SUBTROPICAL FRUIT TREES

We believe we have the best selection of appropriate trees for home gardeners to establish their own Subtropical food jungles in New Zealand. There is a chapter on establishing subtropical orchards in Kay Baxter’s book “Design Your Own Orchard” and our guided tours take you through the subtropical orchard.

Keep in mind that subtropicals need warmth, shelter, stillness, humidity and filtered light. (We use Abyssinian bananas to create this environment) While establishing your subtropical food jungle, you can protect plants from frosts or wind if necessary by using wind cloth and/or plastic surrounds. Most subtropicals like free-draining soil, but plenty of moisture. If the soil is heavy, plant on mounds.

You can create this environment by careful planning and selection of trees. Colour and scent play an important role in subtropical orchards. I like to think of the subtropical orchard as a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle, where all the trees with their varying heights, shapes and light needs fit into each other. All the available light coming into the orchard is then used up, meaning that eventually there will be no ground cover plants at all in most places, only leaf and litter fall creating a deep layer of humus. The variety of edible plants going in, along with the palms and Abyssinian bananas, colourful vines and scented shrubs and trees are what create the ambience in these wonderful spaces, and this diversity is also the key to the health of these orchards. I’ve never had any pest problems other than rats and possums, and never had any fungus problems unless there is a drainage problem, or the trees are planted in the wrong place. We’ve started with jacobinia, Australian frangipani, brugmansia, passionfruit, canna lilies, tabebouia, and impatiens to bring in the colour and scent. The wonderful scented brugmansia are my favourite.

Hardiness Rating:           

1. Very frost tender

2. Tolerates mild frost

3. Hardiest subtropicals

Finally, we have found a way to keep the prices of the grafted trees (Cherimoya, Casimiroa and Avocadoes) down way lower than other Garden Centres. We have trialled growing them in smaller pots and it has worked well. The roots are still fine for planting out, just make sure they are spread out and not going around in circles as you would when planting any tree.

AVOCADO

Avocados are very fussy about soil conditions. They must have deep, free draining soil. They have a big problem with phytophera if they don’t have free draining conditions with the right balance of microorganisms in the soil. The best way to achieve this is to mulch heavily, use compost, companion plant, and apply phyter (this is a product containing the beneficial microorganisms which will feed on the phytophera). You’ll probably also have to do drainage, plant on mounds etc.

Size 66m x 10m. HR2

Hass

The most popular and best quality Avocado. Can be picked all year round once you have enough fruit.

BANANA 

Abyssinian (Does not have edible fruit) with huge leaves and dark red midribs. Stunning. The leaves make excellent food baskets or plates, and the plant adds a lot of atmosphere to the orchard and can be very useful in helping to create the environment subtropicals need. Excellent biomass producer. Grows large. We plant more every year, chop up when flowering for mulch and compost. HR3

BANANA

A good hot spot, plenty of nutrients and water are essential for good bunches. Excellent companions for Avocado’s, especially if you are on clay- they really pump away the water. When bananas are ripe, cut out the whole palm and chop it up with the spade and leave around the base of the suckers for compost. You must desucker the palms to get good bunches. Two pups on each palm is enough.

Hamoa

In a good situation this banana will produce huge bunches of good sized bananas.

Lady Finger

There are lots of varieties of bananas around. We find that in a home orchard situation Ladyfinger performs the best in marginal situations.

Misi Luki

Of all the bananas in our list this one requires the most heat to do well. If you have a really good spot they produce big bunches of excellent Lady Finger type bananas.

Mon Maree

This is an excellent banana in marginal conditions, larger than Lady Finger.

Te Kopuru

Found growing at Te Kopuru. Produces enormous bunches. Similar also to Lady Finger.

BABACO

The most productive tree of all. One bush can have up to 200 fruit on it at one time, ripening progressively. Tree ripened they taste great - fruit are very juicy and thirst quenching. Great for green houses because they don’t grow very high. Excellent for flans, pancakes, fruit bread and fruit salad. Babaco chutney is tops too. HR2

CASANA

Lots of sweet passionfruit-like fruit, ripe May-Sept. Tree looks similar to Tamarillo and requires similar growing conditions. Ours have been most successful when planted near the drip lines of larger trees with well established root systems that keep the water pumping up. I guess it keeps the roots of the Casana from becoming waterlogged. Bananas do that well, so do Totara!! We love the fruit, eaten with a spoon out of the skin Size 2 x 2m HR1

CASIMIROA

Luke

Older, proven variety that fruits in Autumn. Good cropper, large fruit that turns a lighter shade of green when ripe. White flesh, mild flavour. Self fertile.

Max Golden

Tall fast growing tree to 15m. Ornamental foliage. Plant 10-15m apart. Begins cropping around year 4-5. Prefers moist, free draining conditions, compost and mulch. Large fruit with dark yellow firm flesh and skin. Early season.

Maltby

From Keri Keri. Yellow flesh, strong flavour also fruits in Autumn. Self fertile.

CHERIMOYA

Rex (Reretai Ecuador cross):

Large aromatic fruit with creamy flesh and a wonderful flavour. Pick during Sept, Oct, and Nov while still quite firm- in four days they’ll ripen. Eat when soft to touch. One of my favourite fruits. Cherimoyas like being pruned hard like a peach, fruiting on new growth, deciduous in Spring. Large spreading tree. Size depends on pruning. Self fertile. Size 4-6m x 3-8m. HR3

GUAVA

Red Guava

The classic cherry guavas we all know, if well grown they are sweet, full of flavour and high in nourishment, great for fruit salads, eating fresh , juicing, jams etc.

Yellow

Similar to the red guavas, they’re bigger and sweeter. They need a frost free spot to crop well, and like other guavas require plenty of moisture in the Autumn. Size 3 x 3 HR2.

Tropical

These are the large pink guavas found in Fiji and South Africa etc. You need a special hot spot for these to do really well. Like a lot of other subtropical fruits they ripen in Winter, so need warmth then to be sweet. Being a small shrub they could easily be grown in a greenhouse or conservatory. Grown from seed off our fruit. Size 3 x 3m HR1.

INGA BEAN

A highly ornamental tree with huge bean pods, containing candyfloss-like edible pulp. Leguminous tree, a good one for the subtropical forest. Ripens June/July. Will bear three years from seed. Beautiful white pohutukawa-like flowers in January and February. The kids will love the candyfloss! Size 3 x 5. HR 2

LUCUMA 

Super ornamental compact trees with large dark green leathery leaves. In free draining soil lucumas grow to 5-6 m but in heavy soils they are slow and smaller. The fruit looks like a small brown orange, tastes like a chocolate mousse and is exquisite.

MACADAMIA see nut section

PALM BANGALOW

Palms are the natural canopy trees for subtropicals. This particular one has a narrow smooth stem and is very fast growing, so fits our subtropical situation well. Use Acacias initially to create the environment, then as the subtropicals come away under them and the acacias are gradually taken out, plant the palms under the subtropicals. (They need this environment to come up through). Size 2m x 10m. HR3

PAWPAW

Mountain

We eat the centre pulp of these fruit - its delicious. Every garden should have a few.

Size 1m x 4m. HR2

Rainbow Valley

An outstanding advancement on the Mountain Paw Paw, more like a papaya. They are bigger with sweeter softer flesh and we eat the flesh where as with the mountain paw paw we only eat the centre part. Huge crops for 9 months of the year. Size 2m x 4m. HR1

PASSIONFRUIT

A really special passionfruit, my favourite, with beautiful large tropical-looking scarlet flowers. Ripe fruit are long with a yellow skin and very sweet, rich aromatic pulp. Also the hardiest and heaviest cropping passionfruit I have grown. HR3

Purple

The more common black skinned passionfruit that we all love

Norfolk

This is round like the purple fruit and the same in inside but it has yellow skin and has come from Norfolk Island

SUGARCANE

Grows like bamboo. The kids love it. Can be grown very well in warm wet spots. Canes are cut back every Summer and split to eat. Juice makes an excellent drink - easy to juice through a roller-type wringer. There is around a litre of juice in every stem so the potential for production of sugar cane juice for use as drinks, sweetening for beer, wine, bottled fruit, baking cooking etc. is enormous. The flavour of unprocessed sugar cane juice is beautiful.

Size 2m x 1m. HR3

TAMARILLO

Red

Large and dark red inside. Best ones for making sauces chutneys and wine. 3 x 3m HR1

Orange

The original South American wild ones. They are small and very sweet, and the trees set large crops of fruit. 3x3m HR1