The Tropical Fruit Forum

Toronto Robert? I'm interested to know what you're growing. We have an introduction thread in the forum for it.

Behl, PM me your location where I should pick up.

To make it more difficult, did all of Selenicereus get lumped in w/Hylocereus or just S. megalanthus?

-Ethan

Only megalanthus was reclassified into Hylocereus. Selenicereus normally has more than 3 ribs, so megalanthus is closer to Hylocereus. There may be other factors but this is the most apparent.

I have about a dozen kinds but I lost some interest in these. They don't take much work so I just leave them be.

Guatamalan types:
- Santa Barbara Red (collected wild from Central America)
- Condor
- American Beauty
- G2 (part of Paul Thomson's original wild selections for crossing, thin compact vines)

Unnamed:
- H. polyrhisus
- H. megalanthus (yellow)

Paul Thomson's hybrids:
- Halley's Comet
- Physical Graffiti (fastest growing)
- Delight
- S8 (Voodoo Child, Arizona Purple)

Whites:
- George (George Emerich the father of cherimoya in CA)
- Quang Ong's white (my name for where it's from)

Others:
- Valdivia Roja (mexican origin from Valdivia ranch, small but numerous fruits, very good tasting, waxy rough texture bluish stem)
- Sin Espina (no spine)
- Purple Haze
- Zamorano
- Tricia (Ed Valdivia's daughter, elongated fruit, deep red flesh, polyrhisus with tendency to alternate between 3 and 4 ribs)


Guatemalan type has clearly lobed ribs with magenta-fleshed fruits and good sweetness. This is the type that was said to be more frost resistant earlier in the thread.
H. costaricansis is interesting and taste can vary from bland to slighly cucumber to very sour. The deep red flesh is very appealing.

I like Valdivia Roja, Halley's Comet, Voodoo Child, and the Guatemalan ones.

Jack Vincent of Oceanside used 2" PVC for his plants before he had to give them away. His 2 plants were over 100lbs each after he cut 200-300lbs off of them.

The 4 foot horizontal PVC of his trellis was bending when I saw it but it was holding.

Oops, my earlier post should have said tynanwyatt@aol.com for the person who's doing the importing. I'll fix that post.

I'm still trying to get mine from March stabilized. I've been looking at getting other possible rootstocks. The seed place I found is out of stock on it for now.

Depends on the variety. The thicker ones tend to be more susceptible to frost. The main problem is ice crystals which cause cell walls to burst and the plant melts, leaving behind a central cane.

Joe did you bag them in plastic? I hear it helps tropical cuttings like mango in our dry climate.

Thanks. This will be useful in 2-3 weeks for me.

Samuel, unfortunately Patrice is one of those people that do their own thing and don't mingle with groups like CRFG. "The only thing rare about CRFG are the growers themselves." I met him through a mutual friend as he was finishing his trials on growing P. alata and preparing to grow them in large scale. I'll find out how to contact him. His place is findable by GPS coordinate only because all the roads for several miles have the same name.

Yes I think that's a flower. Flowers grow right after you see the 3-leaf pattern. There should be a special name for them but I don't know it.

California is Mediterrainean weather so anything that don't normally grow in this area or this climate would be rare by CRFG standard. I agree there are meetings that feel too "normal".

Blueberries and pawpaw were rare because they didn't normally grow in places like San Diego. But these days with the antioxidant food popularity seems like every gardener in California is growing several blueberry bushes of some Southern Highbush or Rabbiteye varieties.