Caimito Q's

[gnappi]

I have a purple caimito (flowering for two years without setting fruit) and a green variety (not flowering in the last years due to main limb / trunk breakage and re-growth) and I'm reading that some seedling caimito need cross pollination to fruit. Both are rather large (2" trunk caliper) and have been in ground for 4 1/2 years and were bought as rather large (IIRC) 3 gallon trees.

Questions...

If this is the case, if / when the purple ever simultaneously flowers with the green is it sufficient as a pollinator for the green?

Is it possible or likely that either the green or purple when more mature will set fruit without cross pollination? I ask because their flowering habits did not coincide with each other in the past.

I guess they are seedlings but are these likely to need 10+ more years in ground to set fruit?

[Johnny Redland]

I too would like to know this.  I have a green variety in the ground that fruits well by itself, but I've recently planted a 5Ft purple specimen in close proximity.  The purple is a seedling, whereas the green I'm not entirely sure.

I can tell you however that the first and second year that the green variety fruited the taste was quite bland, but this year the fruits were very sweet. I harvested once they displayed a red tinge on the top surface, which is generally when the top surface becomes soft.  They seem to ripen from the bottom up.  I quite enjoyed the fruits this year and I"m still harvesting them, whereas I know the purple specimen that I am growing my seedling from fruits mostly in Jan-Mar.

[Cop]

gnappi :
   You need To translate my advice...
  Sembre semilla el 12 de Diciembre/95.Florea por primera vez 9/jul/02, y el 21/dic/03 descubri una bo-
          lita, no se logro, y en /dic/05 descubri 2 bolas.nacen 3 de este último. EL 12/jul/15 estaba lleno de flores. El
          2/abr/17 estaba lleno de bolas por vez primera y riquísimas, el 9/abr/17 corte varias.
  Sembre otra semilla de otro árbol diferente el 26/junio/06, nació el 3/jul/06 , Descubri varias (7 + o -)
          frutas por vez primera el 1/mar/15. coseche 2 frutas el 19/abr/15 y el 27/abr/15 coseche 7, el 17 y 26/abr/16 cor
          te muchas bolas, el 9/abr/17 corte mas.
        Mi experiencia es que el Caimito si produce solo, pero muy poco, cuando el segundo árbol floreo por vez primera, el
         otro árbol se lleno de fruta al mismo tiempo ambos estaban llenos de fruta.
        Los 2 árboles son púrpura y enormes 20 metros. cuando fructifican huele a vino toda el área muy fuerte.

[gnappi]

Thx Cop.

I "think" between Google translate and my "reading between the lines" it was sufficient enough to feel I may still have a couple of years to wait.

Judging by the few seedlings I grew (which are now about 5 1/2 years old... one in a pot at my house, one at a friend's house in ground) the year before I bought the trees so I figure my trees when bought were 6-7 years old in the pots making them about 10 or 11. I have no idea if they were air layered or were from seeds. I got them at Bender's maybe Mike can chime in and tell me how they were propagated :-)

I read the edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs309 and hort.purdue.edu articles but the cross pollination issue and actual success by growers in So. Flo. has me curious as to how they fared.