The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have one of these sent from my good friend Ethan.  Man, are they slow growers.

Any guesses on time to fruit in a greenhouse in Missouri?

Bob,
Adam is the resident jaboticaba expert so he will probably reply in detail, but basically his theory is that better trunk light penetration leads to better flowering and fruiting.

Adam,
This plant repeatedly, annually flowered and fruited on the branch tips when young...I had probably at least 3 years of flowering this way.  When I asked about it, some folks on the old GW forum expressed the belief that this was some other Myrciaria species.  But as my plant has matured, it gradually seems to be shifting to the typical pattern of flowers and fruit on the trunk.  Someone, maybe it was Gerry in NY, noted that their jabo was doing the same thing, fruiting on the tips.  This led me to think that maybe it had to do with being in a northern location...not sure.

OK, cool, thanks everybody.

I guess it is too early to know whether those little points or bumps in the second pic will be blooms or fruit.  If they ARE blooms, I'll be doing a little happy dance cuz there are way more than I've ever had before.  Even if they are vegetative growth, I still have more flowers on the trunk than every before.

Here is the plant when I got it, I think around 2005 or 2006.  It is (obvsly) the bigger pot in the center, so probably 2 years old at this point maybe.  That makes my tree about 9-10 years old I suppose.


Here is the plant first fruiting out on the tips of the branches about 4 years ago.


Then it started to bloom on the trunk last year.

Hey, thanks for the link, surfer!

Nurseries in SFla use black pots many sitting on top of black barrier material over the ground.  I don't see the nurseries going out of business due to loss of plants, hmmm....

True, same here, but if nurseries in FL are like those in MO, the black pots are snuggled together.  The sun doesn't hit the sides of the pots, and may only hit the container medium on the top.  Certainly other factors may be involved such as water, growing medium, etc.

I killed a brand new $40 loquat 'Premier' by leaving it in the sun on a hot sunny day last year.
My plants are all in clay pots if they are in sun in the summer.

Steven,

Don't worry about the chloritic leaves!

They all seem to grow out of this condition, unlike some myrciaria species.

I hope you enjoy them (I know you will!)

This is reassuring.  I have a seedling exhibiting same behavior.

Does either species fruit in container?

I have the blue painter's tape, masking tape, duct tape.  Are any of these effective adhering to the bark of the tree? 
Also, the instructions call for cotton padding to be wrapped around the tree first so the insects can crawl under the tape.  Has this been a problem for anyone?

I think that the cotton is used so that the insects canNOT crawl under the tape.  I envision this used with trees with highly furrowed bark.  I've never used it, most of my trees are small with smooth bark and no way for ants to get underneath.  Not a bad idea, though.

Invariably if I find ants in a pot they are farming mealies or scale.  I never bother with the ants except to disrupt their farming with Tanglefoot.

Tanglefoot is good stuff.

Quote from: JeffDM on December 13, 2012, 08:49:52 PM

Just got my latest electric bill and decided that the plants in my greenhouse didn't need to be so warm at night.
I also decided that the outdoor Christmas lights didn't need to be on for so long.

Maybe you can put some big plastic buckets full of water in the greenhouse (with or without lid) so they catch sunshine in daytime. Then the water warms up and at night will spread the warmth. So you can save energy and get a better average temp in the greenhouse. If you don't use lids on the buckets then you also get a higher humidity.

This is great in theory but in reality it doesn't work.  The water will gain energy during the day but it starts losing its energy as soon as the temperature differential favors heat loss.  This is generally long before you will actually need the heat.  This might work with an enormous amount of thermal mass but generally for this to work you must actively manage your thermal mass by moving it around with pumps and so forth.

I backsweetened this wine only to about 1.001.  ABV is 13.1%.

I'm going to age this at least another 6 months, but it is quite drinkable now...not as sharp as I thought it would be, great aroma, and a nice long finish.

I probably couldn't resist trying it in a blended White Russian:

2 oz vodka
1/2 oz coffee liquer
1/2 oz black sapote purée or pulp
1oz cream

I'd prob call it a Russian Sapote...or a White Russapote...or...something.

Seriously tho, I spent 20 minutes on Google this morning, there aren't many cocktails with black sapote.  Somebody is going to have to sacrifice and give some of these a try.

I tell you what, if someone can send me a pound or two I will do some testing and report back.

Uh, probably a bad idea.

It is not just air movement.  Any combustion requires ventilation.  You can do it two ways. 

You could use a vented heater.  In this case, the outside air is the source of oxygen for combustion and this outside air source is built into the heater. 

You can use an unvented heater.  In this context, "unvented" is a misnomer; the ventilation is not built into the heater.  You still have to ventilate.  You just do it with a hole in the wall or other deliberate or unintended infiltration.

In the case of the vented heater, the CO2 and water vapor from combustion largely or entirely go out through the ventilation process.  You gain no CO2 or H2O advantage there.

In the case of the unvented heater, the CO2 and water vapor from combustion are dispersed through the greenhouse.  Unfortunately, so are all of the other unwanted byproducts of combustion such as carbon monoxide and ethylene.  You don't want carbon monoxide and ethylene.   

In order for an unvented heater to be operated safely, you have to meet certain passive ventilation requirements.  That is to say, you need a hole in the wall of a certain size, so many feet from the heater.  In this case, as you might guess, you will loose much of the benefit you would gain from the CO2 and H20 combustion byproducts.

Unvented heaters are problematic enough that some states prohibit them.