Muntingia calabura

[GwenninPR]

I have a couple red trees growing and people love them.  The root suckers and the birds spreading them can be a problem here.  The lower branches die pretty quickly, making a nice (though messy) shade tree.  I will have to have a few "back up" trees ready in case all the branches totally die out.  How short lived is it- 5 years or more?

[fruitlovers]

I have a couple red trees growing and people love them.  The root suckers and the birds spreading them can be a problem here.  The lower branches die pretty quickly, making a nice (though messy) shade tree.  I will have to have a few "back up" trees ready in case all the branches totally die out.  How short lived is it- 5 years or more?

I've had mine for about 8 years and still going strong, has thousands of fruits on it right now. My guess it that they can live 15-20 years.

[jez251]

Muntingia is a pioneer plant, grows very fast and is a short lived tree. Fruits are small but tree makes up in quantity. Just toss about 5-10 in the mouth at once. I consider it a great kiddie fruit. Tastes a bit like candy.

I like the fruit, but the tree takes up so much space that I'm considering moving it out. Although it provides shade for my seedlings, so I may leave it in place a little longer. I do eat it in bunches, but oddly, most of my nephews don't like it much.

Jaime

[fruitlovers]

Muntingia is a pioneer plant, grows very fast and is a short lived tree. Fruits are small but tree makes up in quantity. Just toss about 5-10 in the mouth at once. I consider it a great kiddie fruit. Tastes a bit like candy.

I like the fruit, but the tree takes up so much space that I'm considering moving it out. Although it provides shade for my seedlings, so I may leave it in place a little longer. I do eat it in bunches, but oddly, most of my nephews don't like it much.

Jaime

Jaime, suggest just pruning it down radically to size that you want rather than removing it. Doesn't mind being pruned radically.

[luc]

Every day I walk past 5 of these when walking the dogs and always marvel at the amount of fruit ( almost year round ) They are probably the most productive fruit trees I know and really nice to nibble on ...
After trying , just for fun , numerous times and unsuccessful to reproduce them from seeds and also finding almost no volunteer seedlings , I am starting to believe these seeds have to pas the digestive system of a bird or so to be able to germinate......?
The fruits here are very sweet and one centimeter diameter , if they could be improved to double that size everybody should grow one...

[HMHausman]

Nice. fast growing tree, decent fruit....but at my house was horribly invasive.  I had root suckering in a 50 yard radius from the main tree.  Those suckers were everywhere.  It took me the better part of a year to get them fully under control.

Harry

Edit:  For some reason I thought this was a new thread.  So I repeated myself except the suckers started spreading even further than I originally described.

[Tim]

Luc - I germinated my muntingia seeds in this super expensive mini greenhouse    worked like a charm.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

Muntingia calabura is loaded with calcium...most are unaware of this wholesome feature.

[fyliu]

It's amazing how large the seedlings are. I racently got some seeds and they were smaller than sand grains.

[fruitlovers]

I think main problem with the Muntingia calabura seeds is that they are so small they can easily pass through your starter medium, especially if what you are using is coarse. What i recommend to folks now is to start them in jiffy pots, since these are watered from the bottom. If you can't get jiffy pots (i know Luc already will say that) then start them in a sandy medium and water with a pan of water underneath. Also they like a lot of sunlight to germinate well.

[luc]

I'll try that Oscar , just to prove I can do it .

[fyliu]

Good tips Oscar. I'll do that.

[Soren]

I use a standard garden soil with a thin toplayer of vermiculite.

[lkailburn]

I'm still waiting for my fruit to ripen up. Poor tree doesn't get the sunlight it should on our covered porch.
I also heard these are good to take cuttings from?

-Luke

[fruitlovers]

I'm still waiting for my fruit to ripen up. Poor tree doesn't get the sunlight it should on our covered porch.
I also heard these are good to take cuttings from?

-Luke

Very difficult from cuttings. Air layers would probably work.

[Ethan]

I've had moderate success with cuttings, oddly enough putting fresh cut slightly hardened wood in a brown 22oz. beer bottle with water has given me the highest % take.

-Ethan

[Soren]

Oscar; this is where I slightly disagree with you. It is very possible to do even without rooting hormone - however the success-rate seems to vary a lot, but using rooting hormone I can imagine it is very easy.

[fruitlovers]

Oscar; this is where I slightly disagree with you. It is very possible to do even without rooting hormone - however the success-rate seems to vary a lot, but using rooting hormone I can imagine it is very easy.

Soren, it's possible different plant variants show differences in ease of propagation, just like they show difference in root suckering. I tried several times with mine using rooting hormone and got zero rooting. I also had zero success in moving plant suckers into pots. Just very bad luck propagating this plant, though it can grow like a weed? 

[Soren]

Oscar; this is where I slightly disagree with you. It is very possible to do even without rooting hormone - however the success-rate seems to vary a lot, but using rooting hormone I can imagine it is very easy.

Soren, it's possible different plant variants show differences in ease of propagation, just like they show difference in root suckering. I tried several times with mine using rooting hormone and got zero rooting. I also had zero success in moving plant suckers into pots. Just very bad luck propagating this plant, though it can grow like a weed? 

Hi Oscar - that could be a factor, or the time of year, size / age of cutting, methods etc. I am not an expert doing it, but have done multiple runs with a frequency of 0 - 100%. A bit too unstable to use, so now I just transplanting seedlings that germinates by random from birddropping in other plantbags.... 

[fruitlovers]

Oscar; this is where I slightly disagree with you. It is very possible to do even without rooting hormone - however the success-rate seems to vary a lot, but using rooting hormone I can imagine it is very easy.

Soren, it's possible different plant variants show differences in ease of propagation, just like they show difference in root suckering. I tried several times with mine using rooting hormone and got zero rooting. I also had zero success in moving plant suckers into pots. Just very bad luck propagating this plant, though it can grow like a weed? 

Hi Oscar - that could be a factor, or the time of year, size / age of cutting, methods etc. I am not an expert doing it, but have done multiple runs with a frequency of 0 - 100%. A bit too unstable to use, so now I just transplanting seedlings that germinates by random from birddropping in other plantbags....

Do you remember what size and what stage cuttings you used that were succesful?

[Tim]

Here's an update on one of the fruits ...

[lkailburn]

Ate our first two fruits last weekend. Delish! Ours had a light strawberry sugary flavor that came in one punch then faded. Very tasty. Looking forward to having the chance to eat a whole handful at once.

-Luke

[NewGen]

Wow, your tree is still so small but has fruits already. Nice. Do you eat the skin as well? I found the skin to be kinda blah, not bad, not good, so I just spit it out after crushing/squeezing the fruit between my teeth.

[Soren]

Oscar; this is where I slightly disagree with you. It is very possible to do even without rooting hormone - however the success-rate seems to vary a lot, but using rooting hormone I can imagine it is very easy.

Soren, it's possible different plant variants show differences in ease of propagation, just like they show difference in root suckering. I tried several times with mine using rooting hormone and got zero rooting. I also had zero success in moving plant suckers into pots. Just very bad luck propagating this plant, though it can grow like a weed? 

Hi Oscar - that could be a factor, or the time of year, size / age of cutting, methods etc. I am not an expert doing it, but have done multiple runs with a frequency of 0 - 100%. A bit too unstable to use, so now I just transplanting seedlings that germinates by random from birddropping in other plantbags....

Do you remember what size and what stage cuttings you used that were succesful?

Hi Oscar - a friend of mine staying in Entebbe managed to root 2 out of 3 big branches just by placing them directly into the soil during rainy season (i.e. at least one year one shoots); but honestly I have not recorded my experiences doing this.

[jez251]

Nice. Do you eat the skin as well? I found the skin to be kinda blah, not bad, not good, so I just spit it out after crushing/squeezing the fruit between my teeth.

I also never really eat the skin, just pop a few in my mouth, suck the juice out a spit the skins out. The skins while not objectionable do have a bit of astringency to them which I don't think is tasty.

Jaime