What was the expensive collectible genus fad before plinia?

[CherimoyaDude]

Curious what was the most hyped by collectors in the past.

[CherimoyaDude]

Posted in wrong forum, can mods please move this?

[K-Rimes]

Dragonfruit was pumping hard a few years back. It's still pumping, but now that Home Depot sells it, it has calmed down substantially. There are still some nuts collectors. Plinia and eugenia have come on strong this year, clearly.

[W.]

Were dragon fruit cuttings selling for $500, or close to that, per cutting a few years ago? I have seen Eugenia seeds (seeds!) sell for that on eBay in the past couple of months. The current prices for some of the rare Eugenias and Plinias seem like a new type of tulip mania. I am new to the rare fruit growing world, but I cannot imagine what type of fruit could have compelled people in years past to spend what is being spent on various rare Myrtaceaes right now. I am not sure what is compelling people to spend that much now. I would like a Eugenia anthropophaga or a Roxa Pulpa jaboticaba as much as the next rare fruit growing person, but I will wait until the price is reasonable.

[Puerco_Gringo]

FIGS!  I believe the fad for collecting cuttings and the trees, has never really let up, so not much of a fad, actually.  Some rare varieties were and still are going for a few hundred, just for a small to medium rooted cutting or grafted tree.  Most I've ever heard of someone paying, is over $1,000 for a small tree.  A few years later, you can get the same variety for less than a hundred, and cuttings for much, much less.  Basically, I have been affordably buying tasty varieties cuttings and trees, that were "worth" hundreds of Dollars, a few years back.

[W.]

I had not thought of figs since I do not know much about them. But when I have looked into starting a fig collection, I have been surprised by the wide variation in prices for fig cuttings. It is quite similar to jaboticabas.

[Puerco_Gringo]

I had not thought of figs since I do not know much about them. But when I have looked into starting a fig collection, I have been surprised by the wide variation in prices for fig cuttings. It is quite similar to jaboticabas.

They're also so easy to propagate and grow, and are very forgiving, once they're established, that so many people get into growing them.  Of course, there are countless stories of newbies trying their best to grow them from cuttings (the cheapest way), but fail miserably...  but they just keep buying more and more, ha ha ha...