The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: strkpr00 on July 18, 2019, 08:04:22 PM

As an orchid collector (North of 400) the Vanilla Orchid you want is native the Central East Coast of FL. The Vanilla genus has roughly 100 species and mine in Davie FL. has plenty of flowers and never been pollinated. I do remember seeing something, somewhere that the U. of Florida is working to make a cash crop out of vanilla plantifolia.

https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/trade_journals/2017/2017_June_vanilla.pdf

I wasn’t aware of a native vanilla orchid, do you have any more info on that one?

Vanilla phaeantha is one of the natives that produces edible pods. I've never seen them for sale though, and Vanilla plantifolia seems to be a pretty common plant at plant sales. A hybrid between the two would be pretty neat.

I've only tried 60 or so varieties of mango (so not nearly as many as others on here), but here's what I'd do:

Coconut cream: My favorite mango. My tree is quite productive as well
Lemon Zest: I like the flavor more than OS, and my area doesn't seem to be affected by the bacterial spot yet
Cotton Candy: I currently grow this tree but haven't tasted it yet. I love "Cotton Candy" flavored fruit though (Muntinga and Cotton Candy grapes), so if it lives up to it's name it's a keeper
Bailey's Marvel: My favorite "mango-flavored" mango
Mangifera lalijiwa: Very sweet and gives some variety by being non-indica.
Pickering: Good flavor, compact tree, and a little earlier than other varieties

Let me know if you've got any of these. It seems that the usual websites that sell them are sold out.

Does anyone have a Excalibur Variegated Pink Guava tree for sale? I called Excalibur and they don't currently have any so I'm looking for another source.

I have Taste San Pablo before they are good, the ones I had  where a little grit on them ,also I believe  it is self fertile, but they don't come close to my A..Ret which is also self fertile, and extremely Creamy and 99.9% grit free , I will have grafted Plants for sale soon here on this site. Here they are notice how they all have Flowers!
Carlos

I'd also be interested in one.

Here are pictures of my multi-rootstock Cotton Candy Mango. I tried to pick rootstocks that were distinct from each-other so they might compete more. So far, the rootstocks are seedlings from Lemon Zest, Cotton Candy, Nam Doc Mai, Turpentine, Tommy Atkins, and a local no ID mango. I plan to add some non-indica Mangifera species to it as I'm able to acquire them (I think I have a source for M. casturi and M. zeylanica, I'm still looking for M. odorata). I'm not sure what to expect with all of the rootstocks, but I like the aesthetic at least, so as long as it's not hurting the plant I'll probably keep adding rootstocks to get that "banyan" look. I'm going to put the tree into the ground in July, so I'll probably experiment with planting some seeds into the ground next to the tree and grafting those too to give the tree some undisturbed taproots.

I grow a variety called "Jamaican Red", which has beautiful red fruit and petioles. Even the pseudostem has a nice red color as long as you clean the brown/dead leaves away. It tastes very similar to cavendish to me though, so I prefer the fruit from my nam wah tree, but it's pretty ornamental. It's quite a bit slower growing than my other banana varieties though, so keep that in mind. I got it from Jene's Tropical Fruit in St. Pete.

When do you think you'll have Annona Reticulata seeds available again?

I am trying to decide on a third mango tree for my yard. I currently have a Cotton Candy and Maha Chanok. Seeing as how the Cotton Candy is late-ish and Maha is a mid season (with a longer season than most), I am considering getting a PPK mango as an early-ish variety to extend the season a bit. I have access to free budwood from a friend's LZ tree though, so I wasn't sure if it'd be worth it to buy the PPK if the season isn't too much earlier than LZ (which I've heard is mid-season). As far as I understand, the bacterial spot problem present in South Florida hasn't reached my area in Tampa, but I may be wrong about that.

Unfortunately, Dave Romney passed away not long ago, and his daughter sold the farm. The only reliable source that I know of right now in Florida is the USDA germplasm repository in Miami, but they only have unsprouted coconuts at the moment.

Can anyone help me out with this? I'd like to try this variety but don't know of anyone who carries it this far north. Thanks!

Would using one of the Mangifera species naturally found in swamps such as M. casturi as a rootstock help prevent washing out of flavor for trees planted in swampy/waterlogged soils?