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Shane's avatar

My guess for the best path forward would be multispecies hybridisation with Artocarpus (performed in a subtropical or tropical area) then growing bulk seedlings in ever colder climates. Cold tolerance is a multi-gene trait, so the chance of it being transferred by mentor grafting is low (unless it is imparted by a microbial endosymbiont perhaps?).

As a comparable historic example- until relatively recently Quercus were a tropical genus (the centre of diversity is in Mexico to this day). One time when the ice sheets retreated a group of them developed cold tolerance and headed north as a swarm of repeatedly hybridising species.

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Han's avatar

Nice! Fun stuff to think about. One obvious fruit that would be great to grow in the cool temperate climate would be mango. But my partner also loves mangosteen, so that would also be added on the list. But I'm sure there are also many awesome fruits that we just have little knowledge of because they don't transport/store well.

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