The Tropical Fruit Forum

A friend of mine brought back the typical cacao fruit often purchased while visiting ports in a cruise ship. I couldn't get to the fruit right away,but opened it last week and almost half of the fruit was molding.  I saved as many seeds as I could and removed the outer flesh from the seeds. The seeds were so soft....I thought they had already began to rot. I read in other posts  how easy the seeds were to germinate, so I used the paper towel method and heat mat.  I was surprised how quickly they germinated in four days and with 95% germination rate. They have now been planted in pots and are hanging out in a greenhouse.  I noted in other posts that I should be careful to not over water them and to watch out for damping off.  Any  other advice to keep the seedlings alive and happy?

Cacao fruit


Seeds with outer flesh removed


Germinating seeds after 4 days

My neighbor has a large guava tree, but she doesn't know the variety.  One thing that I noticed about this tree was the large eight inch long leaves.  I thought I may be one of the Vietnamese or Thailand guavas, but when it fruited the skin was smooth and the fruit very round.  The mature fruits are about 4 inches across and taste creamy and a bit pear-like.  Like a cross of Mexican cream and Mexican Pear.  Anyone have an idea what this could be...maybe some random seedling?

The Tree and Fruit








The unknown guava on the right and Tropic Pink on the left

Enjoying the last of the P. alata flowers this weekend and wondering how long it will take for the fruits to mature. It seems in south Florida and Hawaii previous posts suggest March or April.  Does it really take about 7 months for these fruit to mature?
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=4610.msg63463#msg63463
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=15254.msg194334#msg194334

I hope the fruit don't rot in our cold wet winters.  I was also able to get a P. macrocarpa to flower and fruit using P. alata as a pollen donor.

P. alata flowers and fruit






P. macrocarpa flowers and fruit

In honor of the last season of Game of Thrones.......a hilarious meme!  Perhaps Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen should have a new title "Mother of Avocados! I can't imagine finding the perfect avocado in the supermarket, but maybe a backyard grown avocado in California!

I am heading up to Santa Barbara next week and I thought it would be interesting to visit a Cherimoya orchard up that way.  I know about Good Land Organics, but it doesn't seem like visiting that orchard is what they normally allow.  Anyone know of any other orchards big or small that I could visit?  I just think it would be neat to see the orchard up close, with the trees in full growth and even bloom.  I realize the fruits won't be ready for months, but I have never been to a Cherimoya orchard before, that I can recall. 

I had a nice visit to the San Diego Botanical Garden and decided to spend some more time in the subtropical fruit section and look around.  Everything is starting to grow after winter, and with all the rain we had many of the fruit trees are looking much better than in the past couple of drought years.  Maybe in twenty years my Jaboticaba will look as nice as the one in the gardens!

Jaboticaba


Jordan Macadamia


Yellow Coffee


Black Sapote


Satin Leaf


Lucuma


Surinam Cherries


Cherimoya Flowers

You never know what's in your local Vietnamese market unless you venture in.  I have been stopping by the last few weeks and now that spring is here more exotic fruit is arriving.  I found everyone's favorite....frozen Durian  .  But the good thing was fresh Jackfruit, Dragonfruit, and Longan.  I forgot to get a photo of the Longan at the checkout counter.

In other threads I noted that Biriba (Annona mucosa) looses its leaves in winter in south Florida.  Just wondering if Biriba looses its leaves entirely every year for you in the Miami/south Florida area?  I know these are suppose to be semi-deciduous plants, but since we get most of our rain in the winter in San Diego, all my leaves are still on my Biriba. I am thinking of stripping the plant, but wondered if I should take all the leaves off, or leave some on. The leaves are starting to look a little battered and have some brown edges due to winter storms and possibly sun damage.  I noticed in other posts, that Biribas like other Annonas will bloom later in the year as well.  Do you find that they bloom for you every winter in south Florida?  My Biriba is large enough to bloom well this year (about 7-8 feet tall) and has bloomed sparsely before.

I just ate a nice Cherimoya that had a really awesome tutti frutti taste. I checked the forum search and google, but could not come up with a specific variety of Cherimoya that would fit.  Tutti frutti is a common adjective used to describe the taste of Cherimoya.  This variety really tasted like I just popped a stick of Juicy Fruit Gum in my mouth.  I have tried Big Sister, Booth, Ecuador, Nata, Orton, White and a few others I can't remember, but they didn't taste like this.  The fruit was an impressa type and sweet, but not overly so.  It has very little acid taste to it.  Anyone want to hazard a guess to help a beginning Cherimoya freak narrow down some varieties?

I have a small Annona that I purchased and just wondered if more knowledgeable people could take a look at these photographs to help identify it.  I know right off hand, it is difficult to determine the species of a plant just by stems and leaves, especially without fruit or flowers.  I thought I would put a few of these photographs out for you to help me determine what this plant may be.  I purchased it as an unnamed variety of Annona diversifolia. 

If you could take a look at these too Frank, and see if they match your gestalt for A. diversifolia, I would appreciate it.  I could not remember what the outcome of your nonilama Annona was, but I recall it may have been an Atemoya?

The first photo is of the entire plant, sorry not a good one, but the rest of my jungle doesn't provide a great backdrop.

The second photo is of the undersides of the leaves which are a well defined grayish/green.

The third photo is a close up of the base of a branch showing what appears to be the first leaf of a stem that resembles what I understand is the rounded/clasping leaf that gives the epithet for the species - diversifolia.

The fourth photo is of a branch of my "ilama" on the left, compared with my Atemoya (AP) on the right.

Any input anyone has would be welcome.  I have yet to see this species in real life other than photographs. 

Thanks!

Bob