The Tropical Fruit Forum

They like filtered sunlight as small plants. 'With your dry climate you need to use a humidifier, they need over 60 percent humidity. They actually like a lot of water, grow great here in the rainforest. Just don't let the water puddle, so use a medium that is highly porous. Your low winter temperatures could be a problem. Keep them above 70F during winter.

I'll keep them moist and in the greenhouse through winter.  Most that survive will stay in the greenhouse where the humidity levels are around 55-60 percent. I was thinking of taking some out for the spring and summer, but it sounds like they will hate late summer and even die during Santa Ana wind conditions. I always heard that Cacao was a Goldie Locks tropical...likes everything just right! 

Quote from: wslau on December 04, 2017, 01:11:07 AM

Quote from: wslau on December 02, 2017, 01:53:25 AM

I got a chance to try anona rosada for the first time last night.  It was refreshingly delightful.  Nice creamy texture with a berry tone.  Thank you JF!

I tried the other half today... chilled.  WOW!  Just like berry yogurt.  Even the wife and older daughter enjoyed it.  In fact, my wife liked anona rosada better than a cherimoya.

This does not surprise me. A good SoCal grown rosada will give top tier moyas fits in a tasting. As moyas get harder to grow in our climate we should transition to atemoyas and ilams

Those Anona rosada are beautiful! Nice to see they are productive thus year.  Are those the leaves from this variety in the background?  So different from Genova Red and my Tiggy.

Nice experiment Bob, it'll be interesting to watch as it continues.

I'll update this in a couple of months to see how the planted seedlings are coming along.  I'd like to see if the different solutions of GA exhibit excessive cell elongation that would be detrimental to the overall growth and health of the plants.

Bob
The pix above are from Yucatan now. Our winter crop is more plentiful than the tropics during this time of the year ...... been traveling there for years in winter. If you like bad Mamey, mediocre Chico, jocotes, Black sapote etc you’ll love it. We have all that plus anonas, awesome citrus and avocado. Enjoy your trip to panama

Thanks for the input Frank. I can't complain about our citrus, avocados, and cherimoya...one of my favorite times of the year. I am striving to have some similar fruits in my yard that you have....love the pics of the Birulas and Ilamas....great inspiration.  I'll report back on anything interesting I find in Panama. I hope to return to the Yucatan in August of next year.  I haven't been back for a couple of years and I'm looking forward to trying some fruits there again....even if they are mediocre.

Not many fruits in the tropics we have better selection here. Here are some at the plaza

Were these at the Plaza - Irvine Farmers Market?  Some day I'll have access to more tropical  fruits....I just have to put the time in like everyone else and in a few years I'll have more back yard fruits.

I am traveling to Panama in mid December, I’ll only be staying for a few days, but was wondering what tropical fruits would be in season? Any one know of some good orchards or farmers markets? It looks a like I will have missed Ilama snd Sancoya season 

Quote from: Guanabanus on November 19, 2017, 09:40:04 PM

I did the hybridizing of the 'Lisa' (48---26) when I worked at Zill's.

I don't recognize that third picture.

I do not know why he called it lisa?  It doesn’t look like JF’s Lisa.  The immature fruit has a dark tone like it was black.  I even try to rube off the powder and it was still a dark green.  His trees are Large and he sells his 15 gallons for 375 dollars.  i have not taste them yet but will in the spring.  Ong will also let me try their “red atemoya” and claim it is not a 4718.

Below are the Lisa atemoya that his niece are holding.  This is also from his website.

I’d like to try the Lisa at Ong’s too, especially before buying one. Many of their Atemoyas ripen in January. Did they say that Lisa would not be ready until spring, or is that a good time for this variety?

I did the hybridizing of the 'Lisa' (48---26) when I worked at Zill's.

I don't recognize that third picture.

This is the picture of "Lisa" that Ong's uses on their website http://www.ongnursery.com/atemoya.htm and I think I remember seeing it at the nursery too. It will be interesting to see what it actually is, given that the creator of Lisa finds that it is not Lisa. 

I had nothing to do today so i went to ong’s nursery and found his Lisa Atemoya.  He has Lisa in a yellow collor and this color.  I dont know if they are the same kind.  Maybe whrn it is imature it is dark and when it mature it turns yellow. 

Are there different Lisa Atemoya?  I see some that are pink in the forum.

The Lisa with the purple/black edges is one of my favorite Annonas to look at!  I have to remind myself to get a scion of that just for the color of the fruit.  Thanks for posting!

Now is a good time to do it.  They may get beat up a bit over winter but they seem to come right back in spring.  My first time planting them was around new years a year ago and they all took fine evetn planted in winter.  Ive got around 8 or 10 of them planted out since then and every single one has had a delicate rootball.  They never seem to be very rootbound.  So take lots of care when removing them from the pot, the roots are not as robust as other fruit trees.

I planted a 15 gallon Pierce last year around Thanksgiving and it did just fine through winter. The plants do have delicate rootballs, so I just cut it out of the pot and plopped the rootball in the prepared hole. I tried to not disturb the roots too much.

Growing coconut palms is the holy grail of palm growing in California.  A few people have had luck growing them in favored locations and in the right microclimate (Newport Beach and the Coachella Valley).  Most people have failed to grow coconuts for more than just a few years here.  I tried several times to grow coconuts and even used soil heating cables and only had the palms survive for three years.  There are examples of coconut palms growing in similar climates such as Madeira Island http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/43280-cocos-nucifera-on-madeira-island/.  Notice that in the Madeira Island example and in Newport Beach, the palms are planted in a heat island where there is a lot of asphalt and concrete.  The soil temperatures tend to be too low in winter time for coconuts to survive and the same goes for tropical fruit trees that can take down to 30-32F.  The damage temperatures are not the only problem and includes low soil temperatures at 50F or lower for extended periods of time.  I gave up growing coconuts and tried a look-alike closely related species Beccariophoenix alfredii.

Hi All,

How well does pond apple grow in San Diego?  I want to use them as rootstock.  I got some seeds from Florida and they sprouted.

I want to graft Ilama onto them but I don’t know how tolerance they are in Southern California.

thanks!

I have only been growing pond apple for a year and it's in a pot, but has grown very well. It started out as a sad sickly seedling and now is about three feet tall with a half inch wide base.  Seems very vigorous. You may want to consider some incompatibility with using pond apple as rootstock for Ilama grafting http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=6598.msg97015#msg97015.  JF has had really good luck using Cherimoya as rootstock for Ilama in California.  Bonita Creek Nursery also uses Cherimoya as rootstock for their Ilama grafts, both of the Ilamas I bought from Bonita are growing well on Cherimoya rootstock.