The Tropical Fruit Forum

Simon, I've been on the same hunt as you, and here's what I'm growing this year.  My rooftop garden where I grow these has a San Diego-like climate though it's windy, so you should get better results than I do.  I don't have extra seeds at the moment, but I will be coming down to San Diego in June and can give you plants:

P. edulis Frederick -- which is our California standard, but I find kind of boring tasting; egg-shaped purple fruits

P. edulis Black Knight -- which is a little less common, but also another Worley selection that nurseries carry and I think is the sweetest of the standard varieties; slower growing but the yield is higher for me than Frederick (probably because Frederick is too vigorous); small round purple/black fruits

P. edulis flavicarpa Sweet Lilikoi -- I got lucky and got a sweet Hawaiian lilikoi cutting from someone (the more common ones are sour, though there is a large range); the plant is vigorous and produces large yellow fruits that were as sweet as Black Knight but with a bit more aroma to them.

P. ligularis -- reported to be the best tasting species (but some say it's a bit boring because the flavor is not complex), but it's so wind sensitive it gets beaten up for me.  It grows fine in our weather, and should fruit well in San Diego.  Seems to like growing in partial shade with wind protection.

P. laurifolia -- my favorite passionfruit that I've ever tasted (in Hawaii), so I brought some seeds back and planted them indoors.  It's now a huge vine on an indoor trellis but may not get enough direct sun every day to flower/fruit -- we'll see.  Egg shaped yellow/orange fruit with leathery skin, and a perfume like aroma and low acidity.  I would bet this could fruit outdoors in San Diego given a hot, wind-protected, zone 10b/11a spot in the garden.  If I remember right this fruits on old growth, so it takes longer to start producing.

P. parritae x P. antioquiensis Mission Dolores -- a Carlos Rendon cross reported to produce tasty fruit, but more of a cloudforest plant (i.e. something that grows well only in San Francisco).  I grew it fine with afternoon shade until we got a week of 80 degree weather and it died in a matter of days.  Might do okay for you in 100% shade.

P. alata -- been growing this for a while, but also seems sensitive to wind and so the plant keeps growing and then getting beaten up on windy days, which sets it back many weeks of growth.  Not sure about the fruit, but I have heard it's good.

Then there are the more recent things I'm growing this year for the first time:

P. quadrangularis -- got cuttings for this over the winter and started them; very interesting leaves / stems (huge!) but no idea about the fruit.

P. maliformis -- started seedlings of this; supposedly the fruit is good.  May be too tropical to fruit here.

P. pinnatistipula -- started seedlings of this; more of a cloudforest plant.  Supposedly the fruit is good, a sort of bubble gum flavor.  Fruits are small.

P. edulis Panama Red -- one of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.

P. edulis Panama Gold -- another of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.  (Might be P. edulis flavicarpa.)

P. edulis Misty Gem -- another one of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.

P. edulis Pandora -- another one of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.  (Might be P. edulis flavicarpa)

P. ambigua -- a edible fruited passionfruit I know little about, but am trying this year.


I might be forgetting one, but in any case, I'm hoping some of these new ones (and some of the previous ones that didn't fruit yet) will be good.

How much heat does black sapote need to ripen after setting fruit?

Thanks for the suggestions!

Great, thanks.  I'll try to treat it more like a desert plant and less like the other subtropicals I'm growing.

It does eventually become a weird-shaped fairly big tree, and should produce lots of sweet-sour tamarind-like pods.  (Not sure how long it takes to bear from seed.)

The selection you both are listing is amazing!

Do you know of any big island farmers markets / shops to get Jamaican Passionfruit (P. laurifolia) fruit?

Quote from: bsbullie on March 30, 2015, 08:45:01 PM

Quote from: barath on March 30, 2015, 08:27:02 PM

(Edited: Never mind...found another thread.)

Re: container loquats, have you all found that you need to keep them in smallish pots to force fruiting?  I have one in a huge pot (probably 35 gallon) and it's showing no urgency...

how big is the tree you have in a "35 gallon "?

seedling or grafted? (or airlayer?)

It's a commercial airlayer/cutting grown Gold Nugget that I've bought in a #5 pot and have been growing in that 35 gallon container for about 3 years.  It was about 8 feet tall before a wind storm about 6 months ago that snapped off the weak top growth, and has become bushy since.  It hasn't shown any signs of wanting to flower, and I wonder if it's because it's in a huge container and sees no urgency.

Loquat trees (not named varieties, though) are a dime a dozen around here -- there's at least one big and totally neglected loquat every two blocks or so, and almost all are loaded with fruit (usually full of seeds).  And plenty of loquat seedlings popping up through landscaping ivy and shrubbery all over town.

Sounds great.  I look forward to my Marulas bearing fruit some day.

Nice!

Have you had any luck planting them in the ground?

Thanks for the input!  I have two "Manila"s from La Verne in the ground here, and they're growing fine and suffer no damage in the winter, but as expected they grow slowly.  But I'm lucky that this area gets basically no frost in the winter.  I'd like to try planting in other areas around here with more heat in the summer but a bit of frost (places that usually hit 28 or 29 in the winter).

Does anyone know how different using a La Verne "Manila" tree as rootstock is from using an Ataulfo Mango seed from the store?  (The ones from Mexico are in season right now and are available for cheap by the crate.)

This is a perhaps dumb question about foliar application, but has anyone had luck just dripping worm juice (the blackish smelly liquid from the bottom of a worm bin) on plant leaves?  I often do this as a potential substitute for proper foliar application, but have never really studied whether it's effective.  Any idea if this works at all, or works only a little bit?

I've especially tried to do this for Eugenias that are yellowing, and it sometimes seems to help (especially with pitangatuba, though others as well).

I guess that's two strikes against me :/

I'll give it a better draining location and better wind protection...

Adam, do phalsa plants handle wet feet?  What other growing requirements do they have?  I've been trying to figure out what to give my phalsa to get it to stop dying back -- I can't tell if it dislikes the wind it's getting, or the wet feet from being in a bot in a saucer of water.  It dies back after growing a bit, and then starts growing again only to die back again.