The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi, Guyaba,

I am really interested in knowing your Illama taste profile when it fruits.
Last time I went to Bonita Creek nursery they had Illama tree but at that time I did not get it.

-FruitFool

I will definitely keep you updated on the Ilama.  Since it may not be a true Ilama, then it may be pointless for a taste profile.  I think it will be too small to produce fruit next year, but maybe flowers.  I will post another thread so this one is not taken up by my identification problem.

Bob

2 years ago i had left my jack outside
the forecast was for 40F.
it was 32 in the morning when i woke.
it warmed up after, and i thought it was fine
but, somehow it was a delayed reaction.
the leaves all seemed burned and fell off.
it must have been warm a full week before they turned brown and fell.

I have noticed this happen often in the two light freezes I had.  It takes several days before you see a lot of the damage and warmer temperatures after the freeze tend to amplify the result of the freeze.  I remember in 2007 when we had our last freeze, all you could smell the week after was the dying foliage and plants that were burned. I am glad we don't get freezes often.  How is your jackfruit doing after that cold weather 2 years ago?

I am no expert on growing jackfruit, and I grow mine outdoors so my input may not be helpful.  I do grow some other tropicals indoors during the winter and I tend to give them as much light as possible, especially eastern exposure.  It could also be that some of the damage was done before you moved the plant indoors?  With the lack of humidity we have indoors, damage done outdoors can quickly show up and make it seem like  indoor damage.  That being said, if you have a warm day or weekend, I usually move my tropicals outside on warm/cloudy days (above 60F) for a nice break.  This tends to give the plants what they need in the way of humidity, and extra light.  Just make sure if you move it outdoors to give it part shade, so full sun won't burn it, and take it in before nightfall or before it gets too cold.  Try to keep the jackfruit evenly moist, they don't tend to like to be on the dry side.

I think just cherimoya for the tasting. One year they had atemoyas for people to take home, and that's when I heard about the good African pride.

Before they started doing tastings in Irvine, a couple of CRFG chapters used to get fruits from there and do chapter tastings. I tasted several varieties of atemoya that year and none compared to cherimoyas. They have a later season so it may not be a fair comparison. I might have a few photos. Anyway, word got out about the popularity of the event and the people in Irvine decided they would do it themselves and it'd be a good year to year survey of variety rankings and a little fundraiser for the research station.

If you didn't already know, bring $10 or $20 in case they have extra fruit you can take home. Maybe a little extra in case the price changed. Some of that fruit might not ripen correctly at home, so it's a good deal for the weight, but sometimes not.

Okay good to know Fyliu.  I will be ready to get my fill of Cherimoya next month.  I will make sure to bring cash to purchase a bag of fruit to take home.  It may not be as good as home grown fruit just right off the tree, but most of it will be better than the Cherimoyas at the store.  One of the reasons I got back into growing my own fruit is that one of my favorite places, the Fruit Shop closed in San Diego.  Now it is much more difficult to get my tropical fruit fix!

Indeed a good lesson in sexing Jackfruit inflorescences!  Some websites have the sexes reversed and identify female inflorescences as the ones that are tapered at the bottom and the males more chunky.  Good to know it is the other way around.  My Jackfruit have not flowered yet, so I will look for flowers next year to see if I get both males and females.  It's unlikely that I would get both sexes at the same time next year given that the plant is only  5 feet tall.  As Jackfruit age, do they tend to have multiple inflorescences on a peduncle? On Jackfruit trunks I have read that they often will have two male inflorescences and a single female inflorescence on a single peduncle.  It would seem that male and female inflorescences on the same peduncle would increase chances of pollination, though they probably don't mature at the same time?

Mark, that is a nice size Rollinia fruit! I have a 15 gallon Rollinia, but I am not sure what variety it is.  Perhaps when it fruits I will have a chance to figure this out. A few nurseries in southern California have these, but I am surprised more people don't grow it.  I have heard they don't fruit much outside of tropical areas, so that may be a reason.

Frank....you are killing me once again with your awesome fruit collection!  Great job!  How long does the Big Red fruit here in southern California?  Is the season wrapping up?

Bob

I think this is a great idea!  Too bad I live so far away, otherwise I would like to assist and participate. From descriptions of other tastings, it seems you have a good method outlined here for Jackfruit tasting as well. It think the idea of photographing the fruit/trees and weighing the fruit is also good because these variables are important.  Some of these criteria are difficult to assess unless you grew the fruit yourself or were the one cleaning the fruit, so photographs would be invaluable.

Since I am a beginner regarding jackfruit growing, I used a resource to evaluate some of the more common varieties available in Florida.  I am sure you are already familiar with the Growables website at http://www.growables.org/information/TropicalFruit/jackfruitvarieties.htm, also the USDA link that is on that page is useful for descriptions of some features about the trees and fruit.

The Growables resource and table of information have a few categories that you may want to consider adding to the judging criteria.  They list flat spines at ripening (yes/no), percent edible flesh, flesh easily removed (maybe this would be part of the ease of cleaning category), flesh thin walled/thick walled, and rag edible.

These are just a few items I thought you may want to consider, and hope you find them useful.  I hope you keep us all updated on your progress and results from taste tests.  Florida is decades ahead of California regarding Jackfruit growing, but I hope with sharing knowledge and expertise that we could get enough growers here to emulate what you are doing and have some jackfruit tastings here too.  I wish you great success in your endeavor!

Bob

Hello Everyone,
I have been lurking for a while and decided to sign up because there is so much good information and advice on this forum for growing tropical fruit. I live in San Diego, California about five miles from the Pacific Ocean, so winter nights can be cool/cold and summer days are much warmer than on the coast.  This provides me a nice microclimate to grow subtropical fruits as well as plums.  My latest obsessions are Annona and Jackfruit.

Bob