r/foodforests • u/Heyigotanewplant • 20d ago

Microclimate

Hi everyone, does anyone here know any good ways to create a subtropical/tropical microclimate in a Mediterranean/cold area without a giant greenhouse? this is for trees so a greenhouse just isnt practical for me. i have some trees already (jujube, black sapote etc that kinda thing) growing well but eventually id like to get jackfruit and possibly even mangosteen.

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5

u/davedaverocks 20d ago

With protection, you can possibly get a jackfruit to bear fruit in a Mediterranean climate but a Mangosteen won't make it. Ultra tropicals like mangosteen begin to suffer below 55 degrees.

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u/Heyigotanewplant 20d ago

Ok thx. i will try anyway lol.

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u/davedaverocks 20d ago

Yes, please do try!! I've got dozens of tropical fruit plants that aren't supposed to bear fruit where I'm at. Time will tell whether or not they'll actually set fruit.

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u/Heyigotanewplant 20d ago

ooooh do you know where i could get Inga edulis? i live in Adelaide

3

u/flowershop1995 20d ago

Could think about creating a pond nearby to release ambient heat at night? Another passive idea is building a high thermal mass wall that soaks up south facing light and releases it back to the surrounding area at night, planting trees in front of it? Kinda out there but just some ideas 🤷

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u/Heyigotanewplant 20d ago

hmmm i wonder how hard a 1 acre lake would be. prolly enough for 10 hec right? lots of money id think. worth it for my trees though lol.

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u/bristlybits 16d ago

fruit walls are my current solution for planting out a few olive trees. just finished this year. 

rock/brick and cinder block painted black, facing South and West, in a corner area away from wind. full sun too. hoping it works

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u/OcoBri 20d ago

Have you tried a system of self-guided mirrors that track the sun and concentrate light onto a boulder to radiate heat at night or something like that? I'm just spitballing here.

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u/Heyigotanewplant 20d ago

could possibly work. would need basalt

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u/PuzzleheadedDraft480 20d ago

Orchard heaters exist. They are costly but would do strategic protection on cold nights.

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u/fadimuj 20d ago

One thing you should add to help with creating a microclimate is a living pond

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u/jadelink88 9d ago

Ok, backing onto a brick wall or house is great, heat retention rocks, if the wall faces the sun. Extra bonus if the house is heated during winter.

Bonsaid trees in pots avoid ground frost, if you have any. I use grow bags in pots. Idiots keep insisting it doesn't work. My trees don't listen to them.

Black rock mulch really helps both take in heat, and hold it (sometimes I have to remove this in the summer, they can get hot here).

Work out where the cold air flows are. I have some great pics of 3 bananas, in states of health from shitty burned to utterly fine, after one winter. They were within 10 meters of each other, but one microclimate got an hour less sun, and more cold downflow air. The one in the nice sun with it's pot in the waterbath could have been tropical.