Author Topic: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses  (Read 3867 times)

chriscross1966

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Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« on: September 22, 2015, 17:55:22 »
Hi folks, due to some incredible luck it looks like my plot will be hosting a 34x6 greenhouse in the near future.... this will consist of 3 8x6's and a 10x6 bolted up together.... I've got a 1000 litre tank to water it from so it should be OK fo rmy occasional excursions as long as I can work out some for of automatic watering for it....

I will get a bit more height than is usual for a a 6' wide GH by putting in a blockwork plinth for it to sit on and I plan on the back wall being blockwork too as a crude for of heat storage.... I'll paint it white to increase the light availability away from summer, and glaze the southern face with twin-wall polycarbonate to reduce scorch issues (it does a fantastic job in my home greenhouse)

One side will be "more of the same" of what I consider to be "usual suspects in the greenhouse, lima beans, peppers, yacon, oca etc, the other side I want to be basically given over primarily to exotic fruit.... I was thinking a fig, an apricot, a grape, maybe a couple of lemons...... can anyone thin of other things I might want to try. Certainly in the early years I will also be growing tomatoes (probably mostly cookers) in amongst the fruit, but they can be sacrificed as the fruit grows...


chrisc

Uncle_Filthster

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Re: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2015, 19:12:16 »
Passionfruit?

woodypecks

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Re: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2015, 19:20:23 »
Try growing a Soapnut tree ! Mine is about five feet tall now ...You use the husks of the nut to make a lather for your handwashing . ....Seriously though ..I,m growing it just for fun....it is three years old now...I doubt it will ever flower or produce fruit in my life time and it will probably need a much , much larger greenhouse on the scale of the Eden Project well before then ...but it has beautiful leaves..and I germinated it myself from a nut...and I,m rather proud of it ! lol !   :coffee2: Debbie   :happy7:
Trespassers will be composted !

chriscross1966

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Re: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2015, 20:47:00 »
I don't grow stuff cos it's pretty, AT the only inedble thing I grow is tagetes adn that's only cos the hateful little things keep the bugs away in my greenhouse at home.... I want stuff to eat.... thought of a Passion Fruit, but I'm not much of a fan and I thought it needed to reach a big size before fruiting...

ed dibbles

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Re: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2015, 23:18:43 »
Grapes are great to grow in a greenhouse that size. Big luscious greenhouse types hanging down. wonderful. I know it is not that "exotic", depending on ones view but melons are much more reliable under cover. Also not a fruit but what about sweet potatoes if you have room for them. :happy7:

For truly exotic fruit my suggestions are these five in no particular order:

Chilean guava (Ugni molinae)

Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana)

Strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum var montana)

Cape Gooseberry

Pepino (Solanum muricatum) I have a couple of these in their second year. One has just set fruit and should ripen in early winter - their usual time. Quite cold tolerant, to -2 perhaps, I grow them in a just frost free greenhouse. :happy7:

I have found that both oca and yacon do really well outside on the open allotment so there is probably no real need to grow them undercover  :happy7:

chriscross1966

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Re: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2015, 23:44:33 »
I grow melons and cape gooseberries in the 20x10 at home, and therefore they fall into the "more of the same" category as they're annuals, I've got a Chilean guava at home and am getting a pineapple guava too, they're solidly hardy so dont need a greenhouse... I've grown pepinos before and wasnt blown away by them though I might give them a go again... really I'm looking for small trees or bushes, perennial things....

Vinlander

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Re: Exotic fruit for unheated greenhouses
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2015, 18:28:22 »
Grapes are great to grow in a greenhouse that size. Big luscious greenhouse types hanging down. wonderful. I know it is not that "exotic", depending on ones view but melons are much more reliable under cover. Also not a fruit but what about sweet potatoes if you have room for them. :happy7:

For truly exotic fruit my suggestions are these five in no particular order:

Chilean guava (Ugni molinae)

Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana)

Strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum var montana)

Cape Gooseberry

Pepino (Solanum muricatum) I have a couple of these in their second year. One has just set fruit and should ripen in early winter - their usual time. Quite cold tolerant, to -2 perhaps, I grow them in a just frost free greenhouse. :happy7:

I have found that both oca and yacon do really well outside on the open allotment so there is probably no real need to grow them undercover  :happy7:

Yes to all - but I would say the pineapple guava is also quite happy outside - maybe just not in the frozen north.  They can also get quite large for a bigger crop - but they use them for hedging in California so there's no problem with pruning. Fantastic edible flowers like marshmallow but the fruit have a whiff of hospital corridor - iodine and TCP.

Apricots are also good outside on a sunny wall in most of this island - I would go for Lord Napier nectarine instead - wonderfully fresh pale green flesh - like a white peach that's been sent to heaven (and been shaved).

You really should check out the Custard Banana (Asimina at agroforestry.co.uk) - they are the closest thing to a mango that will grow over here - they laugh at our winters (they grow wild up the eastern USA to the Canadian border) but they do benefit from having the summer under glass. Unfortunately they hate transplanting and aren't really suited to pots - it's easier to move the greenhouse over something that appreciates shelter in winter - eg. as it happens there's a nice banana shaped passionfruit with a taste like mandarin - that has the opposite requirement.

I now much prefer the fully annual ground cherry (outside) to the closely related partly perennial cape gooseberry under glass - the latter are just too aromatic - they give me a petrol headache.

The new hybrid grapes are so delicious and early (x indigenous N.American species) - I would only bother growing grapes under glass if they were true Muscats.

As to melons - in return for a LOT of effort and a LOT of expenditure you have to be an absolute expert to beat or even equal the best types available in the shops - mainly because they DO ripen during transit. It's much better and probably cheaper to holiday in the more remote parts of the Med. and taste them at their best from local markets and roving truck sales.

There are some really nice kumquat crosses that would enjoy a cold house - Kumandarin , Eustis limequat, Clemkumquat. The Rangpur lime is also pretty tough. Don't try the Tahiti lime in a cold house (despite the adverts), though it is fine in a conservatory at 4C. Meyers lemon is tougher than true lemons and much sweeter - it's a mandarin cross.

I've left my personal favourite to the last - epi hybrid cacti are jungle cacti and produce fruit much tastier than dragon fruit - if you hand pollinate them. The 20-30cm flowers are spectacular - though the only ones that will stand -5C are the "ackermaniis" and their fruit is a bit too "boiled sweet" for me. "Samite" is a good fruiting variety but you'll need a pollinator - almost any of the others will do though it's better to have five or more different ones for other flavours - you can never tell which ones will flower alongside "Samite" next year.

My only quibble is with sweet potatoes - every time I have had a "healthy" orange one I've always thought I'd rather have had a (healthier) carrot. I don't like much stuff that cooks to mush - I always eat my pumpkin grated into coleslaw. The white SPs are OK - possibly a bit nicer than normal potatoes but not really worth the effort.

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

 

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