Author Topic: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world  (Read 170814 times)

brian

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #575 on: February 14, 2020, 11:12:44 AM »
My luc's just put out a new set of leaves... in February in Pennsylvania.   Greenhoused, of course.

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #576 on: February 15, 2020, 12:25:42 AM »
I planted 45 trees of Luc's garcinia about 2 years ago to complement my achacha trees, someone has since mentioned to me that they are slow to fruit and mediocre producers. is this true? DId I waste a bunch of space on them? So far these trees are strong growers even under neglect, and the roots go straight down, which is unusual as most trees in our climate are too lazy to go down given how much moisture is at the surface. But they're only a little faster than my regular mangosteens. Most artocarpus grow to 12-15 feet in a year in our climate, but the garcinia as a whole are significantly slower. Right now I seem to get about 2-3 feet a year with adequate fertilizer.

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #577 on: February 15, 2020, 11:30:48 AM »
2 - 3 feet a year is extremely good. I've been getting about a foot a year, with a slight increase as they get older. With your growth rate, I wouldn't be surprised if you got flowers at the 4 year mark.

Fruit production doesn't appear to be bad. I'm getting somewhere around 40 fruits a year on an 8 foot tall tree.

They are indeed very hardy.

I planted 45 trees of Luc's garcinia about 2 years ago to complement my achacha trees, someone has since mentioned to me that they are slow to fruit and mediocre producers. is this true? DId I waste a bunch of space on them? So far these trees are strong growers even under neglect, and the roots go straight down, which is unusual as most trees in our climate are too lazy to go down given how much moisture is at the surface. But they're only a little faster than my regular mangosteens. Most artocarpus grow to 12-15 feet in a year in our climate, but the garcinia as a whole are significantly slower. Right now I seem to get about 2-3 feet a year with adequate fertilizer.
Jeff  :-)

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #578 on: February 16, 2020, 01:50:29 PM »
2 - 3 feet a year is extremely good. I've been getting about a foot a year, with a slight increase as they get older. With your growth rate, I wouldn't be surprised if you got flowers at the 4 year mark.

Fruit production doesn't appear to be bad. I'm getting somewhere around 40 fruits a year on an 8 foot tall tree.

They are indeed very hardy.

I planted 45 trees of Luc's garcinia about 2 years ago to complement my achacha trees, someone has since mentioned to me that they are slow to fruit and mediocre producers. is this true? DId I waste a bunch of space on them? So far these trees are strong growers even under neglect, and the roots go straight down, which is unusual as most trees in our climate are too lazy to go down given how much moisture is at the surface. But they're only a little faster than my regular mangosteens. Most artocarpus grow to 12-15 feet in a year in our climate, but the garcinia as a whole are significantly slower. Right now I seem to get about 2-3 feet a year with adequate fertilizer.

Is the fruit any good? 40 is still low but if it's only 8 feet tall that's actually pretty good. I hope our rain doesn't prevent them from setting fruit.

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #579 on: February 16, 2020, 05:17:08 PM »
I planted 45 trees of Luc's garcinia about 2 years ago to complement my achacha trees, someone has since mentioned to me that they are slow to fruit and mediocre producers. is this true? DId I waste a bunch of space on them? So far these trees are strong growers even under neglect, and the roots go straight down, which is unusual as most trees in our climate are too lazy to go down given how much moisture is at the surface. But they're only a little faster than my regular mangosteens. Most artocarpus grow to 12-15 feet in a year in our climate, but the garcinia as a whole are significantly slower. Right now I seem to get about 2-3 feet a year with adequate fertilizer.
Guess you missed my previous post? This species looks like it's not going to set fruit in our very rainy climate. Three years in a row flowering, and only one fruit set. Now i find out that area of Mexico has very dry weather for many months when the plants are flowering.
Oscar

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #580 on: February 22, 2020, 04:59:13 AM »
My 3 year old Luc's from seed I got from Raul. It is about a metre tall.


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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #581 on: March 14, 2020, 08:21:21 AM »
I planted 45 trees of Luc's garcinia about 2 years ago to complement my achacha trees, someone has since mentioned to me that they are slow to fruit and mediocre producers. is this true? DId I waste a bunch of space on them? So far these trees are strong growers even under neglect, and the roots go straight down, which is unusual as most trees in our climate are too lazy to go down given how much moisture is at the surface. But they're only a little faster than my regular mangosteens. Most artocarpus grow to 12-15 feet in a year in our climate, but the garcinia as a whole are significantly slower. Right now I seem to get about 2-3 feet a year with adequate fertilizer.
Guess you missed my previous post? This species looks like it's not going to set fruit in our very rainy climate. Three years in a row flowering, and only one fruit set. Now i find out that area of Mexico has very dry weather for many months when the plants are flowering.
Well you can always buy another property in a drier part of Hawaii.😊.since Hawaii is blessed with different kind of climates

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #582 on: March 14, 2020, 06:38:27 PM »
I planted 45 trees of Luc's garcinia about 2 years ago to complement my achacha trees, someone has since mentioned to me that they are slow to fruit and mediocre producers. is this true? DId I waste a bunch of space on them? So far these trees are strong growers even under neglect, and the roots go straight down, which is unusual as most trees in our climate are too lazy to go down given how much moisture is at the surface. But they're only a little faster than my regular mangosteens. Most artocarpus grow to 12-15 feet in a year in our climate, but the garcinia as a whole are significantly slower. Right now I seem to get about 2-3 feet a year with adequate fertilizer.
Guess you missed my previous post? This species looks like it's not going to set fruit in our very rainy climate. Three years in a row flowering, and only one fruit set. Now i find out that area of Mexico has very dry weather for many months when the plants are flowering.
Well you can always buy another property in a drier part of Hawaii.😊.since Hawaii is blessed with different kind of climates
Yes no shortage of million$ here?  ;) And then there is the 3 hour drive (one way) to dry side of island? Cheaper and easier to find someone over there to plant some.
Oscar

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #583 on: March 14, 2020, 11:18:18 PM »
My 3 year old Luc's from seed I got from Raul. It is about a metre tall.


Looks like yours will be fruiting soon.

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #584 on: March 21, 2020, 12:38:00 PM »
I have a nearly three year old plant, but so far it didn't grow a lot. So I'm trying to figure out what soil mix is best suited for growing Luc's garcinia in containers. I want to use a deep container since they grow a tap root. As soil mix I plan to use spaghnum moss, perlite, vermiculite and worm cast with a drainage layer of expanded clay. What are your experiences in soil mixes and on how the plants react to different fertilizers?

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #585 on: March 22, 2020, 02:21:55 AM »
Mine grew quickly in 2 parts pumice, 1 part peat moss and 1/2 part sand.

Bill

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #586 on: April 13, 2020, 11:55:18 AM »
I picked my first fruit today. I picked it early trying to get it before it was fully ripe and very sweet but I was too early. It was sour with some sweetness. It was the smallest of 11 fruit on my trees. I got the seeds in 2013 and planted the tree in full sun in 2015. The trees are around 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The spot my fruiting trees are planted is very windy and not favorable for garcinias. I have bigger trees in pots and planted in more protected areas from the same batch of seeds but those have not flowered yet.



The fruit I picked today along side one of the bigger fruits on the tree.

Brandon

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #587 on: April 13, 2020, 03:13:16 PM »
Congrats. Yours are rounder than mine. Seed to flesh looks potentially better too.

I picked my first fruit today. I picked it early trying to get it before it was fully ripe and very sweet but I was too early. It was sour with some sweetness. It was the smallest of 11 fruit on my trees. I got the seeds in 2013 and planted the tree in full sun in 2015. The trees are around 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The spot my fruiting trees are planted is very windy and not favorable for garcinias. I have bigger trees in pots and planted in more protected areas from the same batch of seeds but those have not flowered yet.



The fruit I picked today along side one of the bigger fruits on the tree.

Jeff  :-)

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #588 on: June 24, 2020, 06:12:43 AM »
Beautiful plant Oscar , BTW I don't like this Lucangosteen name

Stop Whining & Crying Luc your fame for eternity on your discovery is much generously appreciated by all! But it is not your choice to dictate what its marketing name will be; I selected that name to explain to the Taitung Taipans why they should ditch the crappy money loosing petite Achacharu investments in Australia and go with the Mexican Garcinia in Taiwan &  Northern Vietnam.  I am donating all of my south american garcinias to a local Botanical garden plus one Lucangosteen to be mark there for the world to see; its like staking a flag on the Moon.

Unfortunately Mentioning anything Mexican in Asia at this time bring up a negative connotation of Cartel, Drugs & failures of Government to protect its citizen safety or inferior produces lace with unsafe Monsanto Excess; I am sure they do that in Asia with Monsanto too. But for Premium fruit for high end market, your image is very important..

It will be a marketing name like Kiwi Fruit for the weedy Chinese Gooseberry unfashionable to eat in South China until for the New Zealander making it chic during Soviet Time with evil Communist Red China.  Its hard to sell it as Mexican Garcinia, Garcinia veleerackerii, limoncello or Luc's Mexica Garcinia; or what ever pig Latin the Botanist World choose.  I live in the real world, For the Chinese, Japanese buyers they like the Lucangosteen moniker better because the well heel know what a purple Mangosteen is not (Garcinia Mangostana even though we all know that its western scientific name); having to sell Limoncello sound like too much cheapo Jello flavor desert here in US that Asians find a dislike too; especially common served to US hospital patients or worse memory of US occupation & SPAM became a favorite gift in Asia but Limoncello Jello invites quite a beating off insult! Notice lately these put fancy Spanish name on common boring food to make it exciting!😱 Example Bouf Steak Ranchero burrito, ate one of these was neither french beef, road killed on some one ranch and it was just a rice bean manufactured beef ( soybean & beef gris) wheat wrap after eating the fart send me into The Martian's Orbit I am just lucky to make it back to finish telling you my rant which is better to decipher than most eccentric here!🙊

Moreover with all the Garcinia debates what to name garcinia humilis, Garcinia humping camelis, G. brazilensis. G. String etc; 😸my buyers dont give a dam!  They want something common sense to make money in a commoditized business.  My Pumelo brackist water from Hope Sound Estates is sweeter than the Lake Wale Estate even thought its the same dam Pumelo selected by a Taiwanese Breeder; we call it Gold Snob Pumelo & our buyers ask for it! Man do I have to tell you about the Brocoli trade on the US Eastern Seabord!  The Buyers in New York pay 50% more than Lake Wales Estate & produce in l'etates-unis.  You know dam well 25 acres just on one farm is no estates but it sound better! A thousand hectare now that is an estate!  Marketing is everything, what stick in a consumer head stay with them.  The language of international trade is English not the dead latin language for now.  In fifty years who know the Chinese Century, scientific publications will be in Chinese whether you like it or not; I am practicing Mandarin, cause all the investors  flying into a Seattle Based Geoduck/Oyster farm spoke only it; they have 100 mill, I need only 10 mill to buy the Operation & yes I will speak the worst Mandarin that will injure everyone to come out of my mouth but They will appreciate my respect for Chinese hegemony!🍊

You come up with a better common sense name Luc  digestable to the North Asian Affluent Markets and we will trade mark it if worth anything like Dole for Pineapple & Chiquita for Banana, Idaho for Potatoes.  Fruit farming aint easy and the margin is razor thin, a good name can make a different if you want to dominate it earlier on & than dump it on Wallstreet(I work for Goldman Sach for seven years before I retired early in 2000; spinning an IPO on a company no one know is a mystery, but to cover write for a client and a success underwriting is very difficult work and not everyone will survive the gaunlet of commerce. I certainly know all about that since my wife sold her company be ause of a wise name she used 30 years ago to one of the world largest internet brand.   Right now I tell them a Lucangosteen its like a mangosteen but its yellow, fruit large like the Goose that laid the Golden egg than Achacharu; Chinese Investors know this Aesop Fable very well!😾 If I was selling Marijuana I will call it Alcapulca Gold and the High End Japanese & Chinese markets will know it high quality shit from Mexico! Happy Easter Luc, we will Market the Lucangosteen as part of the North American Easter Egg Hunting tradition, now can you find me strain that ripe before Easter?😺✌️

Hey just a shot in the dark, but do you know any people in northern vietnam growing mexican garcinia. Trying to find any garcinia other than purple mangosteen here, and not having much luck.

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #589 on: June 25, 2020, 11:42:26 PM »
I picked my first fruit today. I picked it early trying to get it before it was fully ripe and very sweet but I was too early. It was sour with some sweetness. It was the smallest of 11 fruit on my trees. I got the seeds in 2013 and planted the tree in full sun in 2015. The trees are around 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The spot my fruiting trees are planted is very windy and not favorable for garcinias. I have bigger trees in pots and planted in more protected areas from the same batch of seeds but those have not flowered yet.



The fruit I picked today along side one of the bigger fruits on the tree.


Did you pick the other fruits by now? How were they?

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #590 on: June 26, 2020, 09:27:59 AM »
Did you pick the other fruits by now? How were they?

Yes, the fruit are very good. I was able to repeatedly time the ripeness so that the flavors were both intensely sweet and slightly sour. The tree flowered again but did not set any fruit. There were roughly 100 flowers and roughly 10 male flowers.  I will hand pollinate next time to see if that makes a difference. I hand pollenated with pollen from a different tree to get the fruit. My tree also had a handful of male flowers at the time so I was not sure if the fruit were from hand pollenating or insect pollination. 
Brandon

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #591 on: June 26, 2020, 12:21:00 PM »
Did you pick the other fruits by now? How were they?

Yes, the fruit are very good. I was able to repeatedly time the ripeness so that the flavors were both intensely sweet and slightly sour. The tree flowered again but did not set any fruit. There were roughly 100 flowers and roughly 10 male flowers.  I will hand pollinate next time to see if that makes a difference. I hand pollenated with pollen from a different tree to get the fruit. My tree also had a handful of male flowers at the time so I was not sure if the fruit were from hand pollenating or insect pollination.

That's good news!
Have you ever tried the purple mangosteens? How were they compared to hose? Could you also eat the peel of the sweet ones?

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #592 on: June 26, 2020, 01:09:54 PM »
That's good news!
Have you ever tried the purple mangosteens? How were they compared to hose? Could you also eat the peel of the sweet ones?

Yes, I have had fresh purple mangosteens that I picked myself from trees in Puerto Rico. Luc's do not taste like them. Luc's have a citrus pineapple flavoring when eaten at the ripeness I enjoy. Fully/over ripened fruits are mild flavored and sweet, still enjoyable but not optimal to my tastes. I didn't try to eat the peel. The peel is thin and similar to achachairu or lemon drop.
Brandon

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #593 on: July 16, 2020, 01:57:46 AM »
Exciting day today! The long awaited moment came. Finally got to get a real taste of Luc's Mexican garcinia. Also picked a bunch of Whitman fibreless soursops, (Different post on that one later.) The garcinia was surprising, very different than any other garcinia i've tasted, especially the texture, which is very soft and melting. The taste is very pleasant, Different depending at what stage you eat it. If you eat it totally soft, and starting to wrinkle, the taste is totally sweet, kind of like apple sauce. If you eat it ripe, but still hard it tastes like apple sauce with some lemon juice mixed in. It has an unusual fragrance and taste a bit hard for me to describe, but pleasant. The fruits look from afar like a yellow lilikoi, yellow Passiflora edulis. They even wrinkle when ripe like lilikois. It doesn't taste anything like the achachairu, which is kind of what i was expecting, because everyone compares it to achachairu. But the fruit is really more like Garcinia xanthochymus in texture, soft and melting, but not at all tart, and so more pleasant to eat out of hand. The rind is very thin and edible, but i found it too tough to eat and a little bit bitter. It's much more pleasant to eat this fruit without the rind in my opinion. The seeds are large, but not at all bothersome because there is still plenty to eat and they separate very easily from the pulp, unlike the achachairu.





Oscar

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #594 on: July 16, 2020, 10:44:17 AM »
Exciting day today! The long awaited moment came. Finally got to get a real taste of Luc's Mexican garcinia. Also picked a bunch of Whitman fibreless soursops, (Different post on that one later.) The garcinia was surprising, very different than any other garcinia i've tasted, especially the texture, which is very soft and melting. The taste is very pleasant, Different depending at what stage you eat it. If you eat it totally soft, and starting to wrinkle, the taste is totally sweet, kind of like apple sauce. If you eat it ripe, but still hard it tastes like apple sauce with some lemon juice mixed in. It has an unusual fragrance and taste a bit hard for me to describe, but pleasant. The fruits look from afar like a yellow lilikoi, yellow Passiflora edulis. They even wrinkle when ripe like lilikois. It doesn't taste anything like the achachairu, which is kind of what i was expecting, because everyone compares it to achachairu. But the fruit is really more like Garcinia xanthochymus in texture, soft and melting, but not at all tart, and so more pleasant to eat out of hand. The rind is very thin and edible, but i found it too tough to eat and a little bit bitter. It's much more pleasant to eat this fruit without the rind in my opinion. The seeds are large, but not at all bothersome because there is still plenty to eat and they separate very easily from the pulp, unlike the achachairu.


Congrats on finally getting these to fruit for you, Oscar.  Does this change your opinion on fruiting them in our climate?  (Do you think you just got lucky with the weather during flowering or perhaps does the tree have to attain a certain mass to hold fruit?)

John

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #595 on: July 16, 2020, 05:38:24 PM »
I think i just got lucky with one tree fruiting out of the four. (Same tree that fruited last year.) Right now it looks to me like these trees are not suited to our heavy rainfall climate, unless can come up with rare individual tree that can adapt to our rain and still set fruit. I learned only too late that Puerto Vallarta, where it is native has a whole 7 months dry period. Very different from our climate!
Oscar

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #596 on: July 16, 2020, 06:31:12 PM »
Oscar, do you find the fruit to be superior to Achacha as claimed even though they are not alike in taste?

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #597 on: July 16, 2020, 10:21:49 PM »
Oscar, do you find the fruit to be superior to Achacha as claimed even though they are not alike in taste?
No i would not say it is superior in taste. I would rate the achacha a little bit higher. Personally i like fruits with complex taste, and the achacha has a little bit of bitterness thrown in, that the Luc's doesn't have. Also i like the firm texture of the achacha more. The thing that Luc's fruit has going for it is that it's bigger, and the seeds don't cling to the pulp like with the achacha. So there is more to eat and the seeds are not as bothersome, as is the case with achacha. But in my climate the achacha is a clear winner on production, flowers set in our super rainy climate. I've had heavy fruiting with achacha and only very light fruiting with the Luc's. The Luc flowers have hard time setting when it's raining. Both are very good fruits and definitely worth growing. My over all taste rating achachairu: 8.8, Luc's 8.5. This could certainly change with time, as this is the first fruiting for Luc's and the fruits could certainly improve as the trees age. I remember that the first time the achachairu fruited they were not nearly as good as they are now.
Oscar

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #598 on: July 24, 2020, 03:28:23 AM »
Recent photo of row of Luc's Mexican garcinia trees.

Oscar

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Re: Luc's Mexican Garcinia growing experiences around the world
« Reply #599 on: July 24, 2020, 10:38:26 AM »
Thanks for the report. Sounds like a winner!

Bill