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Messages - barath

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926
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Anyone in Southern California want to grow Jamaican Passionfruit?
« on: June 03, 2015, 11:43:49 PM »
Quote from: CGameProgrammer on June 03, 2015, 11:30:17 PM
I'd be really surprised if it did *not* do well here in coastal SoCal because pretty much all passifloras do great. However some get devastated by caterpillars, although oddly not regular passionfruit, but the passion flowers that I tried were all eaten (they survived but looked ugly). But my passionfruit (p. edulis) is great.

Unlike edulis, many other passifloras are not self-pollinating and require a second plant. Maybe that's the reason you never got fruit?

You're right most Passifloras should do well in SoCal, though it seems non P. edulis species are a bit more picky in terms of their growing conditions.  It's even harder here in Northern California.  For example I've been growing P. ligularis and it grows fine but requires perfect wind protection, no frost, no wet feet, nighttime warmth, etc. which in Northern California isn't easy to come by.  (This year I may get lucky -- I have it growing in the shade and wind protection of a super-vigorous Lilikoi.)  For whatever reason though, I haven't heard of anyone growing P. laurifolia in California.

I have doubts I'll get fruit from my P. laurifolia plants because the indoor location I have only gets morning sun.  I'm planning to propagate more of it, so hopefully I'll find a spot that works, maybe even outdoors.

927
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Anyone in Southern California want to grow Jamaican Passionfruit?
« on: June 03, 2015, 11:26:44 PM »
Great.  I'll send you a message.

I should add: the place that I ate them and know they grow well is in Kihei, HI, where it's relatively hot and dry.  Doing a climate comparison, the closest to Kihei in Southern California are the areas around Montebello and the areas around Anaheim.  (Maybe there's some similar spot out around Fallbrook.)

They are also grown commercially in Homestead, FL by Gaby's Farm, and I spoke with Gaby a couple of years back and she mentioned that she finds that it produces more of a woody trunk than other Passifloras and is longer lived.

928
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Anyone in Southern California want to grow Jamaican Passionfruit?
« on: June 03, 2015, 10:21:30 PM »
I've been growing many Jamaican Passionfruit (Passiflora laurifolia) plants because I really like the fruit a lot, but because I live in Northern California where it's too cold for this species, I've been growing them indoors for a couple of years.  (No fruit yet.)

I think that it might be possible to fruit it in Southern California and would like to give plants to anyone down there who's willing to give it a shot.  While everyone has said that there's no chance, I think it's worth trying -- I was told there was no chance Lilikoi would fruit outdoors and taste good here, but it did.

The ideal is probably a microclimate that fruits mangos well and a location with a relatively wind protected trellis.

I'm making a trip to LA / SD in a couple of weeks and have some plants and cuttings to spare; I'll be bringing one for simon_grow and think I should have two more in addition to that.  Let me know if you want to give it a shot.  Or if you have experience growing it (anywhere), I'd love to hear about it.

I'm also trying some of the relatives of P. laurifolia (those in the Super-Section Laurifolia), but I just got some of those (and am looking for high altitude ones like P. popenovii), so it will be some time still before I know if they will grow better.

929
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What's your least favorite fruit and why????
« on: June 03, 2015, 04:08:54 AM »
I think my least favorite recently have been banana Passionfruits (P. mollissima and P. tarminiana) and seedling White Sapotes.  The banana Passionfruits often are extremely productive and look enticing but have zero flavor and have an off aroma and unpleasant texture.  (I've only had one ever that was barely edible.)

White Sapote can be such a delicious fruit but seedlings can produce awful fruit that have an underlying gasoline smell.  Also White Sapotes when overripe are nasty and a big mess.

Quote from: Bush2Beach on June 02, 2015, 11:38:22 PM
I haven't had a good Persimmon , Sapodilla, Wax Jambu, Bilimbi, but my least favorite by far was Monthong Durian.

There's some truly excellent Persimmons out there -- Mikatani Gosho, a pollination-variant non-astringent type, is really great, with a mix of chocolate and persimmon flavor and without the mushiness of the astringent varieties.  They have it at the Winters USDA Persimmon tasting.

Ken Love mentioned that Bilimbi is great as a replacement for vinegar when making pickles (like Indian pickled curries).

930
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Attracting bees
« on: June 01, 2015, 03:14:04 PM »
I'll add a third voice in favor of African Blue Basil -- best bee plant I have.  The bees (especially smaller bees), as well as ladybugs, seem to really like my Yerba Mate, which also seems to flower quite a bit.

931
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit hunting in Hawaii!!!
« on: May 28, 2015, 11:01:14 AM »
Quote from: fruitlovers on May 28, 2015, 03:15:00 AM
Quote from: barath on May 28, 2015, 01:03:08 AM
Quote from: behlgarden on May 27, 2015, 08:21:28 PM
Oscar, what would be best place to get fresh and cheaper fruits like lychee and mangoes in Big Island? Hilo side or else? I will be there next week and can't wait to pigout on tropical fruits

Was just there on vacation -- the Hilo side is way cheaper than the Kona side.  Even for the common stuff -- in Kona there was a store selling papayas for $1.79 each.  In Hilo at the farmers market it was 5 for $1, not that it was even necessary to buy them at all around there.  We were a bit disappointed with the South Kona Fruit Stand -- was supposed to be the best of the options over there, but their stuff was picked way too early and never ripened properly or had poor flavor.  The Hilo farmers market was the best of all of the ones we went to (and we went to pretty much every market and store we could).  However if you're in Kona on a Saturday check out the Love family farmers market stand -- their avocados are way better than anything we got in Hilo.  Mangos were ok but a bit disappointing -- I think it's at the edge of the season right now.

Mango season has just started over here. You missed my mango harvest by just one week. I have quite a few varieties. You also missed peak of lychee season here by just one week. But i'm sure you got to eat plenty in Kona.

We were sad to not really get much in the way of mangoes.  Despite lychees not being at peak, though, we ate a ton of excellent lychee.  Fortunately the houses we stayed at had giant old lychee trees overflowing with fruit, so some days we ended up eating so many lychees we got stomach aches.  A good problem to have  :)

932
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Has any body bought Tim Thompson's new mango varieties?
« on: May 28, 2015, 01:09:04 AM »
TheWaterbug -- if I might ask the same question I asked about mango growing in Vista earlier -- why were you interested in Tim Thompson's mangoes given where you live?  If you never get frost, then wouldn't the various other cultivars that are top in the taste test rankings in Southern California be the best to plant?  Or is it that you get mildew or lack heat?

933
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit hunting in Hawaii!!!
« on: May 28, 2015, 01:03:08 AM »
Quote from: behlgarden on May 27, 2015, 08:21:28 PM
Oscar, what would be best place to get fresh and cheaper fruits like lychee and mangoes in Big Island? Hilo side or else? I will be there next week and can't wait to pigout on tropical fruits

Was just there on vacation -- the Hilo side is way cheaper than the Kona side.  Even for the common stuff -- in Kona there was a store selling papayas for $1.79 each.  In Hilo at the farmers market it was 5 for $1, not that it was even necessary to buy them at all around there.  We were a bit disappointed with the South Kona Fruit Stand -- was supposed to be the best of the options over there, but their stuff was picked way too early and never ripened properly or had poor flavor.  The Hilo farmers market was the best of all of the ones we went to (and we went to pretty much every market and store we could).  However if you're in Kona on a Saturday check out the Love family farmers market stand -- their avocados are way better than anything we got in Hilo.  Mangos were ok but a bit disappointing -- I think it's at the edge of the season right now.

934
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Germinating Duguetia Seeds
« on: May 27, 2015, 02:53:37 AM »
I'm curious -- are any Duguetia worth growing in California?  Has anyone fruited them?

935
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit hunting in Hawaii!!!
« on: May 27, 2015, 02:52:01 AM »
Ken Love has Jaboticaba at his family farmers market stand now (got some this past weekend) -- at the Keauhou Farmers Market on Saturday.  Also get his Shattauer avocados -- they're really excellent.

936
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Has any body bought Tim Thompson's new mango varieties?
« on: May 27, 2015, 01:45:49 AM »
Quote from: shaneatwell on May 27, 2015, 12:29:47 AM
Quote from: JF on May 26, 2015, 10:19:04 PM
I like Tim I've had him over my house and of course wish him the very best with all his new varieties. I think you are confuse he said out of the 7,000 300 survived out of those 300 12 meet his own stringent criteria. He did mention he had one tree which his daughter named Parrot that bloomed after 20 some year and produce one(1) excellent fruit. I didn't think there was a need to repeat every single anecdote specially as irrelevant as this that's why I ask the folks that were present to join in.

300 is the number I remember as well, although in our presentation he started with more like 3000. So when I heard that my first thought was wow a full 10% of random seedlings can make it through two hard freezes disease free (I think he said it got down to 21 degrees F). That statistic was much higher than I expected and kind of in line with some of the critics that say many Mangos can survive the conditions he's breeding for.

Edit: I suspect Tim's experience is quite different from finding Texas cold hardy avocadoes for example. I don't get the impression they're getting a 10% survival rate from random seedlings when it drops to 15 degrees F. But maybe someone can chime in...

If I remember right the temperature he quotes is 25 F -- he said he had a mature Manila (and maybe others?) die at that temperature, along with many seedlings.  I think he said only one of his 12 cultivars actually fruited normally the year after the 25 F event.

937
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Has any body bought Tim Thompson's new mango varieties?
« on: May 26, 2015, 11:30:15 AM »
Quote from: ricshaw on May 22, 2015, 12:55:43 AM
James Agren posted a picture of the delivered trees on Facebook California Rare Fruit Growers and comment; "Thank you Tim Thompson and Maggie Young for delivery! Our CRFG chapter (North County San Diego) is the first customer to receive an order. Eight cold tolerant varieties of mango developed for commercial cultivation in Southern California by Tim Thompson, So Cal Plant Breeders. I'm planting four here in Vista."

Would you be able to paste a link to that post?  I looked for the CRFG Facebook page and didn't find one with a recent update about the trees or any recent photos.  (Or if it's a private Facebook group, could you embed the pictures here?)

938
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Has any body bought Tim Thompson's new mango varieties?
« on: May 25, 2015, 02:30:50 PM »
After I posted my question a few months back above about the rootstock, I spoke with Tim and he said something a little different from what folks reported from his CRFG presentation.

I think this is accurate, but it has been a while so I'm not sure I remember right: he said that the first batch of trees he's selling are on some regular sort of turpentine rootstock, just because that's what he was able to get enough of.  For his second batch of trees (not sure when this will be) he hopes to use his own developed rootstock variety, which he plans to tissue culture.  Perhaps this new rootstock is the one he had previously described as being airlayer-able, or maybe I misheard (I didn't realize tissue culture was used for mangos).

939
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Has any body bought Tim Thompson's new mango varieties?
« on: May 22, 2015, 11:05:59 PM »
This might be a dumb question but why would someone in Vista need one of these cold tolerant trees?  Their climate is warm enough (from what I've seen there anyway) to get good fruit with many cultivars.  I guess it could make sense for someone who lives in a valley.

940
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Most Outrageously Delicious Canistel Ever
« on: May 22, 2015, 10:58:28 PM »
So I was the one lucky enough to try it while visiting Oscar, and I'd say it tasted like winter squash in a good way - smooth and rich and even like it had been spiced with something.  I haven't cared much for other related fruits I've had, so maybe my palate isn't representative, but this was definitely the best I've tried.

941
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cocktail White Sapote
« on: May 13, 2015, 02:40:37 AM »
Here in Northern California the fruit is generally later -- more into the winter months (and even into Spring), and I guess some are almost everbearing.

Tom, the local White Sapote expert around here, has several trees with a crazy number of varieties...I should have taken pictures...

I'm far from an expert on them, but the reports I've heard is that the common cultivars like Suebelle and McDill aren't generally worth growing because they take a long time to start producing (and I can say first hand that the flavor is average in the case of Suebelle and mediocre in the case of McDill).  If you want fruit size, Pike will provide it, and it tastes better than McDill.  Vernon is really tasty, and supposedly precocious.  Nettie is also supposedly precocious (but the fruit tastes just average to me).  Walton is one of Tom's favorites, though I haven't gotten a chance to try the fruit (though it's supposedly vigorous and not precocious).  Santa Cruz is another vigorous variety, and supposedly the fruit is decent and fairly large.  Rainbow is another top variety that I recently grafted but haven't tried.

I'm curious about the Florida cultivars -- how do they compare?

Bush2Beach has grown a lot more of these than I have, so maybe he can chime in...

942
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: A (mad?)question about grafted plants!
« on: May 12, 2015, 03:48:41 PM »
treefrog, that's a great explanation -- very well said.

943
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Grafted Eugenia calycina (on Eugenia involucrata rootstock, Cherry of Rio)
« on: May 09, 2015, 11:58:24 PM »
Interesting -- that makes sense!

944
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Visiting California, where to visit?
« on: May 09, 2015, 11:53:21 PM »
Here are a few random things to check out:

* The orchard / hillside plantings at the Horticulture Department at Merritt College in Oakland.

* The oldest Macadamia tree in California (and I think the United States), nestled in with live oaks, on the UC Berkeley campus (at Center and Oxford)

* The CRFG orchard at Emma Prusch Park in San Jose

I assume you already have Exotica Nursery in Vista on your list?  Also if you happen to have time while you're down there, check out the massive White Sapote trees at Clausen Nursery.  (Edit: I should have noticed you're in San Diego!)

945
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Grafted Eugenia calycina (on Eugenia involucrata rootstock, Cherry of Rio)
« on: May 09, 2015, 11:21:00 PM »
Very cool.  This may be a dumb question, but I'm curious why you want to change the rootstock.  From what I've read Eugenia calycina requires less water (though perhaps is more frost tender than the rootstock you went with).  Though maybe this is a California perspective that the fact it's from a semi-arid region is a good thing?

946
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: My opinion as to why your passionfruit isn't setting well.
« on: May 07, 2015, 02:44:58 AM »
starling -- is Panama Red the sweetest one for you?  Or do you like it because it's more sour?  I'm trying several Australian varieties for the first time this year (Panama Red, Panama Gold, Pandora, Misty Gem), all grown from seed, and I'm wondering which I should prioritize.  Since I don't get as much heat as you, I want to grow the sweetest ones out there.

947
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Bioflora Organic Fertilizer 6-6-5 (Group Order, Southern California Area) CLOSED
« on: May 06, 2015, 11:23:41 AM »
Still seems like a good deal to me.  Are folks going ahead with it?  I think it's worthwhile...

948
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cold-hardy rootstock for Wax Jambu?
« on: May 06, 2015, 02:23:36 AM »
Nice!  Well I'll give it a shot then.  Thanks!

949
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Anyone know a source for Passiflora popenovii seeds?
« on: May 05, 2015, 10:49:30 AM »
I have recently learned from a Passionfruit expert who has traveled widely that Jim West grows Passiflora popenovii!  The issue is that I think Jim is no longer taking new customers/orders.  Is anyone here in the U.S. a long time customer of Jim's who would be willing to get the P. popenovii seeds from Jim?

Thanks!

950
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Cold-hardy rootstock for Wax Jambu?
« on: May 04, 2015, 01:49:05 PM »
I'm curious if anyone knows of any cold-hardy rootstocks for Wax Jambu/Wax Apple (Syzygium samarangense).  I have been thinking of trying Syzygium australe as rootstock since it grows like crazy around here.

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