Fruit Tree Growing in Highrise Singapore

An interesting article written on the growing of fruit trees in highrise flats in Singapore was published on the Sunday Times just over the weekend. The article shared two success stories of Singaporeans who have succeeded in growing fruit trees in the highrise environment.

In Singapore, many highrise dwellers encounter the lack of sufficient sunshine that is required for growing these plants. Either they do not get the right intensity or they receive less than 4 hours or less of direct sunshine. To grow these edible plants properly, one has to locate them in a place at home where they can be exposed to a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunshine daily. Plants not receiving enough direct sunshine will exhibit slow growth, etiolation (elongation of shoots) and lack of flowers and fruits. 

The first success story mentioned in the article focussed around Mr Lawrence Tan, who managed to grow and fruit grapes and Japanese muskmelons in tropical Singapore. Grapes have been reported before to be able to fruit here, but most of the time, the fruits are sparse and sour to taste. Muskmelons can also be grown easily without problems locally too.

The second person that was interviewed was Mr Ng Cheow Kheng, who is both my good friend, colleague and the Assistant Director of Streetscape Projects in National Parks Board (NParks). I have written a blog entry on this open patio before (viewable via this link). The two fruit trees that can be found Mr Ng’s growing area include the chiku tree and dwarf banana plant.

To be able to grow fruit trees in highrise apartments, one has to choose grafted varieties so that they can fruit while they still remain small and manageable. It is almost grow trees from seeds and expect them to fruit inside a pot. For these, they often need to attain their full height before fruit production commences. For banana plants, choose to grow dwarf varieties. By the way, bananas are totally herbaceous and are technically not classified as trees!