DPI Gold and Alva starapples and juicy pearls are ripe again

[Mike T]

Another season passes and once again I am eating a few starapples. Just as a reminder the DPI Gold and Alva are known as gold or pink  starapples which are much rarer thgan the purples and greens as well as being larger and sweeter. Sometimes they reach 1kg.




The juicy pearls have a single seed are apparently the same species and perhaps subspecies as what Oscar has in Hawaii and are lovely to eat. They appear to be Chrysophyllum argenteum subsp. auratum.
 

[sunny]

Which one is the best? And is the tree big ?

[Raulglezruiz]

Hi Mike, they look awesome! Can't wait to try my owns I grafted the DPI gold to a standard adult bearing caimito tree that now I'm ready to topcut, hopefully this way can bear soon, about the juice pearl Oscar mentioned his tree as being smaller than regular caimito and having more spread fruiting season, have you noticed the same in juicy pearl?

[Guayaba]

Great to see these varieties again! You had mentioned before that only a few individuals had trees of these varieties. Are there any plans of getting the fruit into wider availability. I hope to visit Australia in the future and would like to try them.

[Ethan]

Lucky fellow, those look delicious Mike! I have Oscar's pink, I wonder if I could graft it onto my purple? See if I can speed it up a bit.

[Mike T]

There are only a few confirmed trees of each and no plans for wider production. They are heavy bearers with the juicy pearl being a small tree and the other two being standard large starapple trees. Alva and DPI Gold are as good as each other in quality with low latex and high quality. Juicy pearl is just different but nice but is quite milky and the latex is not tenacious. Most juicy pearls are 150g to 250g with some more than 350g and they are flattened on the poles.

[Carl.D]

Mike,
What height & age did your juicy pearl first successfully fruit ? Same as dpi gold ?

[sunny]

Adapted to Fine Textured Soils: No

So it cannot grow in clay soil??


http://sagebud.com/bastard-redwood-chrysophyllum-argenteum/

[Finca La Isla]

I have one that I got the seed from Jim West, perhaps it is like Oscar's.  It is flowering for the first time now.  It's planted in clay soil and is less than 3 years old, perhaps 3m high.
Peter

[Mike T]

Starapples and juicy pearls do fine in clay soils. Juicy pearls fruit at 3 years old and the tree is smaller than starapples. The juicy pearl has a different shape and size from those that Oscar has by the look of it even if they are the same species and probably subspecies. I am sure they graft onto each well as they are obviously closely related.

[arvind]

I have one that I got the seed from Jim West, perhaps it is like Oscar's.  It is flowering for the first time now.  It's planted in clay soil and is less than 3 years old, perhaps 3m high.
Peter

wow this species is precocious .never thought of that because oscars plant only flowered at 6 years old and it seems like his plant takes longer to bear and slow growing.currently his is at 12 feet tall after 10 years.maybe this species has many variations and it would be great to popularize it

[sunny]

I have one that I got the seed from Jim West, perhaps it is like Oscar's.  It is flowering for the first time now.  It's planted in clay soil and is less than 3 years old, perhaps 3m high.
Peter

Wow, 3 years is nice...maybe you have picture of tree? Is it growing wide?

[Finca La Isla]

I think I understated the height earlier. The tree is about 5m high, 4m wide and the trunk is only about 7cm thick. It’s not in a very sunny location, perhaps more in the open it would be shaped differently.
Peter

[sunny]

I think I understated the height earlier. The tree is about 5m high, 4m wide and the trunk is only about 7cm thick. It’s not in a very sunny location, perhaps more in the open it would be shaped differently.
Peter

Very nice tree, thank you for picture.

So this tree can grow fast and also in shade. And not so big is also good.

[arvind]

I think I understated the height earlier. The tree is about 5m high, 4m wide and the trunk is only about 7cm thick. It’s not in a very sunny location, perhaps more in the open it would be shaped differently.
Peter

any updates on the tree?

[raimeiken]

wow just 3 years?! Any seeds available for sale?

How cold of temps can they handle?

[Finca La Isla]

I still don’t see any fruit set as yet.
Peter

[sunny]

I still don’t see any fruit set as yet.
Peter

Do you have fruit now?

[Mike T]

DPI Gold starapples are the other big pink ripening now and depending an can be pale pink,deep pink and even half green when ripe. Like alva they can be 2lbs and have little latex the ones in hand here are not as good as those in pics when this thread was started. The flesh is white and they are sweet.