Best Garcinia root stock for California

[greenbean88]

So what are your thoughts? I have a Lukes and an Achacha that I really want to get astablished in the yard in the next few years. I was recently with my family at the Fullerton Arboretum and they have an 8 foot tall "yellow garcinia" that is covered in fruit. Seeing this garcinia really made me think it might be an excellent root stoke that I could be growing right now and graft onto it in a few years. Does anyone know what cultivar this garcinia could be? Thanks in advance for your responses.

[OCchris1]

Hey Erik, I think the Fullerton tree is G. Xanthochymus (at least it looks like it to me). If it is that species, then it would be an "Old world" Garcinia from Asia and not a "New world" Garcinia from our side of the world. Mark in Chula Vista has a large Imbe (G. Livingstonei) with a very nice graft of Luc's grafted onto it....Achacha could work in the same manner I suppose. Good luck!

[Finca La Isla]

Where’s g livingstoneii from?  I didn’t think it is from the America’s.

[dwfl]

Where’s g livingstoneii from?  I didn’t think it is from the America’s.

Africa

[Finca La Isla]

Right, so if an Achacharu can do well on an African garcinia wouldn’t it be worth trying on an Asian?

[WGphil]

Just got two auchacharu seedlings started.

You will notice the tap root is as long as the top so I planted that one in a deep narrow pot

[greenbean88]

Hey Erik, I think the Fullerton tree is G. Xanthochymus (at least it looks like it to me). If it is that species, then it would be an "Old world" Garcinia from Asia and not a "New world" Garcinia from our side of the world. Mark in Chula Vista has a large Imbe (G. Livingstonei) with a very nice graft of Luc's grafted onto it....Achacha could work in the same manner I suppose. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply Chris, your seedlings are doing very well and have pushed new growth sense I bought them from you. Let me know when you have time to start planting your stuff in ground and me and the family will come over to help.

[Dimitry Fisher]

Regarding the relationships between Garcinia species, this paper: https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3732/ajb.1000354 lists the closest relatives of G. livingstonei as G. hessii, G. macrophylla, G. intermedia, and G. staudtii.  G. staudtii is also from Africa, while the other three are from the Americas. If that is correct, then there's no surprise that G. livingstonei is a good rootstock for American Garcinias.

[Finca La Isla]

How does g. livingstonii grow for you guys in CA?  It’s very slow for me here. 
In any case Achacharu grows well for me as a seedling, produces in 4-5 years.  I keep meaning to graft Luc's onto that.  I’ve got a Luc's that is big and has flowered twice but no fruit set?!?
I’ve also got a current project to graft cherapu onto g. lateraflora, just waiting for it to push out!

[OCchris1]

I think I have about 10-12 Garcinia varieties and they are all slow. I am not religious about fertilization, and that could be setting me back a bit possibly. That's awesome you can get Achacha to fruit fairly quickly. I wish I could get Achacha to fruit in 4-5 years...more like 8 here. I find Garcinias to be one of the easier trees to grow in my yard...as long as I give them some shade, keep it moist, and hopefully warm. Other than that they are low maintenance.

[SoCal2warm]

Fukugi (Garcinina subelliptica) is commonly grown as an ornamental and windbreak in Okinawa. According to the following article, the grafting success rate for mangosteen onto Fukugi was 11%, while mangosteen onto mangosteen rootstock was 68%. They say that Fukugi is not recommended as mangosteen rootstock because its grafted seedlings grew slower than seedlings with mangosteen rootstock.
http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=ID1999001088

Fukugi would probably grow very well in Southern and Central coastal California. It has yellow fruits that are not very good for eating but fruit bats in Okinawa are known to like eating them.

[ManVFruit]

G. Xanthochymus and garcinia mexicana seem to do well for me here, Xanthochymus seems to be faster growing so far. I am also testing out many other varieties and so far all seedlings are alive and well outside without protection, Seashore seem to be another one that is doing well here, I think I will use this as rootstock for G.Mangostana in future.