The Tropical Fruit Forum

Peter should be congratulated. That Pierce is a monster. It could feed a whole family, or one very hungry Cherimoya lover!

I'm glad that Socal cherimoyas have held up after all the rains. Looking forward to the tasting this Friday

It's good to know that the weather hasn't effected the Cherimoyas too much.  That should be good news for the SCREC tasting, I am looking forward to it.  It would be nice to have decent quality fruit there.

Quote from: zands on January 07, 2017, 05:52:47 PM

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/weekend-storm-to-unload-widespread-heavy-rain-in-western-us/70000459
Fill up those mango trees and reservoirs!
I think El Nino is still in semi-effect...we have more rain than usual here. Though not as much as last winter with a declared El Nino in the Pacific ocean.

"An onslaught of excessive rain and mountain snow will threaten lives and property in northern and central California into next week."

Only have had 6.5 inches of rain total for the season where I live.

How many inches of rain for the rest of you?

I have had about 5.8 inches of rain for the season so far here in San Diego.  That isn't bad since we average around 9.5 inches annually.  Over the next two weeks we are suppose to get additional rain and perhaps an extra inch tomorrow.  January and February are our rainiest months, so if this rainfall keeps up, we may go beyond our average for the year.  Not bad for a supposed La Nina winter!  I have had the irrigation system off the last three weeks and the soil is still moist from the last rain we had.  I hope flooding is not bad in central and northern California, but I am glad we are getting rain down in the south - we need it!

Let's say a seedling from awesome jackfruit turns out just ok, than can a seedling of a new parent have a good chance to revert to a grandparent greatness?

I'm scraping my plants for certain areas of the farm due to drought flare ups in the last few years and now just want to fill up the area with jackfruit seedlings because it is plant and forget it kind of tree. I'm in need for top quality jackfruit seeds,  and so it happens couple Amber seedling fruits are ripening. If they turn out just so so,  not sure if I should be proceed with seedlings. Don't want to fill up entire area with junk. Any ideas?

The short answer is it depends, and the probability is low that you will get excellent quality fruit.  If the “grandparents” of a seedling you are growing were excellent quality fruit and the seedlings you have now (first generation) are just okay, this would not be unusual.  It also depends if the “grandparents” were self-fertilized or cross pollinated.  If cross pollinated, then you may not know what the other “grandparent’s” quality of fruit is.  If the seedlings resulted from a self-fertilization of one of the excellent “grandparents” then, you may have more genetic material that will produce excellent tasting fruit. 

Also, if the seedlings you have fruiting now are not self-fertilized, then this could dilute the gene pool with inferior genes that could lead to less quality fruit in the seedlings of the next generation.
The best method to use for obtaining seedlings with high quality fruit is to hybridize (cross pollinate) two excellent tasting fruit trees.  Grow up seedlings of those, and pick the best of them and either cross the best seedlings with each other, or cross them back with the parents to increase success with excellent quality fruit.  You can self-fertilize a fruit tree over several generations as well, but you may end up diluting out the good genes and only end up with inferior genes in successive generations.

Another problem is that if you just use seeds from one fruit and plant those out, this does not represent all the genetic variation of the plant.  You may have say 70 seeds in a Jackfruit, to obtain seeds with the vast majority of the genetic variation, you would need to plant thousands of seeds to find the one or handful of seedlings that have the excellent quality you are searching for.  Some forum members are working with problems just like this in order to obtain superior fruit varieties, so this is not impossible.  It just takes a lot of crosses and time for them to mature and produce fruit.

Quote from: Guayaba on January 04, 2017, 08:56:13 PM

Most green Wax Jambu that I have tried in California are rather bland.  The green Wax Jambu I have tried in Thailand are pretty good, but I still like the red/pink varieties better.  I tried the Perfume Wax Jambu at Ong's in San Diego and I was at first very skeptical. The taste was pretty good, firm, not mealy, sweet and had that rose water taste I like in the red/pink varieties.  I haven't tried dozens of Wax Jambu, so I am no expert, but I still like the Black Pearl variety.  For me it has more of that rose water taste and is nice, crisp, and sweet.

What color was the fruit? It is good green....try again with only fruits from  summer crop and eat only the perfume that's ALL white.

You are probably right MangCau.  Some of the green varieties I have had were not completely ripe.  It's more difficult to tell when they are ripe because they don't turn a different color.  The Perfume Jambu I have eaten has been more like the photograph with a light green top and blush on the base. Those were still very good.  I have also tried the white varieties, but I often find them not crisp enough.  Maybe it is the time of year that I have tried them?  The crisp ones always taste good alone or with the chili and sugar sauce.  Now I am getting hungry!

DPI Gold, Alva and Juicy pearl are very productive especially juicy pearl which is a different species of course. They are grown commercially on a single property and are a big hit. Oscars version of juicy pearl which also is C.argentium auratum and Oscars big purple could also be champs commercially and in the back yard. Philippine gold probably isn't up to the standard of any of these.
I see reds, various greens, medium and small purples and they tend to be seedy and hardly better than the standard Haitian.I just don't get why the good ones haven't become popular. I can think of quite a few other fruit where this is the case also.

Thanks for the input on some of the other varieties of Star Apple Mike.  This is good information.  I will see if I can buy some seeds from Oscar of his varieties too, when they become available later in March and April.

I would think that a number of these subtropical/tropical fruits that people often think are not very tasty would be well served if we had well defined varieties to try and improve on the quality.  I also like the fruiting time of the Star Fruit, late winter and early spring is a limited fruiting time for my collection.

After doing a little more digging I think a better place for some of these Star Apple scions/seeds would be at the USDA Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami.  Anyone ever visted there?  Here is one of their stated approaches:
"ARS and the Cooperator will exchange propagating material (true seed, budwood, herein referred as germplasm), of tropical and subtropical crops and ornamental plants. Germplasm will be increased in the greenhouse or field for testing and evaluation for specific traits (i.e., disease resistance, enhanced yield and fruit quality) of interest or as commercial cultivars."

I just wondered if anyone has further information on good named varieties of Star Apple (Chrysophyllum cainito).  I have read a few of the previous topics on this forum, but there seems to be a lot of variation in people's opinion.  Many people seem to like the green varieties more than the purple.  The purple Haitian variety seems to be common in Florida, but with mixed reviews in taste.

Has anyone on the forum tried the Corrongo variety from Top Tropicals?  Ong's has some, but I am not sure anyone has gotten that to fruit and taste it.  Anyone know of a source for these fruit to buy/taste in southern California? 

I realize this is a marginal plant in southern California, but my area of San Diego may be appropriate for it.  Perhaps I should be more concerned with growing the plant in my climate and worry about the possibility of grafting better varieties later?  Any input would be helpful.

Oh cool!  I am drooling now!  Got my Big Red fix. Thank you for letting me live vicariously through the forum. 

PM sent!

Quote from: Guayaba on December 27, 2016, 02:13:45 AM

If I only had five fruits to grow, it would be items that I would not be able to easily buy.  I don’t think I would mind not having them year around, but some would be almost ever bearing if we were not limited on the quantity of fruit trees to have.
1.   Blue Java Banana – best tasting banana for me, sweet and not mushy
2.   Black variety of Surinam Cherry – The taste is tangy and I never tire of eating them
3.   Biriba – Have not tasted these, but the descriptions given of the firm type sound fantastic
4.   Genova Red Ilama – again have not tasted this yet, but a fruit that tastes like cheesecake sounds perfect
5.   Ice Cream Mango – These taste so good, but I have a heck of a time growing them

Biriba & a.diversifilia are not top 5 fruits especially since you never had them.

Okay, fair enough.  If I can only include fruits that I have eaten, then I'll remove the Biriba and Ilama and replace them with Moro Blood Orange and Gold Nugget Jackfruit.  I was contemplating including Durian on the list, just to make half of the forum gag! Maybe more than half of the forum, now that I think of it!

Thanks Frank for taking a look at this plant for me and giving me your experienced opinion.  As soon as it flowers I'll post some photos for a more affirmative identification.  I'll keep in touch with you if/when you sell any scions of your named varieties next year.  I am thinking of making this a multi-graft tree with different varieties in my upper yard. That is one of the better spots I have with a good amount of sunlight throughout the year.