Anyone growing Flacourtia jangomans?

[fliptop]

When I order from Trade Winds Fruit, I always strive to hit the $20 mark so as not to pay shipping. The last order included on a whim seeds of Indian Coffee Plum, Flacourtia jangomans. I've got four to sprout so far. Anyone else growing this? Anyone in Florida? If so, what is your experience? How is the fruit, how long did it take to fruit from seed, how is the tree in terms of growth habit, disease resistance, etc.? Thanks!

[Lory]

Hello!
I growing it from seeds I got from some fruits I got in Cotabato - Mindanao island
I took 4 years to fruit and now at the fifth year it's bearing heavily.
I like this fruit just let it ripe enough or it may be quite astringent.
My wife is from Cotabato and told me that children there are used to harvest fruit from the wild then rub between the palms of the hands prior to eating it in order to reduce the astringency and make them sweeter.
And it works 

The tree is easy to grow, likes full sun and seems more a big shrub than a real tree. The only real pest here are larvae of some butterflies which really like to feast on buds and young leaves.
Base of the trunk and lower branches are VERY thorny.
I found it's a dioecious specie  but fortunately my single tree is bearing fruit without a male tree. 
You can find some useful info here, if you need i can send you some pictures:
http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Flacourtia+jangomas

[fliptop]

Thank you, Lory, that is very helpful information! Interestingly, Trade WInds Fruit spells the species name jangomans, not jangomas. Thanks again, and if you decide to post pictures of your tree here, I would not mind. We'll see how well it does in Florida.

[mangaba]

I do have a huge tree of Flacourtia indica commonly called jagoma from seed I brought (1980) from Goa,India. Tree is huge (15m tall) and bears fruit more than twice a year. Plant took 5 years to fruit. Fruits are tasty, sweet .Taste improves when you massage the fruit between your palms.
   Curious to know how this Flacourtia compares to Flacourtia inermis (Katu lovi) found in Sri Lanka.

[Lory]

Mine is 5 years old now and it looks more like a large shrub than a real tree.
I will post some pictures soon :-)

[greenman62]

im curious as well
i just got seeds from trade winds for  jangomans and inermis (luvi-luvi).
does anyone know how cold-hardy they are ??

i have 2 what i think are Governor plums.
on one, the leaves are much broader
the one with the smaller leaves is flowering, and growing faster as well
i put the large-leaf one in ground recently.

[Lory]

I strongly doubt yours are really Flacourtia Jangomas.
Don't trust any vernacular names (coffee plum, indian plum, governor's plum...) because they can be deceiving.
Mine is locally called SARALI and just after a long research i found out to be actually Flacourtia Jangomas.

I post some pictures .
This is the actual tree, 5 years old from seed (more like a big shrub about 3m tall)





The long, sharp and scary thorns along the base of trunk and main brunches. Thanks god the upper branches and canopy are thornless





Here a detail of leaves and young fruits. At the moment unfortunately no flowers









Here the fruits, most of them are  in nice clusters









Here is a ripe fruit. It's a tiny fruit, about 9-10 grams. Skin turns deep purple, it's thin and edible.
Flesh is deep yellow  firm ad a bit juicy if fully ripe.
Taste is very pleasant, strong, sweet with a hint of sour and tangy. If eaten unripe it can be very astringent
Seeds are flat and don't bother










Very easy to grow, mine is actually on a thin limestone layer among rocks.
All in all i love it :-)

[fliptop]

Awesome! Great pictures, thank you, Lory! I'm now really excited about having gotten these. Hopefully they'll do well in Florida. Wow, those thorns are scary, though. Thanks again!

[Lory]

YES thorns are really scary but they disappear on mature trees and high branches :-)