The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: jcaldeira on June 05, 2014, 02:19:55 AM

Sounds like a great project.  Many good comments and suggestions.  I can only add that it's critical to pay close attention to the environmental preferences for each species of fruit.  Specifically, the soil type preference, drought/flood tolerance, wind tolerance, elevation/temperature, and rainfall requirements.  It makes a huge difference on how successful each will be.

Many species require partial or total shade during the early years, so don't cut down all the bush trees right away.    Papaya and cassava are both great 'quick shade' plants.

If there will be a center for the project, consider some ornamentally-pruned trees that form trellises, arches, etc. that show the amazing things that can be done with trees.

Yes agreed, every tree has its needs,  Mangosteen which is a "must" have,  requires shade for the first years of its life, planting another fast growing tree for shade, anythng from Neem, to breadfruit, etc.  so many choices.

Plant hardwoods and nut trees too.

Ice cream beans and other kiddie fruits are good, I think

Don't forget fruits that need lots of processing like Lucuma and the like.  Value added is always more money added.

One of the smelly compounds that durian gives off (among dozens) is methyl mercaptan, which is the very chemical added to natural gas to scent it (pure natural gas is odorless).

Haha. Well she handled it better than my mother did. The one I tried was frozen too. But after I thawed it and cut it open, she started running around the house holding her nose looking rather crazy, trying to figure out how to get rid of the smell. So then I watched her turn on all the ceiling fans and light a bunch of candles all over the place. And then, she forbade me from ever bringing another one into house.

Mine didn't taste like caramelized onions though. But mine was bigger too, so probably a different cultivar. I liked mine!

This is a subject I think about a lot as I, basically, live from my farm production.
Like with many things in agriculture it depends on what you like to do.  Some people are row croppers, others are attracted to the quicker tree crops, then there are those willing to plant something like mangosteen.  Some like to sell their product at a farmers' market or roadside stand and others to a  packing house or ship to outside markets themselves.
Personally, I am focused on farmers markets, farm sales and small stores.  So, my tendency is to have a wide variety of fruits.  I will go to the farmers market with half a dozen different fruits.  Maybe I have a few boxes of mangosteen and rambutan and less than ten each of champedak, marang and durian.  For me this is profitable.
I planted more than 30 mangosteen about 25 years ago.  They have never been fertilized or sprayed.  they were planted at 10 meter spacing and I grew all kinds of things between them that I also sold like passion fruit, long bean, pineapples, etc. until the productive mangosteens shaded out the area between them.
The best money making crops for me so far are mangosteen, rambutan, salak, cacao, champedak, marang, lansium, black pepper, pulusan, and achacharu.  I am planting a lot of sapodilla, avocados, more durian, and other experimental stuff. 
It can be hard to know what will take off, I like to be on the cutting edge and not rely on what has worked in the past.  there are more and more people who eat only raw foods that show up here.  The "raw fooders" are very open to fruits like durian and eat lots of fruit.  You can make money with jakfruit here.  Vanilla is another that works for me.
Peter

One of my seedlings had the same problem cracking out from the seed too. I finally had to split the seed open for it to grow.
This is how it looks like now.