Growing your own fruit trees is quite different from growing vegetables and flowers in a greenhouse or outdoors. For one thing, there’s much more waiting involved. That’s because most people who buy a fruit tree at a nursery or garden center pick a young one that will fit in their car, or if they purchase a tree by mail order, it typically comes bare-rooted and small. Either way, you have to wait a few years before enjoying any fruit. When I planted some three-foot-high, semi-dwarf apple trees quite a while ago in my yard, they grew fairly slowly at first, without any harvest. But now, years later, I pick bushels of apples for pies and tarts. Has it been worth the wait? Absolutely, even though there are a lot of pastries to bake!
In my greenhouses, the fruit trees are a little more exotic. Figs are one much-loved crop. The Peter’s Honey fig tree in my unheated greenhouse is quite large and produces many figs used in salads and for jam and to eat right off the tree. I also give them to neighbors and friends. My Chicago Hardy and Brown Turkey fig trees have yet to produce fruit, but they’re growing outdoors and so must weather our sometimes harsh winters. I have to admit that with the number of figs on Peter’s Honey, I’m not sure I need more figs, but, as a gardener, I want the plants to produce fruit.
I also grow fruit trees in the heated greenhouse. One is an orange tree that has already produced fruit for this year. Another is a 25-year-old, seven-foot-tall key lime tree that’s currently in full bloom. On warm days, I leave the greenhouse door open so that insects can enter and pollinate the flowers. My citrus crops will continue growing in the heated greenhouse until they’re ready to be picked, usually from late January into February. I lightly fertilize the trees as soon as they flower until the fruit is picked.
In this heated greenhouse there are a few more exotic fruit trees. One is an avocado tree grown from a graft. Although it’s seven years old and quite huge, it still has not produced fruit. But there’s always hope! While I’m waiting, I can use the avocado leaves in Mexican cooking. This heated greenhouse also contains three small mango trees that will require a lot of waiting. All are Ataúlfo or golden mangoes, a Mexican cultivar sometimes called champagne mangoes. All were started from seed. To grow mangoes from seed, first dry the husklike pit in the center of the fruit and carefully cut it back to reveal the seed inside. Then plant the seed in potting soil that’s kept warm and moist, and with a bit of patience, you’ll see a sprout emerge. Next, keep watering and watching for at least five years! That’s because mangoes take a very long time to bear fruit.
Of course, not all fruit is grown on trees. In a bed in my unheated greenhouse I also have everbearing strawberry plants that I didn’t have room for in my outdoor garden. They grow faster than fruit trees and produce tasty fruit in the second year. The first year you should pick the fruit off to allow the plants to grow to a reasonable size. They’re now growing so profusely with many runners that can produce new plants. I’ve found that having an outdoor crop and also a greenhouse crop almost doubles my strawberry-picking season. In addition to red strawberries, I’m also trying white ones set in pots. They’re said to be gourmet, although I’m not yet convinced that a white strawberry could ever top a bright, juicy red one. But I’ll just wait and see. As with other kinds of greenhouse gardening, experimentation is a big part of the experience.