pineapple guava shoud do OK

i have a regular Guava (mexican cream) and last winter
it lost all its leaves (it usually doesnt)
but, it came back strong, and is even starting to fruit.
i am in New Orleans (9b)
so i grow a lot of what you would...

jujube
(VERY cold hardy)

most citrus

Avocado 25-30
Pummelo Lychee 28-32
Longan 28-30
Lime 25-30
Carambola 27-32
Banana 28 injury
Guava 25-26

White (+green) Sapote
Established trees withstand occasional frost to 22ð F.,
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/whitesapote.html

Sapodilla
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0903415325655.html?9

Mamey Sapote (?) hardy when grown
Young trees are very vulnerable to cold and are injured at air temperatures below 32ðF (0ðC). Mature trees can withstand 28ðF (-2.2ðC) for several hours with only slight damage but are killed if the temperature goes down below 22ðF (-5.6ðC) for very long.

Jackfruit
Mature trees have survived temperatures of about 27ð F in southern Florida, but these were frozen to large limbs. Young trees are likely to be killed at temperatures below 32ð F

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0903415325655.html?9

Also cherimoya, passionfruit, dragon fruit, surinam cherry, babaco, ....

Avocado 25-30
Pummelo Lychee 28-32
Longan 28-30
Lime 25-30
Carambola 27-32
Banana 28 injury
Guava 25-26

These are great fruits, but tbh, they will probably die here. It doesn't happen much, but maybe once a month it will drop to 22 degrees farenheit and there are a few days where it is 25-30 degrees. They can be grown, but just way too risky IMO.White sapote sounds good

Cherimoy, dragon fruit are in the same category as guava.

I have grown passion fruit and it went well for 1-2 years, produced fruits and all but eventually succumbed to a winter.

Wowk,
i am in New Orleans, i really didnt think Houston was any colder.
i guess it must be.
even this last year, which was much colder than usual, my guava came through, and my cherimoya and Lychee were OK as well.
i had lost a small dragon and all my papaya, but that was expected.
i dont think ive ever seen 22 degrees in New Orleans.
Even last winter

Greenman,

Your list of tropical fruit is interesting. I'm glad your lychees and longans do ok there. I have a lot of lychee tress here and some of them have grown quite big. They have escaped some freezing Winter for the past many years. The last Winter that killed one tree down to one third its original size was in 2007. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't happen here again.
I'm glad you're able to keep many of your tropical trees in your planting zone. I'm going to have to try planting the Sapote and Sapodilla soon. I recently put a Chocolate sapote into the ground. It's about 4-5 ft tall. I hope it'll survive.

Bfpr,

if you're planting bananas, I would recommend planting the Raja Puri variety. It's one of the most cold hardy ones that is dominating my landscape now. While many of my bananas got killed to the ground, or got damaged in the cold. this one always survived. They're also willing fruiter and fruit every growing season once the matte is 2-3 years into maturity.

My Wax Jambu survived the last Winter very well without having its leaves dropped off and it surprised me by setting a lot of fruit this year. I got it last year and it's still in the pot now (about 5-6 ft tall).

I have a lot of pineapple guavas and some strawberry guavas. I agree they're very cold hardy. My Surinam cherry and Cherry Rio de Grande also do very well my planting zone.

yeah last winter was pretty bad, 6-7 days with temperatures between 25-30 in january, the winter before that it never dropped below 40. Unfortunately these nasty winters seem to come every 3-4 years, which is enough to kill off any fruit trees right as they are starting to produce fruit.

I probably won't grow bananas, I didn't realize there was a strawberry guava as well..Wax jambu? I'm jealous. ..hope it is sweet!

actually, a few plants i am looking into now are...

while not tropical, have interested me a good bit...

Goumi
Autumn Olive ( planted seeds weeks ago- waiting)
the Autumn olive, is supposed to taste like a fruit, not an olive
both fix nitrogen in the soil as well...

and blackberries - very trouble free plant
obviously not tropical, but there are lots of berries to choose from

More 'subtropical' than tropical, but what about kiwi. Even in Zone 7 it grew so aggressively, I had to rip it out as it was smothering a neighbor's wooden fence. You will need a male and female though fir fruit. Other interesting subtropicals that are good in cold are figs, loquats (listed above), and pomegranate.

Bfpr,

Wax Jambu has a sweet and sour taste to it and it's crispy to the bite like an apple, but the flesh is less dense. It has more water content to it. Lots of good nutrients in this fruit too.

Greenman,

I have a blackberry tree and I do agree that it's rather trouble free. The fruit is delicious too. I have to gather them quickly before the birds come and beat them to me.

Goumi and Autumn Olive sound interesting to me. Have you tasted any of these fruit before? I'll do a little more reading about them and may consider planting if they'll survive in my area.

nijoasis

Recently I bought several fig trees. Some have been planted in the ground and a couple in the pot. The ones in the pot have started to fruit. I hope they'll do well here. I've also planted some pomegranate. So far, they have not been able to set fruit to maturity for me. They would just bloom and form tiny fruitlets, but will quickly drop off. I have to figure out why.

I have guavas and starfruits that both survived the last brutal winter we had. Lost leaves and some got pruned back a bit, but they all made it. I am currently posting a few on c list if you are looking for carambola. However, I am not sure if they should go in the ground now or you should just buy potted ones you can bring indoors and wait until spring. I think keeping them in the pot would be a better bet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Starfruit / Carambola

i have a star fruit that survived 22 degrees, the top died but suckers came out. Cherimoya is the hardiest of the annonas, i believe it can go down to 26. Pawpaw is related and it is hardy. persimmon is hardy. olive goes down to about 20. satsuma oranges, rio red grapefruit, strawberry and pineapple guavas, dwarf ambarella will die to the ground, but resprout from the roots every may and produce fruit by late summer.

+1 on persimmon (I love them), also mulberry, muscadine grapes, peach, jaboticaba (to mid 20's) figs, pears, pluot and nectarine.

OK, some are not tropical but are worthwhile looking into

This post was edited by gnappi on Sun, Jan 25, 15 at 20:28

jaboticaba ?
it hit 28F, and only for a few hours
from like 2am ill 6m, then it started warming again.

My jabo got leaf burn pretty bad.
its 3ft tall, and that was 2 months ago,
it still hasnt recovered

my starfruit didnt like it either
it lost some leaves, but, it looks better now.

jaboticaba ?
it hit 28F, and only for a few hours
from like 2am ill 6m, then it started warming again.

My jabo got leaf burn pretty bad.
its 3ft tall, and that was 2 months ago,
it still hasnt recovered

my starfruit didnt like it either
it lost some leaves, but, it looks better now.