Fruitful Trees
Hurricanes Destroyed His Fruit Trees… Look at His Yard Now!
Join me on Pine Island, Florida, as we tour an incredible 1.5-acre tropical fruit tree property with longtime grower Dan.
Note: This video was filmed back in March 2025, but I’m finally getting around to uploading it now. A lot may have changed on the property since then, but I still wanted to share this tour because there’s so much great information about growing tropical fruit trees, hurricane recovery, and learning what works in Pine Island.
Growing fruit in this part of Florida isn't always easy. Hurricane Ian destroyed more than half of Dan's trees, Hurricane Milton took out even more, and severe flooding wiped out jackfruit and avocado trees. But instead of giving up, Dan replanted, experimented, grafted and learned which tropical fruit trees could handle these extreme South Florida conditions.
During this tropical fruit tree tour, we look at an amazing collection of mango trees and other tropical and subtropical fruit, including Pickering, Orange Sherbet, Super Alphonso, Sugarloaf, M4, Valencia Pride, Buttercream, Lemon Zest, Sweet Tart, Phoenix, Orange Essence and many more.
We also look at sapodilla, avocado, jackfruit, breadfruit, bananas, guava, Surinam cherry, citrus, yerba mate, pineapple, passion fruit and Dan's vegetable garden.
One of the most interesting parts of this tour is seeing what survived the hurricanes, flooding, salt and cold—and what didn't.
Dan even shares how he once planted Pickering mango trees about four feet apart and created a mango hedge that produced hundreds of mangoes!
If you're growing tropical fruit trees in Florida—or dreaming about creating your own backyard food forest—there's a lot to learn from this tour.
Subscribe to Fruitful Trees for more tropical fruit tree tours, mango growing tips, rare fruit varieties and visits with Florida growers.
Chapters
00:00 What happened to the fruit trees?
00:47 Welcome to Pine Island
01:42 Meet Dan
02:09 Touring the 1.5-acre property
02:48 Hurricane-damaged sapodilla
02:57 Raposa mango
04:06 Hurricanes and devastating floods
04:50 What trees survived the flooding?
05:18 Dealing with disease and hurricane damage
06:17 Touring more tropical fruit trees
07:26 The sapodilla pollination mystery
08:21 Saving an avocado before Hurricane Milton
09:23 Incredible hurricane damage
09:43 Yerba mate survives
10:40 Salt and wind damage from Hurricane Milton
11:14 Borneo Red jackfruit
12:15 Mango variety tour
13:28 Super Alphonso and Sugarloaf
15:07 Venus mango
16:13 Haden and Bailey's Marvel
17:14 Malika, Sweet Tart and Phoenix
17:51 The Pickering mango hedge story
19:12 M4 mango
20:18 Orange Essence and Carrie
21:31 Sugarloaf mango and cold weather
22:20 Why mangoes thrive here
23:05 Cinnamon, guava and more
24:13 Florigon and Cotton Candy mangoes
25:01 Growing citrus in Florida
26:44 Jackfruit after Hurricane Milton
27:11 Ice Cream and Lemon Zest mangoes
27:48 Backyard vegetable garden
29:26 Van Dyke mango
30:31 Dealing with garden pests
31:01 Nishikawa avocado and Surinam cherries
31:46 Fairchild, Bombay and more mangoes
32:15 Breadfruit survives 41°F
32:24 How cold does Pine Island get?
33:29 Golden Queen mango
34:14 Citrus recovering in the shade
34:49 Why this property floods
35:57 Guava varieties
36:23 Rebuilding after Hurricane Milton
37:34 Why Dan keeps growing
38:08 Final thoughts
The video's central theme really does come full circle at the end: Dan talks about enjoying the experimentation and seeing what works, and you emphasize that he quickly replanted rather than waiting years after his losses.
🌳 Have a Fruit Tree Garden? Let’s Film It!
If you have a yard with fruit trees—especially in the South Florida area—I'd love to visit and film your garden for the channel!
📩 Contact me at paul@rawlife.com (please include your location).
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Published Aug 23, 2026
