Zone

At Zone Ten this climate enables us to grow a wide variety of tropical and subtropical fruits - some of them quite rare. Some of these are grown commercially and some are just for our own enjoyment and for propagation. At almost any time of the year you will find something bearing ripe fruit at Zone Ten. We do allow visitors to taste various fruits... , but please do not pick fruit without permission. We make an effort to remain current on horticultural advances in the nursery industry. In addition to our growth regulator treatment for our pots to prevent root binding, we have adopted the approved method for pruning of containerized trees as developed by the University of Florida in Gainesville. If you don't think that makes a difference, just take a look around at the trees most landscapers are planting! Their customers are going to be in for some problems after a few years because of included bark and split trunks. This can be avoided by proper pruning beginning in the propagation container. If we find that a tree has developed a bad trunk form despite our efforts - and it does happen - the tree is discarded. Another thing we do a bit differently is that we rarely use pesticide sprays at our facility. Were you aware that many nurseries spray pesticides every week or even more often than that? This pollutes the environment, kills beneficial organisms, and causes population blooms in pesticide resistant insects. Also, the plants always have pesticide residue on them, which is not healthy for the people who handle them. Like you. (Like us, too.) So, though we sometimes get caught by surprise invasions, we would rather deal with removing plants from inventory and nursing them back to lushness (it doesn't take as long as you might think) than spraying poisons on them as a preventative measure. We have both earned Florida Certified Nursery Professional certificates (requiring a three hour examination) from the Florida Nurserymen & Growers Association (FNGA, now called FNGLA. The feel of the tropics is what we are ...Read More