The Tropical Fruit Forum

Protects our fruit and seedlings

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629915327125

Abstract
The African baobab's (Adansonia digitata) breeding system has not been experimentally verified, and it remains unclear why such a stark disparity exists between ‘male’ trees that produce few, if any, fruit, and ‘female’ trees that produce many fruit consistently year after year. Combined results from gene flow analyses of 26 trees scored for nine microsatellite loci and hand-pollination experiments on five trees across three baobab populations in Mutale District, Limpopo Province, South Africa, investigated the breeding system, strength of incompatibility within trees, and if genetic differentiation was detectable between ‘males’ and ‘females.’ Our data suggest that A. digitata is largely self-incompatible. ‘Male’ and ‘female’ trees showed high heterozygosity and estimated outcrossing rates did not differ in degree of self-incompatibility, and showed no significant genetic differentiation. The ability of ‘males’ to produce fruit if cross-pollinated suggests that poor fruit production in male trees is most likely due to low rates of pollination.

 

In Costa Rica right now. Getting to taste lots of new fruits. Found an unknown in a gutter. Big, smooth and yellow with flesh like an annona. Smelled like a lemon custard pastry fresh out of the oven. Waiter at restaurant that owns the land said guayaba china, but thé seeds were huge. Anyone recognize?

Place has cleaned up quite a bit, prices are up too, but if you're interested in Mangoes you should stop by Exotica. He's got dozens of varieties, most of which I'd never heard of. 'Peggy' was a name I recognized. Some 'California Grown' too, which are not Thompson's and seem to be grafted from locally successful trees. That's as much as I remember. If anyone else goes by would love your impressions.

Just returned from the big island. Started with the suggestions I got here and got more tips there. Got to visit a couple forum members, which was very cool. Seeing the trees around the island was neat, especially the feral mangoes growing huge alongside the roads (and the ones at Rainbow falls...holy cow). And the Jackfruit and Breadfruit.

For tasting new fruits the farmers markets were mostly a bust (tried 5 different ones), but the roadside stands delivered. Two in south Kona, one in front of the old theater and another a couple miles further down the road. I got to try for the first time: star apple, rollinia, tree tomato, soursop, ugli fruit, some orange dragonfruit (a megalanthus hybrid?), cocoa fruit pulp. Was a bit early in general though.

Pretty productive in my book. Plus other adventures/siteseeing.


Mango tree in front of Rainbow Falls:

Really excited about all the growth this spring, only the 2nd or 3rd for most of my plants.

M. cauliflora, Jaboticaba likely 'Sabara'. Was looking ugly, dropped all of its leaves and flushed new ones while I was gone 4 days:


Glycosmis pentaphylla, Gin Berry. Suffering from nutrient deficiency. Flowering quite a bit.


Seratonia siliqua. 2nd season pruned Carob seedlings getting ready for some more espalier training:


Eugenia uniflora. Surinam Cherry from Ethan, stays green most of the winter:


Vermillion seedling from Leo, amazing red during winter. Some flowers open right now:


Multigrafted Almond (cut way back to deal with last years fireblight). Two nectarine, two peach and one pluot graft:


Espaliered Anna Apple in foreground and Hood Pear in background:


Myrica rubra. Yangmei from Rtreid, pushing like crazy:


Fuerte avocado flowering


Chandler Pomelo just about to flower


Casimiroa edulis. Aggressively 'pugged' Suebelle white sapote pushing out. Kinda wanted this one to die so I could give its spot to a mango, but will give it another chance to grow bushier. Was horrible infected with lace bugs when I pruned it:


Seedling hawaiian papayas loaded with fruit. Also note the 3 inches of mushroom compost 


Dovyalis caffra. Female 'silber' kei apple with new leaves at every node:


Bunchosia argentea. Peanut butter tree pushing lots of new growth.


And looks like it might be pushing its first flower buds:


Tim Thompson's 'Pineapple' mango, about to flower in my greenhouse area:

Looking for some interesting and preferably drought tolerant fruit/nut trees for 8B (-10C). 10yr min is around 8F (-13C).

I know there's plenty of apples/pears/stone fruit and even citrus. How about more exotic? Che, Yangmei, other chinese temperates? Anything from Africa?

And what would be good candidates for attempting some selection?

Going to give a shot at different oaks, chestnut, mulberry, che, yangmei, and kei apple. Probably opuntia. Pindo palm.

Any others?

Got my first lone ripe orangeberry (gin berry) today. Tasted like pine with a hint of something else. I guess that's the turpentine people complain of in Mangos and surinam cherries. No sourness. Only very mildly sweet. I liked it. Fruit was smooth, salmon colored and translucent. Flesh was thin over a large seed (relative to the fruit) and came off freely.

Doing some housecleaning and want to get rid of a stackable composting bin as well as some seedling/small plants: babaco (x3), lemonadeberry bush (x2), sugar bush x lemonade berry hybrids (x5), soapberry, ackee (x2), torrey pine (x2)

Free for pickup in north san diego county. PM me to arrange.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-use-a-stackable-compost-107607

Picked up a sapodilla/chico sapote ffrom california tropical fruit trees today. Tasted very good. Nothing very different from others ive had but smaller, which i like. Guy said it was a 'delano'. Anyone heard of it?

Also had some tastey brewster lychee, sabara jaboticaba, and rose apple.

Looking for the best kiwi for Southern California. Not much here though I did find the below post from greenman62. Any other thoughts? Is there a real difference between deliciosa and chinensis? Is there a better arguta (hardy kiwi) variety for socal? Some sites say you can't grow them above zone 8, but CRFG page implies otherwise.

Quote from: KarenRei on December 23, 2014, 06:17:35 PM

Do commercial kiwi cultivars actually produce viable seed? I mean, could one just go down to the store, pick up some kiwifruit  and follow that process? (if they need four months of stratification then surely they can take refrigeration during shipping...)  I had just assumed that, like commercial bananas, they'd been bred to the point of infertility.

If it were possible, even if ones odds of getting a good plant were low, it could still be a way to get a male for pollination since kiwi is monoecious.

i was going to ask this myself.
Kiwi does have seeds
banana from the store do not - im pretty sure.
i dont know if that seed is viable or not?
also, the variety i think is the "Hayward "

 Hayward, does best with a winter rest of 800 hours of chilling (defined as total hours between 32° and 45° F.)

(such as southern California, southern Texas, and Florida), cultivars such as Elmwood, Dexter, Abbott, or Vincent would be more suitable. In very mild winter areas the vines may retain their leaves and fail to flower the following season. Kiwi vines can be successfully grown in large containers.
Seeds from store bought fruit may be planted in the spring
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/kiwifruit.html

They do need a winter chill in order to produce fruit, so you can’t grow kiwi anywhere warmer than zone 8.
 Different varieties have different temperature requirements, so you should try to buy plants that suit your climate.
http://www.gardeningblog.net/how-to-grow/kiwi/

Fuzzy Female varieties need Fuzzy Males to set fruit
Fuzzy Varieties (Actinidia deliciosa)
http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/JFE/product-category/berry-plants/kiwi/

Vincent Female Kiwi – Low Chill Kiwi!
Even though she’s named Vincent, this is the female fuzzy kiwi looking for Tomuri. She’s a tasty egg-sized fruit, similar to what you are accustomed to buying in the grocery store. Bred for warmer climates, she requires only 100 chill units, and a growing season of 240 frost-free days to sweeten the fruit. Fruit set is most successful when the winter temperature drops below 32, and Vincent is hardy to 10-15 degrees when mature. Can be grown successfully in a large pot if trellised adequately. Harvest in October. Zones 8-9.
http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/JFE/product/vincent-kiwi/


How to Grow Kiwi From Store Bought Kiwi Fruit!
http://foodiegardener.com/how-to-grow-kiwi-from-store-bought-kiwi-fruit/

I've been loving Ken Druse's podcast for a couple years now. He recently took up the topic of growing seedlings and I thought it was very interesting.

http://kendruse.typepad.com/ken_drusereal_dirt/2010/02/ken-druse-real-dirt-2-19-10.html

I'm going to be driving up the coast from San Diego almost to Oregon in July and I'd like some suggestions of places to visit of botanical/fruit interest, e.g. botanical gardens and nurseries. Interested in fruits/edibles as well as natives (esp. conifers).

Champa, Temple and Roger Meyer nurseries have been suggested in another thread. Been to Mimosa. Are there bay area nurseries that are must-see?

Lotusland and Huntington Gardens were suggested by a landscaper friend.

I spent many hours in SF Botanical last week so probably will skip it this time. (Also saw the sculpted trees in Gilroy and the awful Burbank home in Santa Rosa.) The LA county arboretum has an engelmann oak grove that i'd love to see. UCR has subtropical fruit collection, baja, and temperate forest that look interesting.

I'd like to hit Berkeley Arboretum and find their Yangmei.

Any other suggestions? Or particular things I should be looking for when I visit? I've read there are some very large cork oak trees in Nor cal. Would like to see those too.