fruit is medium sized with firm sweet flesh. 

Dwarf cavendish is a dwarf (5 ft.) variety producing wonderful tasting fruit as does the others in the Cavendish sub-group. A vigorous grower with wide green leaves. One of the more common and popular growing varieties in the USA.

Dwarf Jamaican Red - Known by many names in the world, (Cuban Red, Jamaican Red, Colorado, Indio, Macaboo) this very sweet lady finger fruit is most beautiful. It turns "sunset" colors when ripening from dark burgundy to orange, yellow-green and muted colors in between. The full bodied flavor and distinctive sweetness makes it worth the wait of 24 months or more to give fruit. The tall red, with a dark maroon pseudostem can grow 14-16 ft, the Dwarf version grows about 8-9 ft in our area.

Goldfinger - A rapid growing, mostly green plant producing a wonderful tasting, slightly sub-acid, refreshing fruit that gets 6-8 inches long or better. It is a very disease resistant, wind & cool tolerant plant that is easy to grow. In our area the ripening fruit does not get dark yellow, instead gives only a slight color change when mature so check it often when close to harvesting. Height 10-12 ft. This one is a MUST.

Raja Puri - A very popular sturdy plant originating in India and becoming a favorite around the world. Due to the rapid growth and delicious taste of these 3/4 size fruit as well as cool tolerance they have won the hearts (and taste  buds) of thousands.

Blue Java 
Known for its sweet flavor and slightly blue hue before ripening, Blue Java, aka Ice Cream, is a small fruited variety that grows to about 10-12 feet. This variety has a bit of a cult following and can be hard to find, so if you've always wanted one, grab them whenever we have them in stock. 

Barbados Cherry aka Acerola
malpighia emarginata 

days to maturity: 6 months
plant spacing: 1 plant per 15 square feet
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: mealy bugs & scale
harvest notes: harvest ripe fruit when red
perennial

Barbados cherry is a beautiful and productive shrubby tree that produces tons of cherry shaped red fruits twice a year (once in May and again in December). The tart red fruit is extra high in ascorbic acid also known as vitamin C. 100 grams of fruit contain about 167mg of vitamin C making it one of the higher concentrated fruits grown in the tropics. For this reason Barbados cherry is grown commercially to be added to baby food! If you're looking for a lower canopy tree for your food forest guild thats beautiful, easy to grow and prune, and makes you lots of healthy fruit this is a great option. 

Everbearing Mulberry
Morus

days to maturity:
plant spacing: 1 plant per 20 square feet
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: whiteflies
harvest notes: berries fall off the tree when ripe, pick daily
perennial

There aren’t many berries to be grown in here in South Florida. Sadly, most popular berries like blueberries, blackberries &raspberries don’t appreciate our heavy doses of humidity, but the Mulberry doesn’t mind one bit! This perennial medium sized tree grows quickly in most soil types and can be pruned to any shape or size. If allowed to grow without pruning it will become more of a bush with many stalks coming from the soil, but you can also prune the lower growth and make it shaped more like a tree. To keep the fruit low, prune the branches at eye or head height while its in its more dormant winter state. While fruiting you can pick ripe berries daily, before the birds get to them. They can be eaten out of hand or turned into jam or jelly, frozen, baked into pies, turned into ice cream, you name it and this berry can do it. 

Mulberry trees also have multiple medicinal uses. Mulberry leaf has been used for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for its sweet, bitter and cold energetics. It is commonly associated with the Liver and Lung meridian and functions to clear lung heat (which manifests as a fever, headache, sore throat or cough) and to clear fire in the liver (which manifests as red, painful and watery eyes). Mulberry fruits have also been used in TCM for their cold bitter and sour energetics. The fruits are commonly associated with heart, kidney and liver and are tonic herbs for Yin deficiency. They are known to tone the blood, lubricate the intestines and to rehydrate the bodies fluids. Our favorite medicine to make with Mulberry leaf and fruit is a syrup rich in color like Elderberry, rich in iron and minerals and is a delicious cough treatment that you’ll crave again and again.

A number of pests that are Common in South Florida like mulberry trees. Keep an eye out for whitefly hanging out on the undersides of the leaves, and for a white cottony substance on the bark and trunk, which is indicative of a fungal issue. Mealybugs also like mulberries (they scrunch the leaves up from their center when present) and leaf webber worms might show up and eat the young leaves while also covering them with webbing.

Pineapple
Ananas Comosus

days to maturity:
plant spacing: 1 plant every 2 feet
sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours
look out for: slugs and snails
harvest notes: harvest the pineapple and replant the head
perennial

Growing Pineapples is one of the reasons we feel so lucky to live and garden in a tropical climate. Pineapples are in the bromeliad family and like their cousins, ornamental bromeliads, they are a great option for planting in your home landscaping or in containers. Pineapples have apparently been cultivated by indigenous people of the tropical Americas and the Caribbean Region for thousands of years. New World explorers then distributed pineapple during the 1500s to 1700s to new areas including Europe, Africa, and Asia.  The first recorded introduction of pineapple into Florida was in 1860. Our pineapple plants are all tissue cell culture plants which means they are disease free hybrid replicas of their parent plant.

Pineapple plants grow best in moderately fertile, sandy loam soils of neutral to mildly acid pH. Plants will grow satisfactorily in sandy and calcareous soils with attention to watering and fertilizer. Pineapple plants should be grown in well-drained soils and areas of the landscape that do not flood, and plants oftentimes don’t need any watering in a south florida home garden however if they are in a pot they do need to be watered. 

If you are planting a number of plants in a patch, make sure to mulch between plants, because weeding between spiky mature pineapple plants it a very unpleasant task. Growing your own pineapples is a lesson in patience, as it takes about 18 months from planting till your first harvest off fruit. Harvest your precious fruit when it starts blushing yellow because if you leave it on the plant too long you will have to compete with local squirrels & raccoons to eat it before they do.

Once you’ve harvested your fruit your plant will focus on producing “slips” which are young new plants growing from the base of the fruit. Once they are about 6 inches long you can twist them off of the mother plant and replant them. You can also trim all of the flesh off of the top of the fruit you harvested and replant the top, although those take longer to mature than slips. 

Pineapple is particularly rich in Vitamin C and manganese. Vitamin C is essential for immune health, iron absorption, and growth and development, while manganese offers antioxidant properties and aids in growth and metabolism.

Pineapples are not only rich in nutrients but also loaded with antioxidants, which are molecules that help your body ward off oxidative stress. Interestingly, this fruit contains a group of digestive enzymes called “bromelian”, which when coupled with the fiber content of pineapples, makes the fruit a serious aide in digestive health. Bromelian also has anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties. This is helpful for when you have an infection, like a cold or sinusitis, or an injury, like a sprain or burn. Pineapple can both be consumed for when you have an infection or applied topically as a poultice for when you have a sprain or burn. It also can offset the joint pain of osteoarthritis when consumed regularly. 

Don’t let your pineapple scraps go to waste, instead make yourself some Tepache, a traditional Mexican fermented pineapple beverage. There are plenty of recipes online but all you need is water, sugar, pineapple scraps (the skin & core), and a few days time for it to ferment and you'll have a delicious fizzy probiotic drink. 

Fwang Tung Starfruit aka carambola

days to maturity: 1 year
plant spacing: 1 plant per 10 square feet
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: 
harvest notes: harvest fruit as it start to deepen in yellow color
perennial

Fwang tung is the most popular starfruit variety to grow in South Florida with good reason. This variety is HANDS DOWN the very most delicious starfruit you could ever grow. seriously. and because of its thin skin it isn't viable as a commercial variety, so you can only get it at a few local markets or if you grow it yourself. While other varieties can be watery and bland, with thicker bitter skins, this variety is super sweet, refreshing and juicy with soft easy to eat skin and no bitterness. Eating one of these starfruits (especially cold from the fridge) is like drinking a refreshing juice, but in fruit form. 

Starfruit is full of vitamin C, fiber, and they are low in carbs and sugars. Starfruits are anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and they are loaded with magnesium, which has been very popular in supplement form lately for its help with sleep and stress issues.  With high levels of pyridoxine (Vitamin B6), folate, and riboflavin, star fruit can influence the metabolic processes and make it a little more efficient. 

Starfruit is also a very easy to grow tree, that will produce lots of fruit for you even when young. If new leaves start to yellow or exhibit chlorosis consider feeding your tree a fruit tree blend of minerals, including iron. Starfruit will flower and set fruit twice a year down in South Florida, once around Thanksgiving/ Christmas and once in early summer. 

Purple Possum Passionfruit Vine
Passiflora edulis

days to maturity:
plant spacing: 1 plant every 12 feet
sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours
look out for: aphids, leaf miners
harvest notes: prolific vine, best for fencing or trellising
perennial

The Passion vine, also known as possum purple or maypop, is native to the SE United States. The “Passionflower” name is said to come from the Passion of Christ; the different parts of the psychedelic purple, blue, or scarlet flowers representing elements of the crucifixion such as the crown of thorns, the nails, the scourges, and the wounds. Scourges and nails aside, the egg-shaped fruit is high in vitamins A and C, as well as potassium and iron. When its shell begins to shrivel, the fruit can be cut in half. The crunchy seeds and floral pulp can be scooped out and eaten, blended into juices or smoothies, spooned over ice cream, or onto other desserts. In Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables, Elizabeth Schneider points out that one of the virtues of the passion fruit is that its potent flavor does not fade when frozen or mixed with other ingredients; making it useful as a flavoring to perfume other recipes, much like vanilla. The plant produces a large vine that can become invasive, so chose your planting location wisely.

Red Lady Papaya
Carica papaya

days to maturity: 10 months
plant spacing: 1 plant every 8 feet
sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours
look out for: papaya fruit fly, local critters like raccoons 
harvest notes: harvest before completely ripe
perennial

Did you know that papaya “trees” are actually giant herbs? Maybe thats one of the reasons why these delicious fruits are so easy to grow. The papaya is believed to have originated in southern Mexico and eastern Central America. From there the Spanish introduced it to Asia and the Philippines, and by the 19th century it was being grown in pretty much all tropical regions throughout the world. While there are many different cultivars the Red Lady is grown and prized for its delicious fruit which is higher in sugar than some other varieties and has a unique floral taste. We hear from many of our customers that they dont like papayas, but that just means they haven’t had a good one yet, or they are eating them under-ripe. A papaya should be soft enough to yield to a firm press, smell heavily and be bright orange with even some bad spots on the outside before its eaten.

Besides the fruit you can also use every other part of the papaya plant. The unripe fruit can be used for cooking, and the leaves contain Papain, an enzyme used to break down and tenderize meat. The seeds can be dried and added to a pepper grinder, as they have anti microbial and anti parasitic properties when consumed. Also, because of the presence of Papain, papaya fruit makes a great ingredient for skin rejuvenating face masks. 

Papaya plants have a taproot (like a carrot) so make sure you take care when transplanting your seedlings into the garden. Planted in spring or summer in the tropics and given proper nutrients and plenty of rainfall your papaya should yield you about 80 pounds of fruit in its first year.

Ruby Supreme Guava
Psidium guajava

days to maturity: 6 months
plant spacing: 1 plant per 30 square feet
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: mealy bugs, thrips, worms in the fruit
harvest notes: harvest ripe fruit immediately when they blush yellow
perennial

Guavas are one of our favorite fruit varieties to grow for home gardeners. They are easily grown, delicious, and a high yielding small tree; a two year old tree potentially producing hundreds of fruit per season. Pink fleshed guavas are incredibly floral, pungent and aromatic. These trees are in the myrtle family and produce beautiful flowers and thick leaves. Guava remain quite small and should be considered a “lower canopy” food forest tree. Beware worms in the growing tips of your trees (if they show up and do damage simply spray with Organic Thuricide) and fruit flies laying their eggs in your immature fruit (commercial guava groves put mesh bags on all fruit to avoid this pest issue). 

 SPICES: