Exotic Fruits to Grow at Home in the US

The most exotic fruit you can grow at home is not always the hardest. Dragon fruit is a climbing cactus that opens its flowers for a single night, and it fruits quickly. Passion fruit is a fast, flowering vine. Persimmon is a tree that colors up in autumn, and pomegranate is a forgiving shrub with showy flowers. This collection gathers the fruit we cover that you will not find in most backyards, with an honest note on zones for each.

Real exotics, and the zone reality

Most of these fruit want warmth, so your zone decides the method. Dragon fruit grows outdoors in zones 10–11, in zone 9b with frost protection, and in a pot anywhere. Passion fruit grows in the ground in zones 9b–11. Mango and pineapple are in-ground plants in zones 10–11, and banana in zones 9–11. In colder zones, all of them work in containers you move indoors for winter.

Two exotics tolerate far more cold. Pomegranate grows best in zones 7–10, with cold-hardy types in zones 5–6. Persimmon suits zones 7–10 for Asian types and zones 4B–9B for the native American persimmon. See our guide to fruit trees by zone for the full map.

How to pick

• For speed: choose dragon fruit from a cutting, or passion fruit. Both can fruit within a year in the right climate.
• For a pot: all of them. Pots work for every fruit on this page: see our guide to growing fruit trees in containers.
• For cold winters: persimmon and pomegranate, or maypop if you want a passion flower vine.
• For eating without fuss: persimmon, if you pick a non-astringent type such as Fuyu.
• For a talking point: pineapple. It is not a tree, and the top of a store-bought fruit is the planting material most home gardeners use.
• For patience: mango. A grafted tree fruits in 3–5 years, and a seedling takes 5–8.

Before you buy, read our guide on where to buy fruit trees in the US. Names can be messy: our dragon fruit page notes one plant sold under several names, so the label matters.