Thanks for your help, Simon. Yeah, smaller plants are probably better, at least for the time being. Depending on where I settle in the next few years, some of these might be able to be planted in the ground. I may also build a small greenhouse if I have the space. Until then, I'm willing to cart them around to keep them protected, but of course smaller would be better for this.

I understand miracle fruits stay pretty small and do well in containers, and I've read they like acidic soil and humidity. It's pretty humid in LA and AL, so I think that's covered. I already adjust the pH of the water for my container trees from about 7.5 to around 6, so going a little lower for a plant here and there shouldn't be too hard. Don't blueberries also like acidic soil? I've been considering them as well, but I think they'll have to wait.

I'm not sure what to do about the avocado. I figure it would almost definitely go in the ground and get huge eventually, but probably not for at least 5 years. Maybe I should wait on that one and just get it when it can go in the ground immediately.

I'm not sure how to taste different mangoes before purchasing, I don't know anyone who grows them around here. However, I've never met a mango I didn't like, so I'll probably choose based in part on other qualities like plant size. I plan to one day own multiple varieties of mangoes and other fruits I like best, but I've gotta start somewhere!

At this point, I think I'm definitely going to get a miracle fruit, Sweetheart lychee, and some variety of mango. The nursery doesn't say what variety of guava they sell (possibly a bad omen), so I plan to call and find out before deciding to throw it out. Otherwise, I'm not sure what to fill the fourth slot. I've considered pomegranate, but this nursery seems to only offer Vietnamese Red, which sounds tasty enough, but not ideal, so I believe it should wait for an order from a different nursery in the future.

I've also considered kiwi, but it appears a male is required to pollinate the females, and I'm not willing to pay twice as much for one fruiting plant just yet. I am open to suggestions on what my fourth fruit plant should be. Thanks!

Stropharia,

Congratulations and welcome to the World of Tropical Fruit Growing. As you have stated, there are just so many different varieties out there, where do you start? If you are going to limit yourself to only 4 plants at this time, you've got some hard decisions to make.

As for the Lychee, This would definitely be in the top 4 and the Sweetheard variety is a Great choice.

Again, a Mango tree would be in the top 4. As for the variety, there are so many out there. Do your research and check out the Mango threads on this Website as there is a whole lot of Great information and advice on here.

Miracle Fruit - If you are basing your choices on your want and/or need to grow fruit, I would reconsider this choice. I say this because the Miracle fruit is more of a Novelty than a "Fruit" in the traditional sense. You don't grow Miracle fruit for the vast quantities of delicious fruit (as they really have no distinct flavor to them), but rather for the experience or fun of experimenting with the "Sweetening" effect it produces, or even the Medicinal value if that aspect applies. For these reasons, I would not choose a Miracle Fruit plant if I were limited to only 4 plants. On the other hand, I would almost guarantee that the Miracle Fruit plant you would find or buy would be small at the time of purchase, and if your heart is set on one, then it could be in addition to your other 4 choices as it wouldn't take up that much room and could be moved around easily.

As for the Guava - Again I would reconsider this choice. There are just so many more and better fruit trees out there to choose from. I know taste is subjective, but I would wager that 99% of the people on this forum would not choose a Guava as a Top 4 fruit tree. I would go with maybe a Longan, or maybe even a Dragon Fruit. Or, even a Jaboticaba, as all of these could easily be grown in your area. Or, maybe even a Cherimoya or Atemoya, or a good Citrus, all of which can be managed or kept at a smaller size, would also be nice.

Good Luck with your choices.

Jacob

I, personally, would not plan to plant any of these trees in the ground in zone 8...unless it is inside of a heated greenhouse. There are folks in Florida, zone 9, that struggle each year.

Mango and Lychee are great starters ,, but maybe you should reconsider guava ,, its subjective ,, but for me guava with all its varieties and we grow it a lot in Egypt are nothing beside a lychee or white sapote ,, maybe its just cause am used to it ,, but u would consider white sapote or Rollinia or sapodilla or loquat ,

Amr

Jacob, thanks for the your thoughts on the matter. I think you're right, lychee and mango are a must. For the mango variety, I'm liking what I read about Nam Doc Mai quite a lot: it sounds very tasty, is supposedly prolific, and I like the smaller fruit and pit. It seems it will do well in a large container.

I'm limiting myself to four plants for a couple of reasons: space and money. Each tree costs ~$50 after shipping, and I've decided my budget for this order is $200. So no sneakiness allowed, I shan't be making miracle fruit #5 on this order. If I could find one locally, that would change things, but I've had no luck with that.

That said, I very much want to grow a miracle fruit. I know it's not about eating for substance, but I'm interested in the novelty and dietary implications, and have many friends and family who would enjoy its effects. So in my book, it is still in the running. However, since there are no particular special varieties of miracle fruit to seek out, it may be a better option to try to find a cheaper alternative than PI and order another tree from them instead.

And yes, the more I read of guava, the less I want it at this time. There seem to be plenty of other, tastier fruits that will produce just as quickly. Relatively instant gratification helps justify the expenses to my less fruit-obsessed girlfriend, so we'd like at least one tree to fruit as soon as possible. This requirement looks like it could be satisfied by many others, including white sapote, which is intriguing.

Jaboticaba is a uniquely attractive plant, I'm tempted to purchase on that alone! Atemoya is pretty neat looking, though PI doesn't say anything about their taste. PI doesn't carry citrus as far as I can tell, and they wouldn't be able to ship them from Florida anyway. No worries there, though: I already own a Meiwa kumquat, Moro blood orange, a pink variegated lemon, and a Meyers lemon, so I'm set for citrus for at least a few years (maybe I need a lime, though...) ;-)

ohiojay, thanks for your input. Of course, I would only plant trees that could handle the climate, which depends on where I end up in the next few years. I do plan to eventually have a heated greenhouse, so that should be fine.

Amr, thanks for your thoughts on guava. I now agree that it's probably not the best choice. I've looked into your suggestions, and sapodilla and white sapote both sound great. I would very much like to own a loquat as well, but since there are many of them growing around the city, I can't bring myself to spend $50 on one. I think I may try to propagate some cuttings from a few neighbors' trees if they'll allow it.

Thanks again for your help, everyone. Please feel free to keep the ideas coming, I'm getting quite excited!

I've researched a good bit more on jaboticaba, and I think it's safe to say it's a definite #3. So that leaves #4, which may or may not be a miracle fruit.

What do you guys think of jujubes? How similar is a longan to a lychee? Would sapodilla take forever to fruit in a container?

stropharia- For mangoes I would definitely recommend Pickering or Cogshall. They are both dwarf varieties that have outstanding flavor.
MGB

Thanks for the recommendation, MGB. I probably won't get Pickering until I play the "collect them all" game with mango trees (should be any day now, right?), simply because I'm not a big coconut fan. My girlfriend is, though, so I hope she doesn't read this! ;-)

Cogshall looks good, since it's a natural dwarf. However, I'm pretty sure I'm going to choose Nam Doc Mai unless someone has a specific recommendation against it. I know it's a larger plant, but I don't think I'll have any trouble keeping it in a large container with regular branch and root pruning, just like any other tree. I've seen a few reports of Nam Doc Mai fruiting well in containers in cooler zones than mine. In fact, I believe one of them was actually ohiojay.

ohiojay, do you have any recommendations on keeping Nam Doc Mai in a container? How old is yours, and does it produce very many fruit?

Stropharia,

Welcome to the forums. I think getting a NDM mango would be a great choice. As for your 4 trees, I would skip the guava, like others have said. I would look into something that performs well in a container environment. Dragon Fruit would be a good option, for a tasty productive tropical fruit for container growing.

I was told avocados don't perform well in containers. However, I have a Holiday avocado growing in a 25 gal container. It is performing very well with vegetative growth, to soon to tell how the fruit production will be.

Growing a Lychee would be a very tasty and unique fruit to grow. I would recommend it, however it is a little more demanding then the other tropical fruit trees.

The Jaboticaba would make a nice container fruit tree, it is very nice looking as well. No idea how fruit production would do in a container, it seems like it would perform well.

If you never tasted a nice ripe Jujube, they taste to me like honey+apples. They are tasty, sweet, and hardy plants. I would highly recommend growing some outside in your zone. I am currently growing three varieties of Jujubes. A good starter variety is Sherwood. There are many other good varieties such as GA 866 and GI 762.

Hey nullzero, thanks for stopping by! I haven't given much thought to dragon fruit, though PIN has many varieties. Do you have any recommendations? I know it's a weird sort of lanky cactus, it seems almost like a vine. Does it grow quickly? I presume I'd need to trellis it?

I have read the same about avocados. I think one would do just fine in a large container, but they seem more finicky than many other plants, so I think I'll wait on them for a little while. Thanks for your experience, and please keep us posted on how your Holiday performs.

I understand that lychees enjoy a humid environment, and I think I might have read they like a slightly acidic soil. I'll obviously need to do more detailed research on the culture of all of these plants. Any recommendations on keeping lychees in containers?

Thanks for the input on jujubes, I like the sound of them! However, PIN only seems to carry a variety they call "Green Thornless," so unless that's a particularly awesome type, I think I'll wait and get a jujube from elsewhere.

I think I can safely say I've decided on three of the four:
-NDM mango
-Sweetheart lychee
-jaboticaba

The fourth could be anything at this point. I need to research dragon fruit, sapodilla, and miracle fruit more extensively and eliminate at least two of them!

I would eliminate based on what can be propogated quickly from easily attainable seeds or cuttings. You can get dragon fruit cuttings through the forum. Sapodilla can be grown from seed, but I would eliminate it if it's available at the local Latino market. That leaves miracle fruit. You will get more pleasure from poured molasses than watching miracle fruit take off from seed. The PI plant won't take up much space. And you can source fun from it with your girlfriend.

Hey pepperot, good call! I didn't consider trading on the forums, though I don't really have anything to trade with yet. Also, I didn't know sapodilla could be grown very quickly from seed. Do they grow true to type? I generally like knowing what variety of plant I'm growing.

And I am already leaning toward choosing the miracle fruit, I think, since it's small, slow growing, and I've wanted one for a while now.

My NDM produced more fruit when in the container than it has in the ground. The Cogshall or Ice Cream might be a good choice...they may be able to be kept smaller a little easier. As for the miracle fruit? Jacob is correct in that it is a novelty but is pretty cool to have around. I would put it as a #5 that can be kept out of the way.

On further reflection...you might consider trees that will produce fruit as soon as possible...sugar apples, abiu, some others. Jaboticaba fruiting for you will be a loooong way off. Just something to think about! LOL!

Actually, the sapodilla has been a damn slow grower for me. I'm growing it just for kicks. I don't swoon for sapodilla. The fruits are available in the market. I think it's a fruit you should taste first before deciding to grow one.

stropharia,

I am growing 4 different types of Dragon Fruit. Physical Graffiti, Purple Haze, Yellow Dragon, and unnamed white variety. They are all growing in containers. The pepperot is right you could trade for some cuttings, or you could purchase some rooted cuttings for a good price.

Dragon fruit needs a trellis, and from what I seen does not start to produce flowers until the segments are hanging downward. However it is fast growing and relatively easy to care for fruit. Just keep the Dragon Fruit away from full sun and temps below 32 degrees. I would grow in partial shade or under filtered sunlight.

As for the Jujubes, there are two main types. A subtropical jujube and a deciduous jujube which can tolerate much colder temps. You can purchase Jujubes from a wide variety of online nurseries, or you can contact Roger Meyer which has many different types of jujubes.

I grow deciduous jujubes in containers and they produce decent yields. When it comes to growing anything in a container, I highly recommend self watering container or trying air pruning container. From my experience the trees are much more vigorous and healthy in the self watering containers vs. standard containers. I have not tried a air pruning container yet, but intend to buy some later in the year.

I am growing a mauritius lychee in a self watering container and it seems to be doing very well. It has not had a growth flush yet, since its re-pot (will update under the forums when it starts pushing some nice growth).

Like OhioJay mentioned above, I would not plant any mangos, avocados, guavas, papayas etc on zone 8b. I have planted these trees in the past, but eventually the get killed in the winter.
Good luck

Stropharia-
If I'm too late, consider this in the future.

I don't know where these people are coming from when they say stay away from guava. I live in Costa Rica where there is an abundance of different tropical fruits of high quality, and the majority of Costa Ricans would have guava on their list of 5 must have fruits.

The problem with the people in this forum is possibly the fact that there is a very wide selection of guava available and their(and my)experiences with guava are somewhat limited.

My experience with Costa Rican guava has been very positive. Here the most popular guava is Cas guava. Cas is native to Costa Rica and for drinks is in a class of it's own. The name is always used to distinguish it from the other guavas (Cas juice or beverage, the others are simply guava)...it's makes a highly popular beverage but is a bit acid for eating out of hand. I would definitely recommend Cas guava. For eating out of hand (but not juicing) the Chinese guava is very popular. It has large fruit and is less juicy than many other guavas.

As for javoticaba, it is here in Costa Rica, and although it is enjoyed by many, it isn't considered one of the better fruits. I have a javoticaba and I do like the fruit(a bit like a grape with a heavy peel)but it wouldn't be on my top 5 list.

Another thought as another suggested, you might try a citrus like a sweet mandarin, or navel orange like a Washington or Cara Cara ...They are small trees suitable for containers and I think you would find them more valuable than javoticaba. ...although easier to find in your local store.

Gringo Bob

Nullzero. I'm wondering gas your yellow dragon fruit plant headed fruit yet? I'm also growing this variety.

mulberry, fig, and loquat are mostly what are grown here (New Orleans area)

i have a Lychee seedling that i planted in ground that took 28F last winter like a champ. no damage at all. Longan should be similar. My jabo has some minor leaf burn (about 2ft tall and wide)

Pomegranate may be a good choice. lots of varieties, fairly cheap for plants. you can even plant a seed from store bought fruit, although its a bit variable, and for $15 to $30 you can get a named plant.

personally, i like guava. i have a Mexican cream. it looses leaves, and i dont get fruit until late summer, but then it fruits all fall on and off. i took a root-cutting and in 9 months it was in a 5 gallon bucket with a dozen fruit on it.

Cherimoya and white sapote are a bit more cold tolerant than mango and other subtropicals, mine are still 3ft tall and havent fruited yet.