Mature Air-layered Fruit Tree, Ready to Produce

Brewster Lychee is a tropical fruit tree with a reliable nature to fruit and flower, making it great for a home or commercial landscape. Good drainage, rich soil, and irrigation are essential for the early success of this tree. The Brewster Lychee fruit has one of the best flavors, with the small trade-off of an inconveniently large inner seed. Like other Lychee varieties, Brewster Lychee fruit has the translucent flesh and texture of a grape.  The big Lychee seed is not a deal breaker for most people (like us!), who adore cracking open the purple-red outer shell of Brewster Lychee to get a taste of its trademark late-summer sweetness.

Lychee fruit is an amazing source of antioxidants, Vitamin C, Vitamin B phytonutrient flavonoids, manganese, magnesium, copper, iron and folate.  Eat fruit straight from the tree once ripe, shake up a Lychee juice cocktail, or use dried or deyhydrated Lychee fruit for a naturally sweet and healthy out of season snack.

Brewster Lychee is the second-most cultivated Litchi tree in the United States, perfectly adapted to the long Floridian growing season. It was introduced by an American missionary to China, Rev. William N. Brewster, hence the name, but the Chen Purple Lychee is the parent tree. The cultivation of Lychee in China dates so far back that historians have yet to track down a truly wild species of it. 

Grafted and Ready to Produce!

Arkin Star Fruit (Averrhoa carambola) is a hybrid product of stock-market discipline and tropical-fruit enthusiasm. This star fruit tree was hybridized by Morris Arkin, a Washington, D.C. native stockbroker who retired into the fruitful world of horticulture. In reaping the benefits of homegrown life, the Arkin Star Fruit was born.

Averrhoa carambola is an evergreen tropical shrub with woody, drooping branches. It makes a great ornamental addition to a home landscape, ticking all of the boxes for a plant that’s useful and good looking. Compared to other Carambola fruit trees, this star fruit variety is praised for being easy to grow, and producing tasty, abundant crops. Some gardeners prefer to use extra soil nutrients that make fruit sweeter when it’s time to harvest them. Averrhoa carambola are the epitome of sensitive plants, reeling back like mimosas at the sensation of touch, and rarely flowering or fruiting if temperatures get too chilly. The ideal Star fruit growing temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees. In a tropical climate, you can reap the rewards of star fruit trees year-round, when rosy flowers give way to the 5-sided star fruits. Fruits are in the prime when they ripen on the tree to a yellow-orange color. Enjoy this sweet star fruit variety fresh, in combination with other fruits and desserts, or as a garnish for tropical-themed dishes.  

Star Fruit is easy to grow in a container and can thrive in a large pot. In the colder months they may loose their leaves, so they should be overwintered indoors if temperatures reach below freezing.

Grafted! 

Carrie mango (Mangifera indica) might ring a bell for anyone familiar with mango plant varieties in South Florida. This mango variety originates from Boynton Beach! Most Florida mango varieties are hybrids of Indian mango types and the Southeast Asian mango types, which are carefully bred to thrive in hot and humid growing conditions. The Carrie Mango is distinctly hardy to the 10b growing zone in South Florida, but could do well in a temperate greenhouse. 

Mango trees are popular trees in the home landscape, with distinct ripples of glossy evergreen foliage. Mango trees will produce reliably for years, growing into rounded dense trees with plenty of shade. They need room to grow, with average tree height falling anywhere between 30 and 60 feet high. New growth appears as an otherworldly red-purple. In the early spring, Mangifera indica blossoms with flower spikes, giving way to oblong fruits in the summer. The Carrie mango is distinct from other varieties that blush and deepen with orange and red skin. Instead, this fruit ripens to a slightly yellow-green color. A cut into the fruit reveals a rich, orange flesh with a distinctly spicy aroma and flavor that is unlike other mangos.  

For a surefire way to grow the Alano Sapodilla fruit you know and love in a convenient container size, look to Silas Wood Sapodilla. This semi-dwarf, tropical evergreen fruit tree has a great overlap with other varieties of Manilkara zapota. The Silas Wood Sapodilla is slow-growing, but will fruit after just 2 years, making it one of the smallest reliably fruiting tropical fruit trees.  In truly tropical climates, Silas Wood Sapodilla has the potential to produce fruit year-round. 

This sapodilla variety is suitable for container growing. Fruit can be plentiful, even for young trees, and may need to be supported in earlier years. Silas Wood Sapodilla fruit is spherical, ranging 2 to 5 inches in diameter, with an unassuming brown skin.  When the fruit is ripe, it ranks among some of the most luxurious flavors and aromas somewhere between a tender pear infused with brown sugar and a hint of jasmine. For best growing conditions, Silas Wood Sapodilla should be grown in a climate where temperatures are at least 60°F, but it will tolerate short bursts of cold down to 35°F. 

Sapoilla's are related to Mamey Sapote, Star Apple, and Canistel.  Sapodilla's are known by many names around the world including Mispel, Zapote, Dilly, Chico, Chico sapote, Zapote chico, Zapotillo, Chicle, Sapodilla plum, and Naseberry, among countless others.

One exotic plant that will pique the interest of any life long food forester or curious chef is Bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi, Cucumber Tree Fruit, Tree Sorrel, Kamias, Mimbro). Bilimbi grows wild and in cultivation in the warmest parts of Southeast Asia, throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. 

Bilimbi grows shrublike, from a short trunk that expands with upright branches. As a member of the Averrhoa genus, it is similar in growing nature and closely related to starfruit trees, but is different in looks, fruit, flavor, and use. This tropical tree species is very cold sensitive, and needs close oversight in its early growing stages.  

Bilimbi trees will flower directly from the trunk in the late winter and early spring. The cylindrical fruits will follow shortly after, changing color from bright green to yellow-ivory over time. Fruits may fall to the ground when ripe, and will bruise easily because of thin skin. Looking out for a change in color is a good way to gauge fruit readiness. Bilimbi bears sour and acidic fruit that makes it a staple in any plate that needs an acidic balance. The fruit is rarely eaten raw, but the juice can be used in place of vinegar to add a bitter element to salads, soups, curries, and more. The oxalic acid content of bilimbi fruit is what contributes to its trademark taste and place on plates around the world.