Question
Hello, my name is Leon and I live in Canada. One of my hobby's is to grow all kinds of plants that do not grow here. I have Banana trees growing, Almond Trees. 7 coconut trees differnet kinds from tall to dwarf kinds. I have all kinds of palm trees growing. I placed the seeds in a zip lock bag in some moist dirt and placed them on a seed warmer until they sprout. I have different kinds of mango trees, oranged, gala apples, blood orange and navel also. I also have many kinds of japanese oranged and fan palm. As far as the fruit trees I have some questions, one of your comment you said
"The resulting plants usually don't resemble the parent plants nor will the fruit because most fruit trees are hybrids.
Tom'  

Does this also applies to the fruit trees I have grown from seed. If so which ones will not produce fruit and I will abort growing these trees and buy ones that are already grafted. I know my Coconut trees will be ok.

Another question about fruit trees. I haver some grapefruit trees which when I bought had a few large grape fruits on them. This year it seems like the fruits always fall off and I do get branches that die back all the time. I have some grafted Navel Oranges and many of the branches have died back and has only some leaves on the branches that are still ok. I am wondering if it is due to the PH of the soil. Tap city water has a PH of 8.0 or a little more. It also has chlorine in the water which the city puts into the water to treat it. Should I use distilled water or filtered water. I know these trees like a little of acidic soil so I have tried to water them when the top 3/4 inches deep in the soil when I stick my finger in it and if it is still kind of moist or it is almost dry, that is the time I water it with some light amount of fertilizer. I have tried Tomato Fertilizer. I used some 20/20/20 and some fertilizer for pine trees. I also have all my plants in doors with a 1000 grow light on a rail and they are all facing the south side window in my office. I have a bulb that produces the red color for flowering and the other for vegitation growth. My palm trees and all other plants loves this enviroment and all seems to grow real fast. Even with all of these light and some natural light from the window, many of my fruit trees I bought which was grafted and produces fruit seem to die back. My mhyers lemon tree is the worst. One fruit this year which we did eat and it tasted so good but most of the branches have died back and there are only a few good ones left.  Could you send your recomendation or copy and paste your response to my regular email at

Thank you very much for your time. Hope to hear from you soon. Any help would be much appreciated. Sorry if I have no spell check on this site. I do type fast as I am at work and do not want to be seen doing this.

Bye for now  

Answer
Hi Leon,
Thanx for your question.  You didn't say how far north you are in Canada.  I'm in Kansas and we are considered northern gardners but at a much further south latitude than you.  Do your plants get any natural sunlight at all?  Sometimes this can have an effect on tropical plants unless you have a really strong artificial light that includes the full solar spectrum of light.  I don't have a lot of info on this because I have not really gotten involved with it.  I notice my tropical plants will go semi-dormant or otherwise slow growing during the winter months when the sun is low and weak in the sky.  It sounds like your water is awfully hard.  You may want to consider using a rain barrel and collecting softer rain water for your plants.  Municipal water systems produce water that has a lot of salts and minerals which may not be good for your plants.  Many palms and dwarf tropical fruit trees do fine and even thrive as indoor houseplants.  One thing you can do if you have a significant period of summer, is put your plants outdoors for the summer.  Make sure you acclimatize them first.  Put them in a shaded area for about ten days and then place them in full sun until it cools down (before the first frost).  The 20-20-20 fertilizer you are using in general should be fine for indoor houseplants but if you have fruit trees and you are trying to get them to fruit you should probably use some epsom salts to maintain acidity.  Remember, the hard water isn't helping your fruit trees either.  Tropical soils tend to be acidic.  Use 1/2 teaspoon of epsom salts per quart of room temperature water.  Apply to your plants every 2 months or so during the growing period.  Discontinue during winter and restart in the spring.  This should help immensely.  Let me know in a couple months how things are going.  I hope this helps.
Tom