Author Topic: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?  (Read 4717 times)

Miguel.pt

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Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« on: June 29, 2016, 03:24:55 PM »
Hi folks
 
Thanks to the new book “Frutas no Brasil” from H. Lorenzi I think I finally identified one Psidium sp. that I’ve been growing mislabeled for years.
 
Now I think this is one is indeed the Psidium firmum… from Brazilian Cerrado region… Thank you Mr. Lorenzi for filling another line on my Psidium collection list!
 
Fruits much similar in size, aspect and taste to those of P. guineense… in fact I’ve been thinking this one was just a variety of P. guineense, until now.
 
Curious feature is that sometimes these fruits grow in bunches, like grapes… the biggest bunch I had so far had 7 fruits… see the pics please.
 
This plant is completely bushy, having several branches coming from soil level, that tend to bend by the weight of the fruits… after 7 years my biggest branch is less than 1,5 meters (5 ft) high.
Moreover, this plant is precocious (mine flowered and fruited at 3 years of age) and incredibly reliable in fruiting when compared to P. guineense… almost all flowers on this species turn into fruits, and I have had several plants of P. guineense that flower profusely and set absolutely no fruits.
 
Also happy to confirm that I have one plant in the open and can confirm it is 9a climate hardy… it is a winter deciduous plant… what else can we ask for?
 
Definitely this in another Psidium species recommended to grow in pots, and another one for those zone pushers, like me!
 
Anyone else growing this one?





druss

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2016, 05:12:17 PM »
This is awesome,☺ some one on facebook had pictures similar to this they called grape guava or araca de cacho. When I looked it up it referred to psidium guineese, but its nothing like the normal guineese I grow. I ve been wondering what it was ever since. Now I know cheers.

palologrower

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2016, 05:13:57 PM »
how's the taste?

Delvi83

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2016, 05:44:57 PM »
how's the taste?

Sure, this is the real question  :)

Don

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2016, 09:50:53 PM »
Looks good Miguel! Is that the one you said only goes yellow fruits that you thought was guineense? My guineense produces fruit on most flowers.
I like the bunching habit of the fruit, looks good and was to bag if fruit fly sensitive.

Miguel.pt

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2016, 03:55:15 PM »
Looks good Miguel! Is that the one you said only goes yellow fruits that you thought was guineense? My guineense produces fruit on most flowers.
I like the bunching habit of the fruit, looks good and was to bag if fruit fly sensitive.
Hi Don
 
Yes, this is the yellow “araçá” fruits I told you before… I don’t have any photo now of those ripe fruits, but when properly ripe they do get bright yellow outside and yellow/whitish inside… when ripe those fruits are tasty and I use to eat them straight when I find the fruits fallen in the ground under the trees/bushes… right after falling these fruits are crunchy, but if you let them sit on the counter for a while they soften a little, just like guavas do… seeds are so small that are mostly undetectable in my mouth… I will try to take some pics of the ripe fruits latter this year to complement this thread…by September/October I should have ripe fruits.

Regarding the taste of these fruits these are my coments:
I always found it hard to compare tastes between different fruits, but in this particular case I do remember that recently, while visiting México, at the breakfast in the Hotel they served slices of a small “white skin/white flesh” guava, with small seeds, which taste remembered me these Araçá fruits… at the beginning I even though it was just a bigger size araçá of this kind… latter realized it was the famous “Mexican Cream Guava”… to me I've found them close enough taste wise to get me confounded…
 

Miguel.pt

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2016, 04:09:21 PM »
This is awesome,☺ some one on facebook had pictures similar to this they called grape guava or araca de cacho. When I looked it up it referred to psidium guineese, but its nothing like the normal guineese I grow. I ve been wondering what it was ever since. Now I know cheers.

Hi Troy

Yes, you're right!... I also received these seeds labelled as "Araçá de Cacho"... and Helton puts this one togheter with the P.guineense (or guianense as I think he call it now)...
But if you grow both plants side by side there's no doubt they are very diferent plants... you can only confound these plants while still very young... when adult there's no need of tags to recognise which is the guineense and which is the "Araçá de cacho"
I always though they should be diferent species and now I saw that this one match the P. firmum info on the new Lorenzi book.

I also have some young seedlings from another Araçá that I received labelled as "Psidium racemosus" that I think can be same as this one... but have to wait to see...

huertasurbanas

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2018, 09:33:03 AM »
Hi Miguel! it looks indeed like Psidium guineense, or like my hybrid P. guineense x grandifolium; but the seeds of my plant are a bit bigger maybe (2 to 3 mm diameter);

I will get a plant of Psidium firmum in some days, so I hope to take photos and compare leaves

Cheers!

huertasurbanas

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2019, 02:51:25 PM »
This is awesome,☺ some one on facebook had pictures similar to this they called grape guava or araca de cacho. When I looked it up it referred to psidium guineese, but its nothing like the normal guineese I grow. I ve been wondering what it was ever since. Now I know cheers.

Hi Troy

Yes, you're right!... I also received these seeds labelled as "Araçá de Cacho"... and Helton puts this one togheter with the P.guineense (or guianense as I think he call it now)...
But if you grow both plants side by side there's no doubt they are very diferent plants... you can only confound these plants while still very young... when adult there's no need of tags to recognise which is the guineense and which is the "Araçá de cacho"
I always though they should be diferent species and now I saw that this one match the P. firmum info on the new Lorenzi book.

I also have some young seedlings from another Araçá that I received labelled as "Psidium racemosus" that I think can be same as this one... but have to wait to see...


Hi, could someone take a photo of the page of Lorenzi's book? thanks...

nattyfroootz

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2019, 11:58:23 AM »
My Psidium firmum has been flowering and holding on to fruit for the past couple months. I had mislabeled it P. australe but this definitely confirms my suspicion of it being firmum.

Thanks for the seeds a few years ago Miguel!
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nattyfroootz

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2019, 11:08:12 AM »
Looks like my P. firmum
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nattyfroootz

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2021, 10:34:27 AM »
Howdy everyone,

I'm reviving this thread because I think we may not actually have Psidium firmum.  I've seen two botanists/Plant people in brazil posting pictures of a Psidium spp. with much more glabrous leaves and they are identifying it as Psidium firmum.

1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mercadanteweb/50839787752/in/photostream/

2. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4215297081858432&set=a.252145344840312

Anyone growing a Psidium firmum that looks like this?  Is anyone growing Psidium australe? 
Grow cooler fruits

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MameyDisco

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Re: Psidium firmum... anyone growing it?
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2023, 09:09:41 AM »
I was able to get a nice quantity of seeds of this Psidium species recently. I am interested in growing it.

Should have extra seeds after I plant a few. Thanks for all the info.
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