pomolo said:
SueBk said:
I would like to plant fruit trees. I’m working on The Man. He’s not keen (for various reasons, none of which mean much to me ;) I figure if they’re supposed to go in during winter, I’ve got a year to work on him LOL.
My question is, aside from citrus, what fruit can I grow here in Brisbane? We don’t get frosts, or only very rarely and then only lightly. I’ve been told that apples, pears and stone fruit need frosts to set flowers or fruit or something? I haven’t investigated fruit trees in any great detail, but nothing I’ve read says “must have frost”, so I’m a little unsure. Okay, I’m a lot unsure.
I guess you know about mangoes, lychees, bananas, paw paw and all tropical fruits. So I won’t mention them. Aside from those there are now versions of what were once, only cold climate fruit. You can get tropical nectarine, peach, apple, blueberry and probably others as well that don’t need much cold at all to fruit well. I’m waiting for an apricot to make the grade. It would be so nice to taste a real fresh apricot.
Mango is my ace card. If I can’t get The Man to agree by other means, I’ll pull it out. I do not like mangoes and I don’t like mango trees. Grew up in Darwin and the smell makes me feel ill. I’m thinking of an espalier line (or two) across the end of our driveway, which would create a nice privacy screen to the back yard and the (eventual) deck. I was reading somewhere about standard fruit trees that only grow to 2m, which would be wonderful. Mango trees get so big, although I guess you can prune them?
And as much as I LOVE bananas, I don’t want to grow them. We had some as a kid, and when dad cleaned them out he reckoned he found enough cockroaches to survive a dozen direct hit nuclear attacks. They love the moist muck of the bases.
Thanks for confirming the tropical varieties of cold weather fruit. I KNOW I read about it in a magazine, but I can’t find which one to prove to myself I did actually read it. Fresh nectarines, that alone has to be worth the effort!