Yesterday at 22:24
Bananas, papaya, mandarins, lemons, pineapples and other exotic fruit are not normally associated with Ukraine, yet Ukrainian enthusiasts decided to prove everyone wrong and fill their greenhouses with exotic produce.
Two years ago, Lviv residents Andriy and Nadiya Trush purchased their first planting stock of bananas. Now they have a full greenhouse where they grow cumquat, lime, papaya, mandarins, pineapples and coffee trees. Special conditions were created for these plants.
“If everything is done correctly they only require 20 minutes of sunlight per day. We turn off the heating during the day even when temperature outside is below zero,” Andriy Trush said.
The family grows exotic trees for decor more than for the fruit. Nadiya Trush said that banana leaves are not just pretty, but they also filter the air.
“They filter polluted air really well with their leaves. They are great natural ‘vacuum cleaners,'”she said.
Nadiya and Andriy Trush are planning to give out planting stock to schools so that schoolchildren would be able to leaf through the exotic plants and fruit not from biology books, but from real samples.
“It’s amazing when kids see how they grow and how you can take care of these plants,” Nadiya Trush said.
Oleksandr Shevchuk from Vinnytsia started growing exotic fruit 15 years ago. It started with him planting a lemon seed out of curiosity. Now he has three greenhouses.
One greenhouse can support around 500 trees of 70 citrus varieties. Among them, are lemons, oranges, grapefruit and pomelo. Shevchuk boasts that each tree yields roughly a crate. Banana trees are the most fertile.
“Homegrown banana trees can yield around 50 to 250 bananas. If grown in a greenhouse they can yield up to 800 bananas. When they mature on a tree they are much more delicious. If you don’t harvest bananas yourself, and let them ripen, they will fall from the trees like apples,” he said.
A plantation of pineapples can be even grown on a balcony.
“Taking care of pineapples is easy. You have to water it regularly and replant in on time. Also use fertilizer. The main thing is to make sure ambient temperature never drops below 15 degrees celcius,” Shevchuk said.
The most prized possession in Shevchuk’s collection is the papaya tree.
“Even the juice from the leaves of the papaya tree can be used to dissolve fat tissue. That is why it is great to brine meat in its juice,” he said.
Shevchuk treats locals with exotic fruit. Many have gotten so used to it they stopped buying imports.
