Hi Steven,
Nice harvest. Also the video of your Epicotyl grafting is very nice. And, it is also nice to know that you are from Madeira. It is always a pleasure to visit the Funchal Vegetable/Fruit market to do some fruit shopping, whenever i am there.
I am working on a cruise ship and whenever the ship is there, i make sure to visit that market and return back with loads of local exotic fruits. Last time i was there on the 17th of April, so i bought all types of passion fruits + custard apples + pepino fruit (first time i tested it), pineapple banana (Philodendron) and some others. I have saved the seeds of all of them and would like to plant them back home in India. Hope they will grow and i can create Mini Madeira at home :-)
In one post, you mentioned that you are looking for the seeds of Mamoy Sapote. I was also searching for those seeds and on the 23rd of March i was in Guatemala, where i bought plenty of those fruits, around 5 kilo, just for the seeds. I searched all Caribbean markets but could find those fruits only in Guatemala. Fruits were all shared with friends but i kept all the seeds. But...... when i started searching about their germination procedure on the net, i came to know that those seeds are viable only up to 15 days. By the time i got that information, it was already 20 days. So i cracked open one seed and found that the inside was drying up slowly. So i immediately put 4 seeds in soil and 3 seeds in moist tissue paper, just to see if they can germinate or survive until i go home, at the end of June, but still there is no sign of germination. I guess it is necessary to plant them immediately after removing from the fruits.
I wish i could have come across this website and your post couple of months earlier, then i could have handed out some seeds for you in Funchal. Anyway, next time.
Next contract, i will be visiting Funchal on 22nd of August, on our way to Canada/US/Caribbean, but will not return back to Funchal until my end of contract. But, after next contract, i will be in Guatemala on 8th February and 11th of March and will be in Funchal on the 11th of April. So if i manage to find those fruits again then will make sure to plant those seeds in small containers, so that i can take at least some plants back home and on the way can drop a couple in Funchal. :-)
One question: when i will be in Funchal next time, in August this year, do you think all those fruits will be still available in the fruit/flower market? I am more interested in those exotic fruits like Pepino, different Passion Fruits, Soursop, Sugar apple (they are huge, Annona squamosa), Cherimoya and the green exotic fruit, they call it pineapple banana (Philodendron), Surinam Cherry and avocado. Also, do you know approximate viability of those seeds, because i will be going back home in December.
Cheers
