The Tropical Fruit Forum

Durian trees apparently like a lot of water and have shallow roots, so I'm considering growing one next to a grey water soak pit near my house.  This pit receives the water from the kitchen, bathroom shower and sinks, and clothes washer (all water except toilets), which leeches into the soil.  My concern is whether a durian tree is suited at all as a dooryard tree due to potential odors from rotting fruit.  What do you think?

My single successful durian germination:

My first giant granadilla are ripening now.  What are some ways to learn if it's ripe?  Will they fall off the vine when ripe, similar to passion fruit?




Another vine-fruit question:  What kind of squash is this?  What is a good way to prepare it for the table? Someone gave me some seeds a few months ago.



Thanks.   -John

Most of my fruit seeds are started in plain ol' top soil.  Not sterile.  Typically I spend the next few weeks pulling out all the familiar sprouting weeds while keeping an eye out for the unfamiliar.   I have an unfamiliar plant coming up in two bags where I had planted Jamaican Cherry seeds approximately two months earlier.   Is this a Jamaican Cherry seeding or a well-pampered weed?



The serrated edges of the leaves look similar to some web photos of mature leaves, but I'm not sure. 

Thanks,  John
PS:  I do plan to import some moss in the future for planting tiny seeds, but this is what I have now...

Fiji Farm Report

Allow me to share some photos from my hobby farm with you.  The farm is only 2 years old, so most tree fruits haven't started bearing yet.  Here's some of what is in season now, which is our dry winter season. 




Last month I planted out some Longan, Purple Malay Apple and Ice Cream Bean grown from seed, and also 30 grafted Tahitian Lime and Meyer Lemon.  I don't like planting much in the dry season because it means more watering chores, but I dislike root-bound plants in bags even more. 

The shadehouse has seedlings of Blackberry Jam Fruit, Rolinia and Surinam Cherry growing.  For some reason, I'm having poor results germinating Miracle fruit seeds (2nd try).


Made some tasty and simple Kumquat marmalade, earning my kumquat tree a reprieve from the ax.  I don't like the sour flavor of the raw fruit but it makes a nice preserve.
 


On a whim, last month I grafted tomato onto a vigorous weed resembling eggplant.  I think it is Solanum Torvum.  Here's the weed and one month old flowering graft now:
 


Mango and cashew are flowering now.  I sprayed potassium nitrate (100 grams in 5 liters of water; roughly 2%) one the lower branches of two non-flowering mango trees last week and again yesterday to promote flowering.  No sign of flowering so far.

Figs are bearing, but the flavor is not as good as most figs.



First flowers on coffee!



The thing about papaya is that there's either too many or not enough of them.  My first papaya from Hawaiian seed are bearing fruit now.



Most days I enjoy just wandering around the farm to watch things grow.  Here's a sunset from the farm.


John

Not exactly a fruit, but I don't know where else to ask:

Is my cinnamon tree "Ceylon Cinnamon" (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) or "Cassia Cinnamon" (Cinnamomum cassia or Cinnamomum aromaticaum)?  I did a Google image search but still aren't sure.

How long should a branch remain tethered to train their growth?  I have young Jackfruit tree with a vertical growth habit that I want to shape into a broader tree with more horizontal lateral branches.  Yesterday I tethered some branches into a more favorable position.  How many months must the tethers stay on the tree to train these branches?



Similarly, I have a Black Sapote that shows the effects of strong trade winds so I tethered a couple of branches to balance the tree.  How many months?



I do prune to encourage broader shaped trees, but these trees needed more.

Thanks,
John

My largest Mamey Sapote seedling is more than 60 cm (2 feet) tall and has not put out any lateral branches.  I want a well-shaped tree and intend to keep the mature height below 6 meters (20 feet).  Will it branch soon on its own, or should I cut off the tip to promote branching? 

I prefer to let nature take its course if it will branch soon, but I'd like to have branching below 1 meter (3 feet) high.

Two of the papaya trees on my farm are producing multiple fruit at each leaf node. Is this multiple fruit a response to environmental conditions or do some varieties simply bear fruit this way?

Both of these trees are volunteers spread by birds and/or bats.  All my other papaya trees have a single fruit per leave node.  Here's the first tree:



This second tree is doing it too, but the stems are hidden due to the number of fruit:


What's going on?

John

I need help deciding the most appropriate fruit to grow on my hobby farm. I want to focus on fruits that would be well-adapted to my climate and also be tasty.  The 'top fruits' poll on this forum was helpful, but I'd appreciate more suggestions. 

First, a little about the growing environment:
The farm is tropical (18 degrees south) and in an intermediate rainfall area (wet season and dry season).   Droughts in the dry season rarely last more than a month.  Soil is mostly clay/loam, hilly but with some bottom land with a shallow water table.  It is low elevation (seaside) but prevailing winds come from inland at this location so no significant salt  in the air or soil.

     

The fruit growing is mainly for my own enjoyment.  However, it is also possible that some day the land might be subdivided for residential so I've planted a lot of citrus, mango and avocado, since those are staples here and I know I can sell the fruit.  I think it's too tropical for lychee and cherimoya.

In a few weeks, I will be visiting the U.S. and want to bring fruit seeds back to Fiji.  I'll be searching the Asian and Hispanic markets around Dallas, Texas, and also plan to mail order seeds.  Unfortunately, I can't bring green wood back to Fiji due to biosecurity concerns.   I have almost everything available here in Fiji.

I've only had the farm for a year and half, so not much is fruiting.   Here's what's on the farm now:

Abiu  6
African Pride (Custard apple) 1
Avocado (Local) 44
Banana – Big  18
Banana – Lady's Finger  1
Black Sapote 1
Brazilian Cherry 2
Breadfruit 3
Bullocks Heart (American Custard apple) 2
Cashew  3
Cinnamon  6
Citrus – Cleopatra Mandarin   12
Citrus – Cutter Valencia  2
Citrus – Dancy Tangerine  2
Citrus – Grapefruit Ruby Red 6
Citrus – Harvey Lemon  2
Citrus – Kumquat (round) 1
Citrus – Late Valencia 24
Citrus – Lee Mandarin  2
Citrus – Meyer Lemon  50
Citrus – Seedless Lime  37
Citrus – Lisbon Lemon  2
Citrus – Miniola Tangelo  11
Citrus – Olinda Valencia  12
Citrus – Orlando Tangelo  2
Citrus – Page Mandarin  2
Citrus – Rough Lemon  5
Citrus – Satsuma Mandarin  9
Citrus – Fiji/Unknown Mandarin  23
Citrus – Washington Navel  18
Citrus – West Indian Lime  2
Cocoa 8
Coconut – Dwarf 10
Coconut – Tall  50
Coffee 5
Curry Tree  3
Custard Apple (US Sugar Apple) 9
Davidson Plum  2
Dawa (Fijian Longan)  2
Dragon Fruit (White interior)  2
Fig  2
Ginger 2
Granadilla  4
Guava (3 types)  6
Ivi  2
Jackfruit  3
Jacoticaba  4
Jamun – white 1
Jamun – back 2
Kavika (Rose apple) 6
Langsat  1
Lemon Grass  2
Lychee  3
Macadamia  2
Mamey Sapote  1
Mango (2 varieites) 80
Mangosteen  7
Miracle Fruit 1
Mulberry  4
Neem 2
Noni  3
Nutmeg 4
Papaya (Hawaiian & local)  19
Passionfruit (yellow and purple) 19
Pepper, black 4
Pineapple (2 varieities) 30
Plantain 4
Pomegranate  2
Rambutan  4
Sandalwood  4
Sapodilla  4
Soursop  8
Star Apple  4
Starfruit (Carambola)  5
Sugar Cane (purple) 2
Tamarind  2
Tarawau  2
Tavola   2
Turmeric 2
Vanilla    2
Vutu     3
Wi  2
Yaqona (Kava) 2

What else would be good to grow?

Thanks,  John

Last week I received the results of soil quality analysis performed by my Department of Agriculture.  I'm a little concerned that the electical conductivity is so low, at 0.05 compared to what the report listed as the good range of 0.40-0.80.  Are there any negative consequences of having such a low electrical conductivity?

My soil a dark volcanic clay-loam.

pH (1:5 water)                 6.5   Good  (Ideal is 5.6-6.6)
Elect. Conductivity (1:5 water; mS/cm)  0.05  Very Low   (0.40-0.80)
Total Carbon (%)                 4.7   Good  (4-10%)
Total Nitrogen (%)                0.4   Good    (0.3-0.6)
Olsen Available Phosphorus (mg/kg) 4.1  Very Low   (20-30)
               
Exchangeable Bases (me/100g)               
Calcium          17.1      High (ideal is 2-10)
Magnesium      4.3      High  (1-3)
Potassium          0.18      Low  (0.3-0.6)
Sodium         0.07      Very Low  (0.3-0.7)
               
Extractable Traces (mg/kg)               
Iron               57.5     Very High  (ideal is >4.5)
Manganese     30.6     Very High   (>1.0)
Copper          0.1     Low    (>0.2)
Zinc         0.8     Low    (>1.2)

I don't know much about soil tests, so any observations and suggestions on improving the soil for citrus, mango and avocado would be appreciated.

John

A few weeks ago I cleft grafted 103 sour orange rootstocks with sweet oranges, mandarins and tangelo scions.  I am pleased that 92 of the 103 grafts were successful (my highest success rate so far), but I wanted to learn why 11 grafts failed. 

Today I unwrapped them, and here's what I found:

On the graft below, I think the scion was a little too thin.  I should have watched more carefully and put it on a thinner rootstock.


This rootstock was not straight, and when I cut into it from the top, the cut followed the uneven grain so cambial contact was limited.  I should have cut the rootstock where it was straight.


Here's another one where the scion appeared to be too small:


The bottom of this scion should have been cut thinner.  It was forcing the two sides of the rootstock apart instead of clamping the scion in place.  The rootstock cut was also not centered properly.


This one is interesting, because the bottom of the scion appears to have some life in it.  I can't figure this one out.


One thing I learned from this:  The scion should always be slightly thicker than the rootstock.  This allows better contact between cambiam layers.  If they are the same size, and both scion and rootstock are cut down their middle, the very bottom of the scion is the only place that can make cambial contact.  Someone on a forum (either this one or the Citrus Growers) suggested the scion should be thicker, but I haven't read it in any of my books discussing cleft grafts.  This drawing I made to clarify the concept.  When the scion is slightly thicker, cambial contact should be achieved near the two areas circled.
 

I also had either a compatability problem or a bad scion stick because only one out of 5 Orlando Tangelo was successful (vs. 90+% on the others)

Thank you for allowing me to share this with you, and for reading this far.  I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions relating to cleft or veneer grafting.

John

One of my soursops has brown sections on many leaves.  What might it be?  How to treat?

Not an Oscar-quality photo, but it was windy today and I only took this one shot:



It is not affecting my other soursops, but looks similar to a leaf problem I have on all my rambutan (which I've almost given up on due to this problem).

The season now is dry and cool, which means 70-80 degrees f, but high humidity.

Any clues appreciated!

Thanks, John