Tropical Fruit

Growing tropical fruit is possible in more places when you can create the right protected environment. In a Growing Dome, warmth, humidity, thermal mass, and winter protection can help gardeners grow tropicals like passionfruit, papaya, dragonfruit, guava, sapote, jaboticaba, and bananas in climates where these plants would not survive outdoors.

Explore articles on choosing tropical fruit plants for a greenhouse, creating the warmth and humidity they need, caring for plants through winter, understanding harvest timelines, and learning from Growing Dome owners producing tropical harvests far beyond a typical outdoor season.

Purple and white passionflower blooming on a greenhouse vine
Mandarin tree and fruit

Growing Delicious Mandarins in Your Greenhouse

June 22, 2026

Learn how to grow mandarin oranges in a greenhouse or Growing Dome, including where to plant your tree, how to care for it through winter, and what it needs for sunlight, watering, pollination, pruning, pests, and harvesting

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purple passion flowers growing up a string trellis in dome greenhouse

Passion Flower Power: Growing Maypop Vines for Flowers, Fruit & Pollinators

May 22, 2026

Passion flower is one of those plants that stops gardeners in their tracks. With tropical-looking blooms, vigorous vines, pollinator appeal, and edible maypop fruit, this hardy passion fruit vine can bring beauty, shade, and a little garden drama to a backyard garden or Growing Dome greenhouse.

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Bill giving a tour of his Growing Dome. There are bright red geraniums in the foreground and you can see tropical plants like bananas growing in raised beds in the background

Growing Tropical Paradise in Idaho: Bill George’s Innovative Dome Greenhouse

January 27, 2025

In Nampa, Idaho, an unexpected tropical oasis thrives in a 26-foot Growing Dome during the depths of December. A passionate horticulturist grows exotic fruits

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Gardener inspecting green citrus fruit growing on a tree inside a greenhouse

Fruit Trees and Fruiting Plants You Can Grow in a Greenhouse

February 5, 2024

Imagine a transition from a quiet, snow-covered backyard into a warm and bustling greenhouse. This is not just any greenhouse, but a Growing Dome, where the harshness of the outside world is replaced by a lush, fruit-bearing oasis. The air is fragrant with Meyer lemons, and the soothing sound of a waterfall from an above-ground pond completes the ambiance. In this realm, greenhouse gardening is limited only by your imagination. Over recent months, we've explored a variety of fruit bearing plants ideal for greenhouse cultivation. Now, we present them to you in a concise, easy-to-access guide.

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Guava_Up_Close

How to Plant, Care, and Harvest Guava In a Greenhouse

November 30, 2023

Guava trees are found in tropical and subtropical regions where there is a hot and humid climate. They do not tolerate frost at all, however, if you live in a cooler climate you can grow guava in a greenhouse or in your home!

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bananas growing in a geodesic dome

How to Grow Fruit Trees in a Greenhouse

April 17, 2021

Fruit trees can be a healthy addition to most dome greenhouse gardens above zone 3. They provide fresh fruit and shade in the summer with the bonus of attracting pollinators when flowering. Understanding a plant’s natural environment (tropical, subtropical, or temperate to continental) and how to stimulate it will help you grow a wide variety of plants from fruit trees to shrubs, which will give you more confidence in your dome gardening adventure.

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BioDome_20

Unlocking Paradise: Tropical Greenhouse in a Cold Climate

December 2, 2020

When most people think of a tropical getaway, they imagine it on a beach in the Bahamas or a bungalow in the Caribbean. You would never imagine such a lush tropical place to exist in a greenhouse in New York unless you are the students of Homestead School, that is.

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bjorn1

Growing Bananas at 60 Degrees North

November 26, 2018

Janet and I first met Bjorn Oliviusson in Fall 2012 when we arrived to help install the 33′ Growing Dome Greenhouse sold to the Royal Institution of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. As described in Bjorn’s post, it ended up at a school near the university, a pleasant setting, but late Fall in Stockholm the sunlight…

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