How can I reword this question so it follows guidelines?

Question

I've been trying to grow fruit-bearing plants in pots on 400 sq-ft of outdoor space (all concrete), but where I live in the Caribbean, I haven't found a single place locally that will sell plants that bear fruit. I also haven't found anyone that can help me.

So I posted this question yesterday, and I received many welcome responses, plus 4 upvotes, which means that other people are going through this same issue.

But then some user Niall C. downvoted the question and then closed it off.

So how can I improve this question? Or how can someone make a suggestion that's specifically for my country?

I understand shopping questions are banned, but if I don't ask it I won't be able to move forward with my project.

Answer 1

Your question is asking for where to buy plants that produce edible crops that will grow in your climate. That's off-topic because of the "where to buy" policy, but it's also overly broad because there are lots of different plants that will produce when grown in containers.

I would narrow the scope of the question (or maybe questions) a lot, and be specific. Give us details about:

• the space you have available (note: you didn't say the space was all concrete in the original question, but did do that in this meta post).
• how much sun and/or shade it gets during the day.
• how much rainfall — and how often — the space gets, or how frequently you'll be able to water the plants.
• typical daily high and low temperatures.
• the size of containers that you plan to use.

With that information, a question about what fruit trees would meet your constraints would be specific and answerable. Same for one about vegetables. (I don't recommend combining the questions because vegetables are usually grown, picked and eaten in one season, whereas fruit trees may take a few years to mature, then produce crops for several years given the right conditions).

Once you've decided what you'd like to grow, you could contact your local businesses. I have a suspicion that they're not being helpful because you don't really know what you want yet. In their shoes, I think I'd prefer a customer who knows exactly what they want over one that's unsure.

Answer 2

As written your question should be closed, sorry. I think you can do some research yourself to refine your question and that should be along the lines of:

What vegetables/trees with fruit grow in the ground where I live?

Just go to the market and ask them if items are grown locally. Then come back here and ask "If I grow x, y and z in containers will they crop or bear fruit"?

Answer 3

Search http://wiwords.com/tag/fruit for something you like and ask if that's suitable. But is this a concrete rooftop still that you're talking about ?

And even if it's concrete you can grow vegetables using no dig techniques.