heaven- can you drop me an email at grunsfeld AT Gmail. (im also in NYC)

I really wonder what kind of melon would be ok to grow indoors year round. I don't think mango would be happy/healthy indoors year round either, the hot sun and temps really make these grow and mature. My mango Cogshhall bloomed when I kept it outdoors into fall waether. The cold snap is what caused the bloom cycle to initiate which is the case for most fruit. Ch3rri is growing personal papaya in pots and someone told her that they may not bloom like that, even though I know Logees greenhouse sells a papaya hybrid called Tovey something. You could check out there site. I don't recommend purchasing anything fruit related from them. The majority of ther e plants/trees are VERY expensive and compared to the most pop. nurseries they are not as good. That papaya is called TR Hovey and it does not grow very tall but the crown of the papaya can be quite large when it is fruiting size. You don't have access to your roof? I have seen some very nice roof gardens there. I think you will face some incredible challenges trying to grow any fruit totally indoors, but it will be worth your while when you do. Congrats on the citrus! I have 2 citrus now. I have dwarf moro blood orange and dwarf mexican keylime. Both of which really took off when I could put them outdoors.
Andrew

That's a tough question. I would guess that the vast majority of Northeners who are into tropical fruiting plants have them outside for a good bit of the year. Citrus are obviously need to be at the top of the least and there is a healthy variety of them that should do fine in the house (especially if you keep it humid and on the cooler side in the winter. Consider the following Citrus and relations: Valencias, Navel, and Blood Oranges, Eureka, Ponderosa, and Meyer's Lemons, Persian limes, key limes, limequats, kumquats. Kumquats are especially good for indoors and confined spaces. You might also consider the tropical guava--I have them as indoor/outdoor but them seem easy and tolerant enough. I don't know if you would get a mango to fruit indoors, or a papaya for that matter. Maybe dragon fruit cacti?? Good luck!

andrew 78:

I will have no outdoor access at all, so everything has to be totally indoors. I would think that as long as you had a self pollinating plant that you would be able to get it to fruit if you were able to replicate it's preferred conditions. I'm looking for plants that like it 70 degrees and 50% humidity I guess. I've got light and I can mist and hand pollinate. I know someone somewhere must have stuff growing totally indoors. I would think that anything that could be totally grown in a heated greenhouse would also grow in my apartment. If no one is doing it, then I guess I'll be the first. I agree, Logee's is very expensive, but I'd pay their prices as our local nurseries will not have the tropical plants I'll be looking for. But before I cough up $$$, I'd like to hear from someone actually fruiting them indoors. The claims of anyone selling a plant are not enough for me. As for melons, I think I'm going to try pepino.

Not sure I would agree with your statement that anything that can be grown in a heated greenhouse could also be grown indoors. No amount of artificial light is going to come close to replicating the sun.

Hello Heaven. I have fruited many of the fruits you mention. I will say that I have experience with Logees and let me tell ya. I would NEVER orfer from them again. Not after having access to all the vendors online. There prices ae three times as high(and even more on some!) and there plants are poor quality compared to all the people I have dealt with and not just tropicals. I would try Pine, Top, Jene's or Nippa before I would ever shop with them again!
Andrew

Heaven- the reason why access to outdoor is important is not really to access polinating insects but because most fruiting trees require a period of cooling in the low 60s. As I mentioned to you,if you can open a window at night that will get you the cooling you need. i agree with everyone about logees. its not a nursery for serious fruit enthusiasts. its more of a gimicky type place. i would stick to pine island or jenes tropicals. i buy all tropical fruit trees from there and most people on this forum buy at least some of their trees from them.

will you end up with bushels of fruit no. will you manage to grow 1-5 fruits per tree? very possibly.
that said, my tangerine tree grew about 50 tangerines this year.

I agree that Logee's seems overpriced and the pot sizes seem very small. I'd rather pay more up front and get something that will fruit faster. I'm checking out all of the different online places now and what a huge difference.

I can absolutely open my windows to get chilling in the 60s...no problem at all with that. I just cant get the chilling in the 40s as that would affect some of my other plants terribly. Bushels of fruit I don't need, but a nice handful would be great, although my calamondin and meyer lemon look like I'm going to end up with a bushel!

Congrats on the citrus! I think it is possible to get more fruit then a handfull. You may have to experiment and get creative before you find what gives you the results you really want, but there is no substitute for mother nature!
Andrew

I recently purchased some Mara Des Boise and alpine strawberries. These aren't the normal strawberries that you purchase at the supermarket, they are tiny in comparison but they have 10X the strawberry flavor. My uncle has a small Bonsai Cherimoya that fruits with hand pollination. He also has a short stocky Dragonfruit indoors, if you get dragonfruit, make sure you get one of the red varieties like American Beauty or Halley's comet, the white varieties are kind of bland.

Simon,
I have always wanted to try alpine strawberries but I have never found a source that sold them in bunches. I just found them where they were sold as individual plants, and they were not cheap.
Andrew

I purchased mine individually and they were quite pricey, about 3-5 dollars each. I purposely ordered them singly because I wanted to try out all the different varieties. Many companies are willing to give a discount if you order in large quantities.

For strawberries, I feel you don't need to order a lot of plants. You can multiply your plants exponentially by simply growing out the runners for the runnering varieties or by simply dividing the non runnering types.

I think my Meyer Lemon and Bearss Lime trees are my most successful fruiting houseplants. While I do bring them outside in the summer, I can assure you summers in Seattle are like indoor air conditioning, so your trees should be fine all year inside if by a sunny window. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of my Meyer Lemon tree indoors

Are you sure that is a meyer? They don't look anything like mine.

Those don't look like mine either (Meyers Lemon). There is an Improved Meyer.....not sure which one I have.

I fruited a pineapple indoors. I wasn't able to give it any time outdoors. The fruit was big, but it was a dwarf form. I cut off the fruit and sliced it. I thought it was equally sour as a lemon. I think if you can get enough light intensity you might be able to have sweet fruit. You should read Ch3rri's page. She desribes eating a fruit that was not recieving enough natural light. She says that even though the fruit was ripe it was still watery and not as sweet. I believe it was some kind of atemoya or sugar apple. I don't remember the specifics. You should also look into supplemental lighting. Check out my southwestern NY mango update. You will come across a link that shows an excellent light for sale. I would decide what you want to grow and then research the specific cultivation info to find out about the light and heat requirements. That way you wont be dissapointed. and then there are some of us who are doing it under less then ideal circumstances and some of us have decent results.
Andrew

I am looking for info that provides the ins and outs of grown varoius friut trees in a hot house in wash state

where do you get plants
is is possible to do this commercially
what is the cost of operation