The Tropical Fruit Forum

Has there been experiences with Lablab? Cover crop Sesbania (not the ornamental kind)?

This is very interesting idea: if this works out, then planting longan lower could be feasible for increasing root mass.

I've been recently looking into cowpeas and sunn hemp for cover crops until temperatures lower for planting in the fall and am yet to order seeds of the Iron and Clay variety. They would aerate the soil, fix nitrogen and then be used as an intercrop with fruit trees. Comfrey is noted as in invasive plant in most places, so if you are interested, you should look for plants that are sterile, but produce sideshoots. As for me, I don' t think it would be as invasive than in other places, but plants would have to be ordered live to my location because they don't produce seeds. Most moringa casual growers here cut back their morniga severely to the main stem in the winter so it is easier to frost protect. It consistently comes back in the spring, so it is not an issue. Another non nitro fixation but high biomass can be duckweed. Some nonprofit organizations give away free duckweed to those interest here in the Valley, but received high competition against moringa. They both have high protein and are both eaten, but duckweed is mainly used for a aquaponics system. Of course, you can always compost duckweed, but it is mostly used in tilapia cultivation. Duckweed competes with string algae for sunlight, so if the strtig algae is taken out and fed to tilapia (they are in separate tanks), then it feeds the fish. The fish dirty water is used for growing duckweed. Ethrynia is more of an ornamental tree so it it can't be mulched back in. here is a pdf from Arizona:
http://extension.arizona.edu/pubs/az1519.pdf
@Vernmented, what Yonemoto pdfs do you speak of? Can you provide a link

I think the topic concerns starfruit.

Is ziman pink a dwarf cultivar?

Even now, I question my previous statements as more ideas come into play. Neither starch or I have grown avocados here before, but it is known that main cause of death of avocado is salt. Sunburn is alleviated by whitewash and 30% shade cloth. Disliking clay is helped by innoculating holes months before planting, without replacing too much native soil. After reading the article concerning amended holes, I've concluded that soil mix should be least compost possible without killing plants. Slow intial growth is worth the wait in fear of 'rootbound' holes. Therefore, since layering compost long before planting helps naturally work it into the soil, it is a viable ammeding method. The best tropical fruit growers in AZ do a similar method, except compost is worked into the soil instead if letting the black gold seep in. Avocados are special in that they don't like salt, even more than lychee/longan. While it is best to adopt salt - free growing methods, they still get very crispy. The growing from seed is used to select possible rootstocks resistant to salt. There are some, like Duke 7, that take salt very well, but it could be interesting to compare such rootstocks to arizona native cados. My main point is that growing a grafted tree is not worth it because I do not believe that a rootstock can effectively 'filter out' salt. A seedling or Salt tolerant var grafted onto a seedling would be best. Starch would beg to differ.

I grow banana as well. Here  is a video from a local nursery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KSiZCHyrDc
Nursery here sell african rhino horn, ice cream, namwah, mysore , manzano, lakatan red iholene, thousand finger and raja puri, no joke

Quote from: darkcoolboo on April 04, 2015, 03:12:13 AM

Tree tomatoes are insipid when compared to other fruits. They can be featured in both savory and sweet dishes, but don't excel in either category. I would go with a regular tomato for savory. Black sapote die back severely in the winter and grow to large trees so it is hard to cover. It is a soft, mushy 'fruit' (not really sweet). It is not sweet and has little flavor, so it is easy to use your imagination to envision chocolate. Most Floridians eat them if their friends has too much fruit to eat by themselves and for alleged 'heath benefits'. Naranjilla is not grown commercially because it shares the same pests as tomatoes and then some. They are simply as slow death and it's easier to grow a fruit that more people have experience with for help. In terms of citrus, you can multi grafting some tahitian pomelo (rated best tasting in taste tests), valentine pomelo (red fleshed pomelo), smith red blood orange (the same flavor & seedlessness as navels, but with a rich maroon color flesh), and try a wampi for experimental. A good idea is to get some jackfruit trees. They don't grow well in AZ, but they do well in CA in a protected/warmer microclimate. It's among my favorite fruits, so not being able to grow it is a bummer (they don't like the winters here). IT IS A MUST! All the good varieties are in FL like bangkok lemon, so you might have to ship some scions. They only take 3 years to fruit, so you can eat jackfruit while you wait for your mamey.

I've grown tree tomato and naranjilla in Southern California and they both did fine. Tree tomato is one of my favorite fruits to add to guacamole. I also enjoy them out of hand? Really love this fruit. Insipid? I think you either have a bad variety or can't grow them well in Arizona. Bit too parched and hot there for these thirsty fruits.

Really? What else do you use tree tomato for other than some good guac  ?

Quote from: michsu on April 06, 2015, 01:19:50 PM

What variety of jackfruit should I try? Thanks.

Bangkok Lemon or Red Morning (also known as Daeng Suria/Dang Suria). 

I second this statement. They say that you never look at jackfruit the same after eating Bangkok Lemon. Red morning has nice color. You might want to look into some jackfruit seedling selections made here on the forum, like a 'Bangkok Lemon' seedling from Sleepdoc, 'zero latex Jackfruit' from Coconut,  or even Harry's Black Gold X Tabouey! In the fall, I too will look into seedling jackfruits, but purely for cold tolerance.

I've never heard any bad things about Lorito...

Quote from: NathanC on March 22, 2015, 08:12:11 PM

Leo's Costa Rican Dragon will be available to those that are willing to drive to Leo's home in late summer.

Hello Nathan, do you have any information on Leo's Costan Dragon? Is that the one he crossed with the S Megalanthus.

Simon

Yes, It's Leo's newest selection. It is a H. costaricensis X S. Megalanthus.  It is a top selection made in 2005 that sports fruit that is NOT spiky, unlike Frankie's Red and S. Megalanthus. It doesn't have any H. Undatus in the mix. It appears to have a dark purple-ish flesh that could be interesting. Leo said on the Yahoo! group that it will be ready by the end of the summer. I don't live in California, so could someone shed some light on experience with it?
The fruit is featured in the second half of ricshaw's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRtO7J6ZKX0

I usually like to underwater my papayas. I didn't even water my larger one for the last 3 months, because it was the winter. Papayas lose leaves regularly, and as long as the wilt rate is roughly the same as the growth rate, then you're fine.

greenman62,
How much aloe vera extract do you use per gallon?

Try cangrejo's sugar apple.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=505.0