The Tropical Fruit Forum

U r like me','impatient and love to eat fruit...jaboticaba is one of most deceptive fruits to those who are not experienced in eating them regularly.  They are fibrous and tart if eaten early...when ripe they are silky and sweet.  Not all jaboticaba are so sweet!  M. cauliflora generally makes a more tart fruit than M.jaboticaba, and is a slightly smaller tree. 

How do u prefer your Jabo now?  Early, or ripe?  Or both??  Get used to both, and u will beat birds and other thieves!!

Every fruit is deceptive... if you don't know the proper way to eat it. Just remembered funny incident of first time for somebody here eating a starapple (caimito). They told me how terrible this fruit was. When i asked them how they ate it they said they just bit right into it like an apple. Later they had a terrible stomach ache. Worse case scenario is somebody eating an akee for first time without any guidance.
Oscar

Hi good people am from Kenya and for along time now have been planning to start a tree planting project in my home area.I come from a semi arid area where the soil is infertile and rain patterns erratic.The plan initially was just to plant any tree but i was fortunate enough to meet some people who were more knowledgeable in this field and they advised that i plant fruiting and medicinal trees since this will be a major source of income to the residents.There are no productive crops planted my them at the moment and most homes here are struggling to make ends meet.

I intend to donate seedlings to homes and also encourage them to buy there own and take the initiative of caring for the trees but the biggest dilemma is that i have no idea on the best trees to plant,the best way to plant them and the best way to care for them.

Any advise?

Great to have someone on forum from Africa! Welcome. I think best is first to learn a little bit about different tree options and how to take care of them. A good book to start with would be this:
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11879&page=R1 for fruits that you can get on your continent.
Lots of trees have medicinal values, but most people don't know about it. You should also consider what herbal medicines the people in your area value and are willing to use and then plant them. This book has special sections in each chapter about medicinal values of fruit trees, and also has guidance on how to take care of the trees:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html
Once you have more specific questions we can try to help you with those also.
Good luck, Oscar

Only big top stores here to sell a few fruit trees are Home Depot and Wall Mart. Trees are not in very good shape, price is the same or more expensive than at nursery, very little selection, and then you end up buying run of mill citrus and avocado from a nursery where you can go to and get it direct from: usually Plant it Hawaii.
Oscar

Thank you for replying, I am in South Florida and area here is very sandy; have some grass and weeds and bare dirt around the tree.  The tree is a grafted tree, it starts to flower at the beginning of the season for this fruit but I do not remember the time of the year, hoping I do not mess it up this year.  Once found 1 fat blue bug on the flowers.  A few years it was cold down here but not all 6 years of lost flowers.  Thanks again.

ps, could there be nutrients missing or something with ph?

This tree likes limestone soils, so doubt the pH is the problem. Yes could be nutrient deficiency, try adding zinc and boron.
Oscar

What is the "ideal" tree spacing?  I currently plant my trees 16 feet apart.  But I was a little disheartened to see Oscar cut down several of his 20 year old Lychee trees because they were too close at 16 feet.  Thoughts?

Well at all depends on how much maintanance via pruning you are willing to do and realistically are going to do? As you can easily see i'm not one of those that goes out every day to snip back the growing ends. Also personally i don't have an army of gardeners to go around snipping all my trees every day as perhaps Richard Campbell does? So for us lazy lone gardeners i think best solution is to plant temporary crops in those open areas while young trees are still growing. One person already suggested papayas, but there are many others like banana, pineapples, sugar cane, tree tomato, naranjilla, that can easily be removed as main trees get larger.
So really there is no ideal planting space for all trees, each species will be different, and every farmer/gardener will maintain them differently. If in doubt though my general rule is to err on the side of giving them too much space rather than not enough. I goofed on those 3 lychees and am still paying the price on that mistake. Yesterday i rented a big chipper and so now my only consolation is 3 big piles of wood chips.
Oscar

Grafted ones close to 6 feet tall.
Oscar

Joseph, you're growing all these mangos in Santa Barbara? How far from the coast are you? Do you overwinter your plants indoors or out?
Oscar

Yea, I think it's too late for any more flowers this season. I guess Sadhu was right when he said they usually don't hold fruit for the first few seasons of flowering. I am hoping it is just that and not something to do with the climate in FL that is keeping them from holding fruit. It is weird to me that of all of the bloom spikes that I have seen only that one in my above pic showed any development and on that one spike almost ever flower was pollinated.

Thanks for the photos. So how was the fruit taste? Blossom drop is not a FL thing, same thing here in HI. Hope i get a few fruits this year on my 2 grafted trees. I have also one seedling tree that is 15 years old, about 10 feet tall and has never flowered!
Btw, right now is maprang fruiting season in Thailand.
Oscar

We have frequent water restrictions in south Florida that prevent watering or use of sprinklers, but micro irrigation is exempt from the water restriction.  I will be micro irrigating my fruit trees and need to figure out how much water to give each of them.  I am in Zone 10.  My soil is sandy and drains well.  Depending on the time of year the watertable is probably 5-10 feet under ground.  I do not have sprinklers for my lawn. 

Mango - Carrie
Mango - Coconut Cream
Avocado - Choquette
Cherry Guava (Strawberry Guava)
Lychee - Sweet Heart
Dragon Fruit - Mystic

I currently plan on putting 2 Gal per day on each of the trees, the drip would start around 5 AM and drip for about 1 hour (using a timer).   Thoughts?  Recommendations?

Problem with using drip emitters on sandy soil is that the water pretty much goes straight down, there is no onion effect where the water will go a bit sideways, as in soils with lots of organic matter. So in your situation i suggest using micro sprinklers instead of emitters. The micro sprinklers will spread the water more evenly over your soil so your roots can actually get to it.
Oscar

Hi Soren, beautiful fruit.
There is a lot of genetic diversity in Rollinia deliciosa. There were even some developed in Brazil for commercial growers that have almost smooth exterior, that way they don't get damaged so easily. But even on my two trees i get a lot of variation in size and shapes. Size of seed has a lot to do with the size of fruit. Even on same tree small fruits have small seeds and large fruits large seeds.
Oscar

Looks to me like an albino. Happens occasionally with artocarpus. If it keeps putting out white leaves it will die due to lack of photosynthesis. But sometimes they do revert back to normal green leaves. I would take that white leaf off, and plant more seeds, just in case.
Oscar

I rank grit in sapodillas with mealy texture in  apples.  Neither is desirebale in my book. But hey....if grit does it for you or at least doesn't provide a turn off....you are going to be a lot happpier person in the world of sapodillas!

Harry

Grit? That is not grit. Those are brown sugar crystals! I'm with Jeff, tastes great to me.
Oscar

Heck, most of the Jaboticabas I get are really sweet! Maybe if you pick them unripe then they could be real tart. Make sure you pick them as dark as possible. They are sweeter than most grapes!
FGM

Jaboticabas can be totally black and still be under ripe. You need to squeeze them and make sure they are softening up in order to find out if they are ripe.
Oscar