Who Are We?
We are an online mail-order company hoping to offer a unique selection of tropical fruits, hardy tropicals, and medicinal plants. We grow all our tropical fruit trees from only the most delicious of cultivated varieties, which are sought out personally by the owner. All fruits and seeds are obtained from organic farmers whenever possible. We also have a small but growing collection of herbal and medicinal plants and trees. All our plants are grown as naturally as possible, carefully and only by eco-safe natural methods.
We are committed to providing our customers with high quality, healthy plants, and the information needed to grow them. We provide a free online encyclopedia with entries on all the plants we grow, which is intended to grow and expand with new information. Each species page contains straightforward cultural information and firsthand observations. We hope this will be a useful resource for our customers and for anyone looking to successfully grow any of these species.
If you cannot find the information you are looking for, or if you have information you feel we should include, please contact us with your comments and questions.
Where Are We?
Presently, we are located in the town of Groton, Massachusetts. This is a strange place to have a tropical fruit nursery, for sure. Given our distinctly non-tropical location, most of our plants are grown and fruited in containers. Detailed information about container growing all different sorts of tropical fruits is available on each species' page in the website's encyclopedia.
The nursery is situated on 7 acres, 5 of which are utilized agriculturally. Included on those 5 acres are a small orchard, a greenhouse, vegetable gardens, and a few tropical-themed ornamental gardens and trees. We do experiment actively with the cold tolerance of many plants that people consider tropical, such as bananas, palms, and a few types of cacti. Some of these cold hardy tropical-esque plants will be available for sale periodically.
Why All-Natural?
We do not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Skyfield Tropical feels that environmentally sound growing methods are very important. A chemical-free approach to horticulture helps to maintain the biological integrity of soils and overall health and vigor of the plants. Natural methods work directly with the resources provided by nature, helping to sustain healthy soils for use by future generations.
Why Seedlings?
Right now, Skyfield Tropical primarily sells seedling fruit trees. We will have grafted cultivars in the future.
In most cases, seedlings grow to produce delicious fruit. Generally, I would not consider seedling grown trees as being terrible compared to cultivars. Rather, seedlings are merely the natural "wild" form of the fruit, and are usually quite delicious. Seedlings grow faster, and are generally longer lived, healthier and sturdier than grafted or layered/rooted trees. Seedlings are the variable creations of nature, the random results of cross pollination and the mixing of genes. Most often, this natural variance does not change the flavor of most fruit drastically.
Some sellers of cultivar trees seem to suggest the difference between grafted trees and seedlings is equivalent to palatable and unpalatable. Speaking generally, this is not the case at all. I hope to correct this impression, as this "inferiority complex" really only applies to a select few fruits. However, this effect is of course lessened by growing the seeds of superior varieties.
There are a select few seedlings which can indeed vary to undesirable ends of the taste spectrum. For instance, White Sapote and Mango seedlings can sometimes produce astringent wild fruits. Though this is not necessarily the norm, only a possibility.
Grafted trees are used to clone a certain outstanding fruit which has been produced by nature. Here are some commonly propagated fruit qualities: flesh to seed ratio, balance of flavor, color, clingstone/freestone seed, texture, fiber content of flesh. These are just a few desirable attributes which can be sustained through grafting or rooting branches and cuttings.
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"Tree is in fine shape and budding! Packing was exceptional. Thank you so much!"
- Satisfied Customer 1
"WOW, Plant is 10X better than expected. Great condition. Thank you very much."
- Satisfied Customer 2
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