Mangosteen

wingrider starts with ...
Hi I just want to find out if purple mangosteen will grow in Brisbane. Thank you

Mike says...
This topic has come up a few times and I think SEQ is well out of the tolerance range of mangosteen,durian and rambutan.Langsat/Duku and abiu are also probably beyond their normal tolerance.Sugar apples and soursop would be a better chance but still not easy.

brad16 says...
I have two small Mangosteens (about 600 mm tall) still in their tall pots (about 250 mm tall) on the Central Coast of NSW.

I keep them outside under shade. Originally I thought it would be best to ensure they had full sun as the winter approached, so they could take advantage of as much heat as possible, but that only caused the newest growth to sunburn in very short order. Moving them into shade let some of the growth re-green and survive.

They stopped actively growing and went dormant around mid autumn (should have made a more precise note, sorry) and when I started to feel a chill myself, I moved them inside the house near a north facing window. Over winter they stayed there along with two Soursops.

The house was unheated (I don't use heating in winter, nor air conditioning in summer, although the house is well insulated) and the daily temperatures in the house normally ranged from 10 - 15 degrees C during winter.

The two Mangosteens stayed dormant the entire time and drew very little water. The two Soursops continued to slowly produce new growth over winter and drew about 4 (maybe 5) times as much water as the Mangosteens.

Around mid September I put them back outside, making sure the Mangosteens were in a well shaded spot under the canopy of other plants. Today (6th November) I saw the first evidence of the Mangosteens putting out new growth.

Being in a coastal area here, my winters and nights are milder than the majority of Sydney (and the same for coastal parts of Sydney) and I'd assume if the growing season for Mangosteen is November to March just north of Sydney, then I'd be very surprised to ever see it fruit even after surviving winter.

Also keep in mind, that nearly half the year the trees were in an insulated house, which is pretty hard to do if they don't remain in pots.

Since their dormancy for such a long time seemed borderline survival/death, I don't really give them much of a chance to even survive planted out in the open, much less even hoping for it to fruit.

Another interesting thing is that I also have two Bakupari (Garcinia brasiliensis) at this same address. I left them outside the entire winter and they kept on putting out new growth later into autumn and started again a few weeks earlier than the Mangonsteen. The interesting bit is they did that while being left outside where the temperatures were significantly colder (maybe down to around 5 degrees C).

The Mangosteens are going to go to another property, but I thought the information may be interesting to others. I'm all for experimentation and optimism, but sometimes a dose of reality is also necessary.

Bangkokii says...
On the daleys site they state that we need 2 of luc's garcinia's for pollination...is that true?

Bangkokii says...
That's good news since i only have 1 and after 3 years it's only 25 cm tall.

I hope it can cross pollinate with achacha.