Growing Fuyu Persimmon

Last night while waiting in line at the drive-in movie theatre we noticed a persimmon tree nearby.  I've seen persimmon trees grow to more than 25 feet tall and to a span of 25 or 30 feet. This one had been tightly pruned and although it was obviously an older tree it was not more than 4 feet wide and roughly 5 - 6 feet tall. 

It's my understanding that the normal fruiting period for persimmon ranges from Septemeber - December, but this tree had quite a lot of fruit remaining, although I couldn't be sure it's still edible.  The fuyu variety is commercially grown and highly popular.When I'm back in the area of the drive-in theatre, I'll take a picture.

I think a fuyu persimmon might make a good container gardening candidate.  They are very hardy trees in the wild, and based on my research  at the California Rare Fruit Growers website they require only moderate amounts of water and fertilizer.  They do need a well drained soil because over watering or water logging the roots can cause root rot.

The University of Florida IFAS Extension has an article containing persimmon recipes and nutrition information.

-----------------
Eat for Energy

Pomegranate Trees for Edible Landscaping

Pomegranate Transplant

We have several groupings of shrubs and hedges in our yard landscaping that were installed by the builder when our home was constructed. The hedges are fine, but do require quite a bit of maintenance. There's something about an untrimmed hedges and shrubs that aggravate me. It's one of my pet peeves.

As my interest in sustainable living has increased during the past few months, I've been exploring several options for replacing the shrubs and hedges with some edible landscaping. 

My yard is small, so a large tree won't really work well.  I live in Florida, so there already plenty of orange, grapefruit, nectarines, and lemon trees to go around.  I ruled out apples, pears, and peaches due to the climate. 

I explored the possibilities of the lychee tree after seeing some videos from Bill Mee in South Florida who has a whole grove of them. 

This tree is roughly 3 years old

Lychees are evergreen trees that are native to China. An evergreen appleals to me for landscaping, since the trees would have green foliage year round.  I recently made a trip to Jene's Tropicals in St. Petersburg to learn more about them.

While there, I discovered the pomegranate tree.  Jene's had a grafted Vietnamese Pomegranate that produces a pink fruit and a Wonderful Pomegranate that produces the more traditional red colored fruit that I am more familar with.  For no other real reason, except that I think red will look better as part of our landscaping than pink, we purchased a 3 year old tree in a 3 gallon container and planted it in our backyard the next daytoward the rear of our property line.

It's my understanding that the tree can be pruned to 6 - 7 feet tall and still produce quite a bit of fruit, if done correctly. Or, left to it's own devices the tree is capable of growing to 18 - 20 feet.  I'm not quite sure how I would harvest a 20 foot tree with my modest step ladder, so my plan is keep things tamed down with some careful periodic pruning.

I've since learned that pomegranate trees are frequently and successfully grown in containers reaching a natural height of 8 - 9 feet (or maybe a little more).  Containers would have been a nice option for us, since it also includes the possibility of relocating the tree later if needed. 

-----------------
Build a DIY Aquaponic System

Growing Fruit Trees in Containers

When I was younger I remember my grandmother growing an orange tree in a 5 gallon bucket.  She enjoyed it as a houseplant, but I'm sure it never yielded any fruit.  We were in rural Missouri mind you...so orange trees were a novelty to me.  Now I live in Florida and it's difficult to drive anywhere in rural areas of Central Florida without seeing an orange grove at some point during the trip.

I was searching around on the Internet for ideas to grow food in my backyard and I kept running into references to growing fruit trees in containers.  The University of Florida IFAS Extension has a detailed article explaining some of the in's and out's.


Besides the obvious advantage of being portable, using containers to grow trees is also advantageous if you have poor soil conditions or unfavorable conditions during certains times of the year. They can be strategically pruned to keep the trees a more manageable size. In smaller backyards, using containers is a viable method to have several types of fruit trees within a small area.

According to the IFAS Extension website,  most commercial potting soil is suitable, but a favorite soil recipe includes "a mixture of 1 part sand, 1 part peat and 1 part bark, perlite or vermiculite will also serve quite well".

Part of my future gardening plans include growing blackberries and this container method sounds like something I should try.

I am unsure whether it has a lot of information on fruit trees specifically, but I found a book by Stella Otto titled The Backyard Orchardist that looks promising for backyard growers.

-----------------
Build a DIY Aquaponic System