The Tropical Fruit Forum

I think I will.  I tried the group first as my hit rate for getting questions answered by Jim has been pretty low.  Maybe this will improve now that it sounds like he has internet at his house.

John

Why not email Jim and ask him?

Starling, where in Aus are you located?  I am a bit concerned about chill hours (& a rust we have here) but I hear rumors of people doing ok with them at low altitudes here.   I am skeptical.

I grow a lot of rabbiteye varieties. They are not as good as the highbush I find, but they are essential for pollination of the highbush types. The more rabbiteyes you plant out, the better your yield will be.

Anyone have any personal experience with this fruit?  People have not given glowing ratings on other Randias so I am wondering.  The flowers & fragrance sound great.

According to Helton, the"fruits are tasty and tastes like dark chocolate with roasted peanuts and are quite pleasant for consumption".

John

Not at all sure, Oscar.  Some guy has advertised grafted mangoes in 15 gal pots & that's what he called it.

You sure yellow Pirie is not the same as Pirie?

Thanks, Warren.  I may check with UH if I don't get an answer here.

John

Here's an interesting resource on some Indian plants:

http://assamforest.in/publication/wildEdible_plantsAssam.pdf

Thanks everyone for the tips; the info was helpful.  I am assuming that the seeds from green papaya are edible just like from ripe papaya.  Anyone know if that spicy/peppery aspect is more subdued in green seeds?

John

Great idea.  Any chance any unusual seeds will be offered for those of us not on the mainland / international?

John

I don't know if the bubble wrap is helping you much.  The same insulation that "holds the heat" for you also slows down the heating up of the water in the first place.  Water has a pretty impressive specific heat -- I think it would probably work fine for you without the bubblewrap.  I recall hearing of some people who used 55 gal drums to support their benchtop & so got the benefit of all the thermal mass from the water to radiate heat off at night without sacrificing any floorspace.  However, if you are using your greenhouse for fruit trees, a lot of people probably aren't going to be using benchtop & probably don't want to take up valuable floor space with water tanks either.  Its a great way to store the excess heat from the daytime, though.

I find it hard to believe that electric will be cheaper than propane.  If you go electric and value the contents of the greenhouse, you also need a backup generator.  You should also invest in a low temp alarm -- something like a Sensaphone is excellent (will even call you if you are away) and they used to have very reasonably priced repairs if the unit needed service (I have not used one a a few years now so I don't know about their current policies).

John

Those are very handy little shovels, great for making planting mixes, etc.   I would have bought a few but they are showing $11.99 on the site now...

John

Here is a "monkey pot" from the Lecythus zabucajo tree at the Hilo arboretum.  My recollection is that this is about average size for the "pots".

John

I'm not a palm expert but it looks like it could be an Arenga sp.  Many of these do occur in Indonesia.  Although, I don't know that any have edible fruit but at least one is used for palm sugar.

John