My favorite tropical fruits are:

1. Mango
2. Mamey Sapote
3. Lychee
4. Sapodilla
5. Black Sapote

Lychee tops my list, for its beautiful aroma and flavor.

1. Lychee
2. Mango (love the 'smell' of its foliage too)
3. Coconut
4. Rhambutan
5. Sugar cane (with the right cultivar, a cup of sugarcane juice in the summer is wonderful.)

Thanks for the replies. I will consider lychee for sure :). I have heard of Rhambutan, from my friend who's family is from Sri Lanka. However I have never been able to try it. I was wondering if it would be able to produce sufficient crops in Southern California.

The sub tropical/tropical fruits I will buy even if I can/do grow them (my favorites):
Mango
Pineapple
Bananas
avocado
navel oranges

also Rambutan, sapodilla, a sweet starfruit.

My favs so far are:
Mango
pineapple
passion fruit
Soursop
quenepa
If I could pick one more I would pick tamarind. Both sweet and sour varieties.
Andrew

I have a list of favorites but I'll name the one I can plant in pots and do well in CA.

1. atemoya
2. sugar apple
3. sapodilla
4. lychee (no fruit yet)
5. dragon fruit (so far only flowers)

I also love mango but no room for it now. I love rambutan and mangosteen but these are very hard to grow in the US...unless you have a greenhouse.

(in no particular order)

mango
sugar apple (a. squamosa)
mangosteen
chupa chupa (matissia cordata)
guaba (inga edulis)

i also LOVE avocado, longan, white zapote, cherimoya, quenepa, mamey, coconut...

Lychee
Mango
Cherimoya
Dragonfruit
Asian Pears

I love Lychee's and growing your own is waaaay better than getting the store bought varieties. I'm not sure which state you live in but I would try to grow exotics that you can't necessarily find in stores or that are normally too expensive to buy.

Mangoes are the next tropical fruit I am going to attempt and I want to grow them because once again the store bought varieties are so horrible. Once in a while when the markets do sell good quality mangoes, I buy boxes of them and the ripened fruit are intoxicating to smell. I love cutting into a fully ripened mango and seeing all the juice squirt everywhere, boy, I'm really making myself crave mangoes right now.

As with all the fruit I listed above, the home grown blows the store bought fruit out of the water. Cherimoyas are great because they taste so good, if you've had a fully matured and properly ripened one. Cherimoyas are also very expensive so its one of the best fruits to grow if you love them and don't want to spend a fortune to support your habit. Most varieties will require hand pollinating but this is a good thing because it will get you into your garden and out of your house.

Dragonfruit are also great because you can't find the good varieties in the stores. Try American Beauty or Halley's Comet. They taste much better than the regular white varieties that they sell at the stores. Dragonfruit are also very high in fiber and the red varieties have lycopene. I'm definitely a carnivore and some dragonfruit after a large steak is good for your digestive system. Dragonfruit is also very cooling when you eat it, don't know how to explain it but its kind of like eating cucumber.

I guess Asian Pears aren't tropical but they can be considered exotic. I just love the crunchy juicy sweet flesh of asian pears. I had a 5 in 1 multigraft asian pear and it gave me the best tasting asian pears I have ever eaten. The home grown ones, at least in my case were much smaller than the huge store bought ones but they mine had very intense pear flavor and were much sweeter than the store bought ones.

I noticed that you listed yourself as a zone 9 and Papayas may be difficult to grow in your zone. You may also consider growing white sapote, Longan or Blood oranges. Once you decide what type of trees you want to plant you will have to make the even hard choice of which cultivar to select. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

1. Lychee
2. Mango
3. Mango
4. Mango
5. Sugar apple/Atemoya

For me there is a huge drop off after lychee's and Mangoes.

Still waiting to try a few others. I am hoping to add Jackfruit and cherimoya to the list this summer.

mango
lychee
a good anona
jaboticaba
pineapple
citrus

Mango
Lychee
Avocado
Blood oranges (exotic, but sub-tropical?)
Bananas
Sapodilla
I have 3 of these - mango, blood oranges and avocado. And killed the Lychee I had in a frost. Will get a spodilla and banana tree next year.

lychee
mango
atemoya/sugar apple
sapodilla
jaboticaba

For me the top tier of fruits are (in no particular order):

Mango
Lychee
Mangosteen
Rambutan

Atemoya (and I would presume Cherimoya would be in the list as well if I ever could get a good one, since this is where Atemoya gets its consistancy and flavor)

Pineapple, home grown and perfectly ripe may creep into to that top tier on a good day.

Harry does anywhere down there sell mangosteen in the summer? I would love to find a few of those while I'm down there.

John:

I haven't found any mangosteens for sale down here in the past. I continue to look. Everything else, including rambutan, you can find, but so far, no mangosteen. I was able to try some from Bill Whitman's tree, the year before he died. I am now hoping for some from Gerry in NY this summer. He said he would send or bring some down. I have had some from China Town in NY couple of summers ago. Then last year, in Canada, I was able to get more from Asian markets/stands in various fruit markets in Vancouver.

Harry

John and Harry,
I know a source for mangosteen and rambutan down here. They usually are in pretty good condition. The place is called "The Fortune Cookie". John, if you would like I can try and get you some mangosteen the weekend you are coming down. I have gotten from them the past 2 years. Harry, they might have some mangosteen already.

nullzero,
My favourite are (in no particular order),
1)Malay apple
2)Indian Jujube
3)Mango
4)Pulasan (number 1)
5)Mangosteen
6)Lychee

Here is a link that might be useful: Fortune Cookie

Sheehan:

Wish I would have known that day before yesterday. I was in WPB and would have definitely checked it out. If you happen to go by there and they have some mangosteen....let me know, I would definitely want some. Thanks.

BTW, do you know where their mangosteen came from? Also, is it radiated fruit?

Harry

Harry,
They were from Thailand and therefore very irradiated.

I'd definitely like a bag if they are around when I am there. I may have to make an earlier trip if they have them now. They might be worth the drive.

1. Mango
2. Kiwi
3. Lychee
4. Longan
5. Banana (easy to grow in zone 9, look for orinoco, or raja puri)

wow. im almost tempted to take the drive to try them.

apparently they have shark fin as well, lol.

my list in order

lychee
mangosteen
mango
jaboticaba
passion fruit

it seems pretty clear that among GW members, lychees and mangoes are the clear winners.

Harry- its a done deal- if they have mangosteen this year, and there is no reason why they shouldnt, I will be bringing you several bags.

Are the longan's close to lychee's in taste? I am leaning toward growing Longan's, atemoya/sugar apple, and maybe sapodilla. Do any of the above fruit trees perform in a container setting?

longans are identical in texture but they are completely different in flavor. i would say they have more of a subtle molasses flavor while lychees have more of a subtle floral/fruity flavor.

1. Mango - no wonder Adam and Eve went wrong, if this is what they ate)
2. Pineapple - very versatile
3. Cantaloupe melon - so refreshing
4. Amora (Mulberries) - best jam in the world
5. Banana Ouro ( the little orange colored ones, like essence of banana!)

Very sad to leave out jaboticaba (also great jam) and lychee.

1. Dragon fruit, it tasted like heaven off a cactus
2. Honeydew
3. sapote
4. Solo papaya
5. mango
My mouth is already watering.

I forgot to list passion fruit, so good! not sure if hes still there but theres a seller on e-bay that sells "second" quality passion fruit in bulk.. but they are more like first quality, cant tell they are seconds at all.. amazing deal on a box of passion fruit for a good price.

longans arnt as good as lychee, but they are both good in their own respect.. longans are addicting, once you eat one you cant stop

Longan is another favorite of mine. This is a very sweet fruit if you can find the good variety. Some even have small seeds. Longan might be more cold sensitive than lychee and might be harder to fruit. My friend have a longan tree in LA and the flowers or tiny fruits drop every year. So they cut it down since it didn't product well.

longan are $2 a pound in season down in Homestead. i usually lose interest in them shortly afterwards.

Here's mine, although Mango is my favorite by far.

1. Mango
2. Banana
3. Lychee
4. Pineapple
5. Longan

Longan were super-cheap last year after the enormous crop they had in SFL. Got them for 50 cents per pound last July from a grower in the Redland.

The thing is though they are similar to Lychees they taste more like grapes....kind of one dimensional flavor. But I have only had the Khoala variety, I know there are others.

1. Jakfruit (could probably eat a whole one in less than a week! LOL...)
2. Longan (very sweet and I love the texture)
3. Rambutan (almost similar in taste to longan/lychee)
4. Lychee (this is very refreshing in the summer time)
5. Mango (loves eating them green and dipping with a special Asian sacue...yummy!)

here are the top 5 tropical fruit trees i would like to successfully grow and try, not necessarily taste wise as they are so rare i have yet to try them, but would excite me to see
all the names are linked to relevant articles

Lodoicea maldivica Coco De Mar

"Densuke" black Watermelon

Levins Black Pomegranate (not sure if the pic is accurate)

Musa Kluay Namwah Nuan Jan (they are the white ones)

Garcinia mangostana

Durio Dulcis

pedalai

{{gwi:1311405}}

I would love to try pedalai or marang. I would probably love it just like I love jakfruit! I don't know if I want to spend $6 bucks on one mangosteen. I was very disappointed with the store-bought cherimoya. And it was almost $7 bucks (just for one!).

Bo

I just bought some Golden Kiwis from 99 Ranch and they are excellent. They are firm with less acidity and sweeter and larger than the regular Kiwis.

"Lodoicea maldivica Coco De Mar" Based solely upon the photo in Mangokush's posting is now on my list of favorites, LOL...Am I the only one that sees it?