E4 ABIU

[Mike T]

I am told by growers that my E4 abiu is one of the last fruiting adult trees of this type left after cyclonic wipeout of where they were mostly grown.I have given budwood to a few growers who say they prefer to eat this type to their commercial Z4's,as well as grays and Z2's.They have mango leaves that hang,long nippled fruit and perhaps taste the best of all types.They are not firm like some so may not be as commercial as some types.
It has been a dry year and mine have not produced as well as they should.I see bug bites on the babes and I need heaps to survive over trhe wet season.Hopefully I can show the mature fruit and it will be obvious that they are an aberrant abiu. 

[HMHausman]

Some nicely dense bloom.  Interesting to see the fruits as large as they are with still prolific bloom coming on the same branch.  I don't ever remember seeinng that on mine.  Thanks for posting the shot.

[Mike T]

Haus the whole tree is dense like that with blooms and the keep coming on over and over.E4 can have clusters of fruits and they push into each other and deform like in a bunch of grapes.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Very nice pic!

If E4 ever makes it to USA, it can stay at my house.

(I haven't seen many baby abiu fruits, but your seem to have an a unique appearance!)

thanks for sharing pics!

[Tomas]

Hi,

I got a surprising email from Excallibur nursery today saying that they will have grafted E4 available in late next year or early 2014 (I didn't even mention about E4 in my email to them). I was baffled because I didn't think E4 was being growing here in the U.S. yet. So I guess grafted E4 trees will be available in the not too far future - at least here in Florida.

Tomas

[FlyingFoxFruits]

from where did E4 originate?

[Mike T]

I am surprized if you have E4 or even Inca Gold in Florida and not the more common and well known Z4 and Z2.There is an assumption here that all the elite named ones in Australia can be traced to seeds carefully selected after much searching in South America in the 70's and early 80's.The best seedlings that grew in North Queensland from that lot got their names often with a letter and number or after the first person to grow them.No one seems to know where E4 came from but it seems to have turned up suddenly in the 80's I think.
It would be interesting to know where Excalibur got their E4's from as perhaps it did not get named here.It is distinctive and the picture of the tree I posted made Oscar question whether it was a different species.It should be easy enough to pick if it is the same variety here and there.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

That's why I asked of the origin.

If you have it there, and we have it here,

that's a surprise to me.

Maybe has something to do with Whitman, and Donald Gray?

that's the only connection I can think of.

thanks for the info MikeT and Tomas.

I am surprized if you have E4 or even Inca Gold in Florida and not the more common and well known Z4 and Z2.There is an assumption here that all the elite named ones in Australia can be traced to seeds carefully selected after much searching in South America in the 70's and early 80's.The best seedlings that grew in North Queensland from that lot got their names often with a letter and number or after the first person to grow them.No one seems to know where E4 came from but it seems to have turned up suddenly in the 80's I think.
It would be interesting to know where Excalibur got their E4's from as perhaps it did not get named here.It is distinctive and the picture of the tree I posted made Oscar question whether it was a different species.It should be easy enough to pick if it is the same variety here and there.

[BMc]

Its certainly not impossible that E4 was taken to the US at the height of the exotic fruit trade in FNQ. It was exported to tropical fruit powerhouses like Aitutaki and Mangaia, so why not Florida? 

I'm jealous that you will have access to grafted trees on the other side of the world when you couldnt even kill somebody for one here! Luckily they appear to come fairly true from seed (leaf shape and hair about right). In this area the leafcutter bees love the new leaves and they end up looking like some mutant artocarpus leaf.

[Felipe]

Thanks to you Aussis my horticultural wishlist gets larger and larger... 

Thanks for sharing Mike 

[FlyingFoxFruits]

all MikeT had to do was post a few pics and positive feedback about this abiu cv...now it's on America's Most Wanted list!

HAHA!

you hold more clout than u may think Mister T!

I'll be sure to track this suspect down!

[Mike T]

The E4 abius are starting to develop.They are one of the long nippled types.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

I love the pics.

thanks for sharing.

They look much different than the abius I've seen!

[Mike T]

They are sure different from the way z4 develops and how the z4 tree looks.

[Mike T]

I slipped and that last tree is not a Z4 at all.It is a z4 seedling but the fruit taste just the same and look the same as Z4 to me.




I dropped the cut one when picking it and it was hardly bruised inside.

[Tomas]

Hello Mike,

It's really nice to see those abiu pictures since abiu is one of my favorite fruits of all. I am trying to collect vareties from all over the world as you already know. I think there is still room for improvements when it comes to the characteristics of abiu.

Tomas

[Mike T]

Tomas yes there is room for improvement.Maybe you can cross them to get a prococious giant fruiting type that has latex free, supersweet, richly flavored fruit year round.Prolific fruiting on a dwarf tree and fruit that never bruises would be good qualities as well.

[Mike T]

Cutlivator why should they hang when Dick did all the shooting?