The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hello all

I have several "Cherry of the Rio Grande" and I have seen many others, but I have one that stands out giving me some really nice and bigger fruits than all others.
I keep wondering if this is the one they call the "giant" but my fruits seem fatter than those of the Lorenzi's book.

Does anyone here has photos of the Giant form fruits to compare? ... thank you in advance!

here are the photos...one of the fruits was specially big... the fruits could have stayed on the tree a little bit more but I had to harvest them because the damn birds were getting them all.... but they were already perfect taste-wise at this stage. 





The biggest one had 3 seeds

Most Eugenia enthusiasts will no doubt be saying it is a weak collection without E.calycina but I'll have to live without it and I should pull through ok. It must be the hardest of all to acquire.

No, it's not!... you are just not looking properly.... maybe I can help you on this one.

Only yesterday I've made 300 km just to get another 3 "hard to get" eugenias sp... so now I'm the proud owner of:

Eugenia multicostata -"sapiranga", Yellow grumixama, and another one that was labelled as Eugenia velloziana «Yellow cambui" but I'm not sure yet of the correct ID as the name Eugenia velloziana should be a synonym for Eugenia crenata that is a bushy Eugenia sp. with red fruits, and this one is a taller species who is supposed to have yellow fruits... let's just wait and see what comes out of here someday...
I also brought a small "yellow fruit pitanga" but I've had another yellow pitangas on the past that ended up being just normal red ones so I won't count on this one as a novelty on my collection until it proves to be the real deal.

I've remembered now that I have another one here that Helton says can support -6 degrees Celsius.

I think it is the "Cambui amarelo" (Myrciaria cuspidata?)... but not totally sure because it did not fruited yet.... someday I will try one of these outside too.

Marcos, the South Brasilian / Uruguayan species will be our best bets for sure

Hello Marcos
Here are my two cents on this discussion:

I know of several Jabos growing well outside here in Portugal but all those I'm aware of are on a 9b climate.
At mine 9a place I've already killed one 4 or 5 years old Sabará outside... but the truth is that I've negleted it so much that I'm not totaly sure if it died from cold during the winter... or from thirst during the summer ()

But one year I've left one pot outside with 3 small plants of Jaboticaba-de-cabinho (Myrciaria trunciflora) and all survided the winter outside... then I've seem that Helton says this species can survive -5 degrees Celsius.

So I intend to try outside a bigger Myrciaria trunciflora I have on my GH now... I will report latter on results... good or bad.
I believe this Jaboticaba-de-Cabinho will be our best bet on our 9a climate... but it seems to be also one of those that can take longer to fruit.

I've seen that Helton mentions a totally decidous Jabo that he calls "Jaboticaba apimentada" (Hot-spicy jabo) or something like that... I wish I could try that one someday!

Glad to hear you liked it. Never tasted Prunus cerasifera, so still a bit of a mystery your description. I believe that Miguel in Portugal also reported on Eugenia dysenterice on previous thread and also liked it.

Oscar...
Unfortunatly you're mistaken!... I still don't have Cagaitas here in Portugal, but I hope to have it someday!... maybe you're confusing it with the Ubajaí (Eugenia myrcianthes)

But I do have lots of Prunus cerasifera fruits (cherry-plums; myrobalan plums) every year!

Hey Mike... I totally understand you as we seem to suffer from the same problem...

but I intend to keep collecting Eugenias sp. until there are no more to collect... and the good thing in this family is that there's always some new family member coming to light in Brasil or somewhere... it seems a never ending collection!

Just my two cents on this discussion:
Even the bigger ones like E. florida and E. myrciantes are able to fruit in pots in just 3 to 5 years, so why don't you wait to try the fruits before deciding what to plant in the ground?... this is in fact how I decide the species that deserve a permanent spot in my GH... I  tend to see my GH as a 5 stars resort for plants ... but there are no free lunches anywhere and only those guests that pay the land lord are authorized to stay longer, because the land lord needs to eat also ... but I'm a very patient and comprehensive land lord ... I even accept a lot of different currencies for payment (fruits, flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, etc)... as long as they pay, they are allowed to stay

The smaller ones are even faster fruiting so it's even easier to choose the best ones during the pot stage... on this class I recommend you skip Eugenia anomala because it tastes like garlic...

But I don't see the Eugenia calycina on your list... big fail!... this one is a permanent resident on my 5 stars hotel!

I'm still waiting to decide if E. speciosa and E. blasthanta deserve a permanent spot or not... sooner or latter I will report on these ones!... haven't decided yet on E. negrense too because birds did not let me try until now!

Keep collecting and good luck!

Hello Frukt

Welcome to the forum... we really need more Portuguese fools here!

IMHO the Garcinia sp. to try in Portugal (with real chances to resist our winters and fruit someday) is a recently discovered species from México named after his founder... the name is Garcinia vleerakii I think!

Take care and enjoy the Algarve sun!

Yes Luc... in "Brasilian Portuguese" the word "Mirim" usually means "something small" and is used for a lot of fruits.

That is why the Rollinia emarginata is known as "Araticum-Mirim"... and there are a lot of myrtaceae species with small fruits that are known as "Guamirim"...like the Eugenia florida for instance.

take care
Miguel.pt

this one is strangely missing on my myrtaceae collection!

can anyone help?...pleeeease!

Thanks in advance
Miguel.pt

Olá Miguel, sou novo no fórum, porém sou acadêmico do Curso de Biologia da Universidade de Caxias do Sul - UCS, e divido o mesmo gosto por Myrtaceae que você. Possuo algumas plantas, que ocorrem aqui nos campos de altitude do Rio Grande do Sul e nas matas de araucária, do extremo sul do Brasil. Tenho em minha casa alguns indivíduos de Campomanesia aurea O.Berg, Campomanesia xanthocarpa O.Berg, Psidium salutare (Kunth) O.Berg, Psidium cattleianum Sabine, Eugenia uniflora, Eugenia involucrata DC., Myrcianthes pungens (O.Berg) D. Legrand, e Myrcia oblongata DC.
Se você quiser trocar fotos, informações, sementes, etc... serei grato.

Abraço

Olá Marcos... será um prazer contactar consigo... já lhe enviei um Email... abraço...Miguel.pt

Hello Marcos... I've sent you an Email... all the best...Miguel.pt

UPDATE
 
Finally harvested these ripe beauties during the week-end...
One was eaten as it is and although a little bit sour it was still very enjoyable... the other one ended up on a wonderful yogurt smoothie... the scent of these fruits were incredible... I'm very happy with it so this one is definitely another keeper on my ever-growing myrtaceae collection...no doubt it worth the wait!

Yes, the skin is edible... exactly like normal strawberry guavas.

Probably this is not the best "strawberry guava" for those dealing with lack of space issues... and it is not much adapted to GHs also as it grows very much and very tall so making it difficult to keep under control... regarding the taste the differences to the common Strawberry guavas maybe doesn't justify having this one too...
 
The big advantage that I believe this species could offer is for those "Limit Zone Pushers" living in climate zones 9a or inferior... here where I live I have a 9a climate outside and even if the common strawberry guavas (Psidium catleyanum) survive our winters outside, they do suffer a lot from cold and they give me much better and earlier fruits inside the GH than outside... my impression is that these trees spend too much time and energy every spring just recovering from the winter cold, so this affects fruit production timing and quality...
This Psidium longitetiolatum being native from "upper grounds" in south Brasil should ideally deal much better with the winter cold... at least this is what I am expecting but it is still too soon to tell as I only have some trees planted outside since last year and the fruits on the photos are from the tree that I still keep inside the GH... but now I have to take it out the GH because it is just getting too tall to keep it there much longer...
 
this is still a test in progress and I expect to have more fundamented conclusions in some years from now because I'm still guessing a little bit here...
For now the only official conclusion is that in terms of fruit quality, this Psidium longipetiolatum is definitely a keeper and deserves a spot on my garden... same thing did not happened to Psidium myrtoides and Psidium eugenifolia (both were eliminated after fruiting because I just couldn't stand the sourness and astringency on those fruits).
 
So to conclude these are my advises for now:
 
If you live on a 9b climate zone or superior, and you have space issues, go for Psidium catleyanum
 
If you live on a 9a climate (or maybe 8b?) probably you'd better go for Psidium longipetiolatum
 
If you are a rare fruit tree collector like me you should grow both.

Update
 
Finally have some ripe fruits on this one so to conclude this topic.
Fruits are rounder than other "strawberry guavas" and fall to the ground once they ripen... even collected on the ground fruits were all in perfect shape and they seem to support this fall without injuries....and this ripe fruit falling behavior can even compensate for the bigger height of these trees which could make it difficult for the harvest...
 
Internal looks and arrangement of seeds are similar to other guavas and I also found these seeds unperceptible on the mouth while eating...flavour is also very good, as good as or even better than a good ripe Strawberry guava...
 
Enjoy the photos