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Messages - NYC_FruitKing

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This will sound surprising considering I'm living all the way on the East Coast, but I do prefer the greens over the reds too. The riper ones will have more of a sugary taste (with flavor akin to sugarcane, IMO), the unripe ones do have a tendency to taste like watery cucumbers. Unfortunately the seeds are still hard, making them more for blending up than eating fresh.. Can't afford to crack a filling or two :-X And the reds aren't as flavorful or as sugary, in my opinion. I'd love to try great selections of opuntia or cereus, but that isn't found easily here in New York (if at all!)

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Talk about tough choices! Here goes:

1) Persimmons (Jiro and Giant Fuyu)/Lychees
2) Figs
3) Loquats
4) Raspberries/Strawberries (Mara de Bois!)
5) Golden Kiwis

Honorable mentions and runner-ups on my list include: Cherries (especially Rainiers!), Pears (Anjou), Apples (Cripps' Pink & Stayman Winesap), Apple Bananas, Moro Blood Oranges/Satsuma Tangerines, blueberries, and redcurrants. The list could go on and on but these are my top contenders as of today.

On my wish list to try (which is another topic all in itself) there'd be:
Tsurunoko persimmons (among other PVNA vars.), Violette de Bordeaux figs (among PLENTY of other vars.), Golden Russet apples, Parfianka pomegranates (or any good soft-seeded pom for that matter), blueberries (Hannah's Choice, Spartan, Razz, Elizabeth), Sugarloaf pineapples, notable dragonfruit/opuntia/cereus/stenocereus cactus fruits, good misc. kiwi/hardy kiwi varieties, jujubes, a well-ripened loquat, and ditto for peaches. Just thinking of everything I'd love to try in it's best quality is making my head spin..

But really, mangoes are first place overall? Considering how I've almost never gotten the chance to eat fruit well-ripened and fresh off the plant, I'm not surprised my favorites aren't as tropically-oriented as most of your guys' lists; pineapples, mangoes, avocados, mangosteen, dragonfruit, etc. i've only ever eaten store-bought, and the quality was only ever moderate to disappointing, and never worth the money or the effort to get them. The only fruits on my list i've ever eaten fresh off the plant are raspberries and red currants, unless you want to count wild blueberries and strawberries :P I'm on a serious mission to grow (and especially eat!!) any and all fruit worth the time and effort to grow, and amass a collection of the best ;D

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Chosing jujube, grafted or wild?
« on: March 09, 2014, 03:17:19 AM »
Jujubes are a very easy to grow tree, they'll survive the extremes of weather in a New York-ish climate without any special protection, unless the trees are young and too fragile without burlap or covering of some sort. Waiting for them to give fruit will take time and patience, but these trees thrive on neglect and will give more fruit than you know what to do with. As long as you put them in decent soil, give them some compost and nice mulch, and keep them weed-free, after the first year or so of caring for them and watering them, you don't have to touch them whatsoever and they'll live for years and years. Just make sure you mow down root suckers the second you see them and prune the trees if needed. I've had a Tigertooth jujube for 2 years and it hasn't given me any fruit yet, but it's survived pretty terrible conditions.

Now frukt, you should know that jujubes taste okay, not amazing but okay, and only some varieties are recommended for eating fresh. The rest of them are meant for being dried and stored for use in teas, baked goods, medicine, etc. Without cross-pollinating jujubes, there won't be as much fruit, and they might not be as tasty. It's why nurseries suggest you plant Li and Lang, Li is only partially self-fertile while Lang will not give fruit without another variety nearby. The fruit has to be picked in the morning before the sun shines strongly during midday or else the fruits will be shriveled and have the consistency of styrofoam.. you want to pick them while the moisture in the tree circulates to all the fruit, you see. And to make matters even more confusing, certain varieties taste different depending on the weather and the climate they're in! The fruit from one tree will taste different year to year depending on the weather too, according to what I've read.

If I were you, I'd buy an already established/ possibly grafted tree to save yourself time and money. I'd do more research on the varieties you want and how they do in your climate, I could give you good suggestions if you give more details on the growing conditions you'd be able to give them. I myself am testing out how my jujube tree does in NYC and I'll eventually graft more varieties onto it once it's old enough to bear fruit without any special attention.

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I want to try growing dragonfruit myself! I'm hoping to find fellow gardeners online that could supply 12" (or close) cuttings of American Beauty, Delight, Zamorano, Condor, Thompson, and Dark Star. Any help would be appreciated, I'd pay for postage and everything :D

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« on: February 14, 2014, 03:46:49 PM »
I've been following this post for quite a while now and I've decided to try my luck with growing DF in my area. I made a post in the yahoo pitaya forum and didn't receive much of any pointers for finding out the quote-on-quote "best" DF varieties in terms of taste and flavor, so I'll just grow 3 in a 15-gal pot with a 4"x4", 5' tall PVC pipe with burlap attached to it. The varieties I've decided on are American Beauty, Delight, and Zamorano. Once I get more space I'll grow more varieties, or end up grafting yellow dragon and others to see if they're worth extra space once I can afford some more space to grow things with.. And as much as I'd like to order these varieties online from mattslandscape, the online reviews complaining about orders taking a while to process and poor customer service in general makes me want to resort to asking avid DF growers for cuttings, so I don't waste my time and money :D Anyone on this thread have fairly big (around 12") cuttings of these 3 varieties they'd be willing to donate to a good cause? I'll happily pay for postage and all that jazz  :)

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