Dalmatiansoap

Considering that Croatia is in almosts same or simmilar climate region as California, well, according to many facts, one of them is that California is full of Croatians that emigrated there from 1910-1950 and mostly growing grapes and olives there as they used back home, and many tourists that visit my region founds many climate simmilarity specially with San Diego region I would like if somebody of CA members can write me a kind of list of naners and exotic fruits that U grows there withouth special winter protection. Hope that I have explained this right .
Thanks for sharing!

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Jack Daw

Well, surely:

Musa 'California Gold'
Musa 'California Cold Hardy'
Musa 'Orinoco'

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sunfish

I am growing all the bananas listed in my profile . Four different varieties of guava, avocado ,some passion vines all without any winter protection.

Dalmatiansoap

Hahaha, that looks to me that U grow all world spicies
What are average winter temp. there?

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sunfish

I am nine miles from the ocean average low 40.

Dalmatiansoap

Allmost identical. Im on sea side with average low 43F and strong winds.

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sunfish

You have better conditions than me. you should be able to grow many different types of bananas. The guava should do very well for you.

momoese

West LA 9 miles to the ocean. Average elevation of 126 feet above sea level.

2005 avg low 56, low 43
2006 avg low 56, low 39
2007 avg low 55, low 34
2008 avg low 55, low 39
2009 avg low 54, low 39

No protection at all except 2007 during the arctic blast when the baby mango tree and pineapples were covered in a makeshift mini greenhouse. All the banana leaves died.

I'm growing Banana, papaya, pineapple, mango, fig, citrus

The neighbor directly behind me has a full grown mango tree and avocado trees that get no protection.

Richard

Ante,

Tony (Bananas.org - View Profile: sunfish), Jon (Bananas.org - View Profile: pitangadiego), and I are all growing bananas in San Diego. Jon is by far the most adventurous and experienced, with over 100 varieties in his front yard. We are all about 15 kilometers from the ocean. There is an almost constant on-shore (easterly) breeze of about 5 km/hour. However, several times a year there is also a weather phenomena that causes a very hot wind to blow off the continent out to the ocean (westerly) at about 60 km/hour for 1/2 to 3 days at a time. The three of us are close enough to the ocean that summer temperatures rarely exceed 35 C although we have plenty of days above 30 C. Our winters are cool with day time temperatures of 15-20 C and night time temperatures around 5 C. I am at a slightly higher elevation and have maybe 10 nights per year where the temperature is 1-2 C for a few hours. Two years ago we had an unusual freeze (once in 50 years) where the temperatures dropped to -2 C at my location for several hours. There are locations between my home and the ocean down in canyons (Rancho Santa Fe) where it freezes every night for weeks during the winter. Our annual rainfall is only 10-15 cm per year. Our humidity is also "upside down" for near-tropical plants: it is warm and dry (50-60%) during the day and cool (15-20 C) and humid (80-100%) at night. The cool-and-humid night time condition is ideal for many types of fungus infections on near-tropical plants, especially root rot.

The bananas I would recommend to you are:
Dwarf Brazilian
Dwarf Namwa
Sweetheart

For my own use, I am also growing:
African Rhinohorn
1000 Fingers
Dwarf Orinoco
Ty Ty Gold

And for nursery stock, I am growing another 20+ varieties.

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Dalmatiansoap

Thank You all!
These are great refferences and helpfull advices.
I will give my best to collect some of these spicies U all recomend me in few years and than find one most suitablle for growing here.
Hoe do U propagate mango and papayas?
Richard, special thanks to U for Celsius scale, rare will do that!

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sunfish

Papaya and mango are very easy to start from seed of store bought fruit.

Dalmatiansoap

Thank You Tony,
now I just need to find where to buy these
Joke a side, so just sow them regulary?

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Jack Daw

I don't know you Ante, Papayas ar way cooler than Mango, mangos taste rather strange. But what I would definitelly grow in your conditions is maracuja (Passiflora). It's juice can be used in any kitchen (Croatian, Chinese, ...) and any drink to emphasize the original flavour and add other interesting, yet tropical flavors as well.

Don't worry about Dwarf Brazilian, as soon as mine has pups, you've got it reserved.

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Dalmatiansoap

Jack, I really dont know a s*** about tropical fruits
Never tryed that maracuja either (well, only ice cream, but I dont think that is same).

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sunfish

I sow papaya seed right on the surface or plant very sallow , mango seeds are are covered half way. I have a two year old Passion vine Fredericks it has at least two hundered fruit on it now.

Jack Daw

I am trying to germinate some passiflora bought in Tesco. So unless it's country of origin (India) was hot enough (ha ha ha), they should be vital and I will have lots and lots of plants. This fruit is so full of seeds.

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Kalabrian

Dalmatian, I strongly disagree that your climate can be compared to that of California, and neither mine who am more south than you.

First of all California itself has a range of different climates, and also if we only consider the coasts, there are three main area to consider (south-central-north). Apart from this, while min temp can be compared, the difference in latitude must not be set aside. Let me try to explain.

The point is that our Mediterranean sea acts as an insulator thus keeping the low temp very mild. In the Usa this doesn't happen. Just consider that the typical frost that you have (around 0 to -3 degrees) occurs in California down to San Diego, which is much lower than you are in latitude. In other words you are maybe around 43-44 of latitude, and you have frosts of such a mild intensity that can be compared to areas of the USA much more south in latitude. Me for example, I am at latitude 39, which corresponds barely to the north tip of California, but my region's min temp are infinitely milder than north California, much milder than central California, and almost equal to far south California. However there are in my region also areas totally frost-free which can rarely be found in Cali also in the south. Discussing for example with Richard we found that my hillside's min temp are not far different from his San Diego location, even if my hillside location is at 560 m of altitude and 20 km from the sea. So my coast compared to San Diego coast is milder. Many other examples could be taken, as the south of Texas or south Arizona where at very low latitude the min temp are similar to my hills' location, and cooler than my coast (with the exception of the rio grande valley which is almost equal to some coastal areas here). Moreover, all these areas have periodical critical freezes which are rare in the Mediterranean. For example all the rio grande palm vegetation was destroyed to the ground after the 83 and 89 historical freezes, where entire days under the 0 (ice days) where recorded, a thing which in the Mediterranean never occurs not even at higher latitude (like the French coast or you area).

However, this is only half of the story.

If min temp are determined by various different factors, much more the difference of latitude can be perceived on the max temp. The max temp they have in San Diego, in Corpus Christi, in Phoenix, Houston, etc are much different than ours, and this especially in winter. This has a great impact on many plant's resistance to cold. In fact, it is usually easier for certain sub-tropical trees to recover from a slight night frost if the day-after daily temp reaches 18-20 as usually happen. In other cases it is just the contrary, because plants (especially bananas) don't go sleeping because of high daily temp and then can be more easily frozen by night frost. But all in all, high temp are a relevant factor which must be considered. The summ of all this is that very simply the conditions are different, and while a comparison is useful, and me myself I try to compare to search the best plants to grow, it cannot be stated that the climate is almost equal, as you said.

A friend here answered about his winter temp. Observe that while the min temp can be similar or equal to yours, this cannot be said of max winter temp. He said daily temp of 15-20. You cannot have these temp in Croatia. Of course here also we have 16-18 in Jan and Feb, but 19-20 is a rare event and I am more south than you. Here also it happens to have days in the 12-15.

These points I had to made them clear because you cannot base you chances on comparison whith such different climate. But it doesn't mean you cannot grow anything. You can grow a lot of things, I think, at least if your min temp are taken from official sources. I want to give some suggestions on things that are more easy for you to grow:

- Avocado, varieties Zutano, Mexicola. Also the Hess and Ettinger can be tried. Usually the Hess has Bacon as pollinator, but it's only half necessary.

- Annona. variety Fino de Jete, only if you have as record low no more than -3. Basically if lemons grow outside unprotected.

- Papaya is very difficult to grow. In any case you need heavy winter protection or grow them in pot and winter recovering. But you can try Babaco (carica pentagona) and Carica quercifolia (which has very small fruit but is very hardy).

- The best mango varieties in Mediterranean conditions seems to be Kensington. However at your latitude you will still need winter protections and much care. I am not sure youcan grow it but you can give a try. The same applies to litchi.

- Passiflora, especially the purple-fruit. You should plant it near a wall where it can climb. The wall will act as insulator.

There are many other things you can grow depending on your will. We can continue the discussion if you have particular clues.

Best regards

Jack Daw

Kalabrian, I know that you didn't mean it like that, but Dalmatian is a race of dogs.
Flecky and white ones. Ante would be better.

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Kalabrian

Of course, I apologize...

Coming back to the point, here on the coast it is possible to grow Mango. In Sicily and parts of Calabria there are commercial groves now, but I do not know if this can be done more north. I know only one person who grows them as north as Liguria, which is on the Tyrrhenian side (warmer than the Adriatic) but he lives at 20 meters from the sea (not exagerating).

Papaya is more difficult because here also, in the warmer areas it needs at least a soft protection. I know of some people growing it with no protection but they are really in a particular location at the southern tip of the region with sea on two sides.

Annona seems easier, in a relative sense. Here in Calabria there are many many groves now, for many people are replacing citrus groves with annonas, since the price of the citrus is very low (25-30 cents of euro at wholesale). But they are grown in frost-free areas still. Maybe you could be succesful with that, but they suffer frost very much.

Another thing which you could try is Jaboticaba, which tolerates slight frosts.

Things which you can grow almost for sure instead are:
Casimiroa Edulis
Dovyalis Caffra

I would focus on these latter, maybe together with a Mexican Avocado and a purple Passiflora.

Jack Daw

Nice tips. There are however also other things that you might consider growing, especially, when you have smaller garden or more stylish oriented, fruits like maracuja are a perfect landscaping choice as their flowers can be seen throughout the year and they are really beautiful.

Also you could try Ananas comosus, but cover it well for the frosts (which is deadly for most varieties), but you can grow this lovely plant also in small pots (really small, not like nanas). There was one time that I had about 20 plants, all from the store bought fruit and of these, 10 I gave away, 6 fruited and 4 died in sudden late frosts about 2 years ago. Now I have only few pieces (5 to 10), just to have some fruit throughout the year. Pineapples are very expensive here (3€ a rotten piece), so it was a good time investmen on my part.
They however take very long to ripen and require specific conditions, otherwise the fruit will be too acidic (like citrons or lemons, sour) or undeveloped. I had in my life about 10 homegrown pineapples from my region and I must say, that it's way better fresh from the plant than from the store (sometimes they were even ripening 15 months, sometimes I had to force them to ripen, but they always ended up well colored and tasty).

Also, if you choose landscaping plants with a purpose (such as nanas), you can always view alphabetical list of Floridata, real cool, only the best of the best got in, there's also a wide list of palm trees along with reported frost damage...
Floridata: Plant Profile List

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