My husband started the whole thing. One winter day, when the wind was whirling snow in sheets outside a greenhouse we were visiting, he was allowed to pick a ripe, juicy orange from a small tree inside.
He was so captivated that it wasn’t long before our window garden acquired a Ponderosa lemon and a calamondin.
The following winter, when we took possession of a greenhouse, he began to collect all kinds of tropical fruits. Now, the children show off the phenomena to their friends.
So far, we’ve grown pineapples, lemons, oranges, figs, kumquats, bananas, pomegranates, strawberries, and a fruitless date palm. We still want to try a dwarf tangerine, Persian lime, and the Cyphomandra called “tree tomato.”
Many plants are perfectly happy in pots on a sunny window sill. Even the largest ones will grow in tubs— outdoors on the patio or terrace in summer, indoors, or in the greenhouse in winter. And none of them are particularly fussy or difficult to grow—just luscious delights!
Growing Conditions
Two things seem important: plentiful sunshine and relatively high humidity in the air to bring these plants into flower and fruit.
Most greenhouses naturally provide these conditions. Indoors, you’d grow the plants in the brightest possible spot, where the sun touches the plant for the longest possible time every day.
You’d also spray or mist the foliage frequently to freshen it and humidify the air.
In winter, when furnace heat dries the air, it may be necessary to set the pots on a layer of moist gravel, chicken grits, or Perlite in some shallow, water-tight container—or even to operate an electric vaporizer or humidifier near the plants for several hours a day.
In hot, dry air, the flowers may fall before they open, and fruit may fall before it ripens.
Potting Soil
Use potting soil that is light, porous, fairly rich in organic matter, and fertile. The prepared house plant soils sold at florists, hardware stores, and the five and dime are convenient to use, clean, and inexpensive.
I usually add some superphosphate (one teaspoonful to a four-inch pot) to boost flowering and fruiting.
Our plants have performed better in pots of generous size than when, by chance, they were allowed to get pot-bound.
Fertilizing
Fertilizing depends on the type of plant, its growth cycle, and whether or not it has been recently repotted. We’ve used several different brands of soluble house plant fertilizers with equal success.
Usually, we feed with half the strength recommended on the package label, applied twice as often as recommended.
We fertilize only when the plants are in active growth and completely healthy—never during the usual rest period after fruiting, never when the plant is weak or suffering from some insect or disease, or when the soil is dry.
When To Water Potted Fruit
How often these plants (and other house plants) need to be watered can’t be set down as an absolute rule.
Some plants naturally need their roots kept moister than others. Small pots dry out faster than large ones; some soils hold more moisture than others.
We seldom water on dark, rainy, or foggy days but more often when the weather is bright and clear. To decide whether or not a plant needs water, you should know whether it grows moist or on the dry side.
Then, feel the soil with your fingers. If it feels dry and dusty, pour enough water so the excess runs out of the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot. If it feels moist, water is probably not needed.
The following fruiting plants are available from florists and nurseries or mail-order suppliers of house and greenhouse plants. In most catalogs, you’ll find them listed under their Latin botanical names.
Fruiting Plants
Ananas comosus (Pineapple)
This is a bromeliad, like the familiar aechmeas and billbergias, with stiff, heavy gray-green leaves arranged in a rosette and arching out gracefully.
The pineapple grows up from the center. The plant likes soil that’s extra rich in organic matter and is constantly moist.
We started ours by cutting off the crown of leaves from the fruit we bought for dessert, peeling off a few lower leaves, and sticking the end in moist sand until roots were formed.
You can also buy potted plants. An attractive form with variegated leaves is grown for its white-marked foliage.
Citrus
All of these plants like sandy soil that’s allowed to dry out thoroughly before watering.
When flowers appear indoors in winter, shake the plant so they’ll be pollinated and will set fruit. The blooms are deliciously fragrant.
Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime)
A spiny little tree with small, glossy leaves and small, tartly acid-thin-skinned green fruit. The Persian lime is a variety called “one of the most beautiful of all citrus trees.’’
Citrus limonia ponderosa (Ponderosa Lemon)
Small tree with oblong leaves, stiff spines, and large waxy flowers. It bears heavy (to 2 1/2 pounds) pear-shaped (to 5” inches long) lemons at intervals through the year, beginning when the tree is not much more than a foot tall.
The lemons are so huge that just one gives enough juice to make one pie or more.
Citrus mitis (Calamondin)
A bushy little tree, not prickly, densely packed with shiny leaves. It produces bright oranges in early winter, about 1 ½” inches in diameter, thin-skinned, and slightly flattened on the end.
The lime-like flavor of the juice is quite pleasant. This is a mighty midget that often fruits in a 2 1/2-inch pot.
Grow a Tangerine!
Citrus nobilis deliciosa — Tangerine or Mandarin Orange—A nearly thornless tree with willowy leaves and sweet fruit with loose skin that peels off like a kid’s glove. For a house or greenhouse, get a variety marked “dwarf.”
Citrus taitensis (Otaheite Orange)
A neat little potted bush with lots of two-inch, wavy-edged leaves, few spines, and fragrant pink-tinged flowers in January.
The oranges are ripe by Christmas, even if the plant is only 8” inches high. They are the size of a plum, shaped like a lemon, and tartly flavored like a lime.
Cyphomandra Betacea (Tree Tomato)
A soft-hairy, shrubby plant that matures about six feet tall, with leaves up to a foot long. It bears clusters of small, fragrant, pinkish flowers and egg-shaped, dull red fruit about 3” inches long. It tastes much like a tomato, either raw or cooked.
Strawberries for a Cool Place
Fragaria (Strawberry)
Small growing, everbearing varieties like the runners ‘Harzland’ make interesting pot plants in a sunny, cool window or greenhouse.
Plant seeds in late winter or early spring. When large enough, transplant to 2 1/4-inch pots of rich, sandy soil.
Keep evenly moist and give at least five hours of direct sunlight daily. When roots fill the pots, transplant them to four- or five-inch containers or a ceramic strawberry jar.
Mature, fruiting plants need 6-inch standard pots and biweekly feedings of house plant fertilizer.
If plants are kept moist and cool (but not freezing) in a cold frame or unheated garage from frost time in autumn until January, they make showier specimens for the balance of winter and spring.
Ficus Carica (Fig)
In the greenhouse, we’ve grown the “everbearing” fig recommended for tub culture and reaped several crops of deliciously juicy ripe figs yearly. Soil needs to be kept constantly moist.
Pinch new growth to encourage branching; prune to keep the height down. The Mission fig, also sold in pots, bears the kind of dark fruit that is usually dried.
Fortunella Margarita (Kumquat)
A dwarf citrus with leathery leaves and small, egg-shaped sweet-sour fruit.
Musa (Banana)
Several dwarf bananas are available, with the familiar floppy leaves that die back and peel off at the base to form a “trunk.”
Flowers appear with conspicuous bracts; the fruits are curious and ornamental, if not all edible. Keep soil moist and fertilize fairly heavily.
In a normal cycle, a banana takes a little more than a year to mature and bear fruit. Then, that stem or trunk is cut away completely and replaced by suckers that spring up from the base
Among available varieties, M. coccinea, the red banana, is grown for its golden flowers in golden-tipped scarlet bracts and the ornamental orange fruit.
It can grow 5’ feet tall. M. nana (cavendishii) is the lady finger banana, also about 5’ feet high, bearing edible yellow bananas over three inches long.
M. rosacea is grown for the decorative effect of its lush, sea-green leaves with bright red midrib and yellow flowers. The 3-inch fruit is not edible.
M. velutina is probably the most dwarf species, sometimes only three feet tall, with erect clusters of pinkish flowers and pink and soft fruit.
Phoenix Roebelenii (Pygmy Date Palm)
Our plant is now over four feet tall, not far from mature height, but it has not yet fruited for us. It’s a most delicate and graceful palm with airy, feathery leaves on arching, drooping stems.
Punica granatum Nana (Dwarf Pomegranate)
It is one of the most appealing potted shrubs with narrow, shiny leaves and showy salmon scarlet flowers in summer. The branchlets are thin and willowy; the shape is compact and bushy.
In our greenhouse, the first fruit ripened in October—about half the size of the pomegranates sold at fruit counters. There is a named variety, ‘Chico,’ that stays under 2’ feet tall and has shaggy, carnation-like double flowers.
The pomegranate likes plenty of fertilizer and moisture. It dislikes drafts and chills and may drop its leaves like a deciduous tree.
If this happens, let the soil stay slightly drier and stop fertilizing until new leaves begin to appear. Pinch and prune to keep the plant small and bushy.
44659 by Bernice Brilmayer