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Jarilla chocola

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Caesar:
A papaya relative with a fruit that vaguely resembles a dragonfruit, I was interested in this one ‘cause it supposedly grows a root crop as well (though I don’t know if harvesting it kills the plant). So far, I’ve repeatedly been given hope only to have it dashed, and I’m rather frustrated. For one thing, the seeds are expensive (4 seeds a pack for $5.50 at Tradewinds). I initially bought 2 packs (8 seeds) only to have 4 pop up, of which 1 died off quickly (I suspect bitten by a roach). The remaining three were growing fine, but I was concerned that I might lack males or females (they’re dioecious), so I splurged on 2 more packs, only to have 2 of the original plants die off spontaneously. Maybe they lacked water? I thought they were fairly hydrated, the frustration is potent! Now I have 4 more seedlings coming up (hoping for more), and I’m working to get the big survivor up-potted to give it a fighting chance (it sure looks stronger). If I end up lacking either gender when flowering comes, I’ve half a mind to give up altogether. I’m used to having exotic seeds fail to sprout, but to watch them grow healthy and keel over for nothing is another layer of frustration altogether.

Here’s the survivor, its two dead siblings, and the new crop of seedlings:

nullzero:
I lost some previously, they can get shocked easily. Also I noticed they like good aeration and drainage. Just keep the soil slightly moist, it has a storage tap root that gains in size after a few months.

Jesssfl27:
Did you get them from TWF? I’ve tried growing them before also and I  just started some new seeds. On my first run I got two seedlings. They were doing alright until I transplanted them and went into shock. I lost one and the other got some fungus. Even after fighting off the fungus with the help of copper fungicide it didn’t really improve. This time I’m starting them in slightly bigger pots so that I’ll only have to transplant once. I planted 12 seeds since the seeds from twf have around 50% germination rate. Please post updates on your progress! Good luck!

nullzero:
Yeah TWF I got the seeds from. I will post updated pics of them in near future.

Caesar:
I actually found the swollen root of one of the dead ones. I think it’ll rot, but just in case it has any regenerative power left, I re-planted it. I forgot to take a picture of it though.

I planted the survivor and saw it’s swollen root as well (again, failed to take a pic). I put it into a tub where it’s sharing space with 4 germinated Hodgsonia vines (and two seeds), but the vines are kinda buried, so you can’t really see them in the pic.

I have 5 seedlings growing nicely, and this time, I won’t make the mistake of waiting too long (the last three had gone past the seedling stage weeks ago). As soon as they get a nice number of leaves, they’re going into the tub as well. I actually found them to be kinda strong, initially. Both these 5 and the last three handled transplantation fairly well at an extremely early age. Pricked them out of the soil, teased them apart, even broke a root or two, and they’re doing just fine. That was my frustration... why would a seemingly strong plant die spontaneously? As of now, I just think they don’t like drought early on, nor being pot-bound.

Pics of the planted survivor and the seedlings:

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