The Tropical Fruit Forum

I guess another question would be which is quicker to produce fruit, air layer or grafting a scion onto a root stock?

Anyway, I'd "imagine" that an air layered tree may do better in a pot since it wouldn't have a tap root?

My own observation is that grafted Mamey "Pantin", unlike many other grafted species, does not readily bloom.
It seems to need a certain size to initiate blooming, even if the "wood" is mature.

Hi,

You in for quite a challenge!

Soursop is relatively easy to grow, except that it is very sensitive to cold.

Unless your soil and water is terrible, those should be the least of your concerns.

Soursop shows damage to the leaves when the temperature falls below 7ºC so for long periods.
It defoliates if the temperature drops further, even if it stays positive.

Wet and cold is even worse and cause die back of the thinner branches. It can freeze to the ground very, very easily.
It's not at all hardy to any kind of freezing temperatures.

It needs to get to some size before it blooms (~2 meters). In my location, with similar averages to Tunis,
soursop has always bloomed early Autumn, so the fruits need to develop over the colder months,
when the plant is struggling the most.

If you manage to get your soursop to thrive, then you should be able to succeed with a bunch of
easier species: jackfruit, for instance.


Good luck!

I will check the under-side of the leaves on my next visit. I am currently in Lisbon, away from these
plants. Still, that prominent midrib you mention does look familiar.

What worries me, it the shape of the leaf. Mine do not look as pointed as yours.  That's the reason
I was thinking it might not be Luc's garcinia.

Thank you guys.

Will see how it develops. Hopefully, the fruit will hold and grow to maturity.
I consult the forum again if that time comes.

Next move is to place a machete next to the achachairus to let them
know I mean business... 

 Hi Miguel.
 Thanks, let's not count your chickens before they're hatched...
 Those pea sized fruits might still fall...

 

Stuart, I'm curious how you'd recommend growing Marula once it reaches a certain size.  I have them in 15 gallon pots, and they are growing like crazy (one is probably 4 feet tall not including the pot height, only sprouted 9 months ago).  Is that normal and ok to let it keep growing in a pot?

My concern is that the location I'm growing it at will get mild frost in winter (probably at worst a couple of degrees below freezing), and we're also expected to get some heavy (cold) rains because of El Nino.  My main consideration is whether it will fruit in a large pot or whether it needs to be in the ground.

Thanks!

I have a pair of fruiting marulas (male + female) at 37º N, South Portugal.
Sadly, the fruits I get are small, the seed is large and the rind is thick.
There's very little to eat, but they are juicy with a rather nice flavor.

In a another location, that experiences frost, I kept some plants, from the same seed lot. They would freeze to the ground
every year. When leafed out, marula is not really hardy. Maybe if they enter dormancy sooner that might help them cope with the cold...

Should work. This summer I got first fruits from a seedling, growing at 37º North.
These plants were grown for several years under plastic, in a greenhouse. Three years
ago, the original plastic was replaced with mosquito netting. Now it rains inside
and in the winter temperatures are pretty much the same as outside, except that
there's less wind, of which we have quite a bit. Since the removal of the plastic
the mamoncillos loose some of the leaves, but flush new growth and flowers
late Spring once it is hot again.

Here's a picture of one of the fruits and my dirty hand 

Quote from: siafu on July 03, 2015, 06:24:35 PM

Quote from: Delvi83 on July 03, 2015, 02:45:25 PM

Does Jackfruit grow and bear fruit even in Ca? I thought it would grow only in Miami area !? Am I wrong?
If it was possible in Ca, there should be some chance even in the wamest are of Italy?

Hi Delvi83,

I picked this one today, grown in Southern Portugal. 6.8 Kg.
It's a seedling from seeds I got from Oscar.
My plant is not exactly outdoors (it's under mosquito netting), but I know of some plants growing outdoors, nearby,
that are doing fine. Moreover, there are reports of fruiting jackfruits in Malaga, Southern Spain.

So, there's plenty of evidence it might do well in Sicily, Calabria, etc.

Hello Sergio,
how many years passed from planting seed for the tree to bear fruits?

Hi,

I bought the seeds from Oscar in June 2008.
Male blooms appeared first late winter/early spring two years before the first female flowers.
The first female flowers and two fruits formed September 2014. A second tree also produced
one female flower last year but no fruit developed.

 Pretty plant with rather nice white flowers.  However,
 the fruit is small and has a pasty consistency, with quite a few seeds and
 there's nothing remarkable about its taste.
 
 You can safely skip it, unless you are a collector with lots of space.
 

Sergio, how old was that seedling green sapote before it fruited?

Checked the Paypal receipt and it's from Apr. 8, 2009 02:32:31 PDT.
First bloom produced a small fruit that aborted.
The second bloom produced 8 fruits that are ripening now, while the tree is finishing its third bloom.

I sowed the seeds in tall pots. I planted this one well before it became root bound.

I never pruned it and allowed it to branch naturally. Consequently, the tree is tall and first branches are
at about 1.5 m. It has been a rather fast grower.

On the down side, it shows some chlorosis from my alkaline soil and water.
I give it chelated micros from time to time.

Yay! One full year later, green sapotes are ripening and they are tasty!

I have been researching about Pineapple cultivation and so far things don't fully add up in terms of the geographies where it is currently being done. Let me explain:

For the most part, we know that pineapple grows well only in tropical regions. A few exceptions that I know of are the Azores (although they do it in greenhouses there), South Africa and Australia. It's true that parts of both SA and Australia (for example, Darwin) indeed have tropical climates but let's take a concrete non-tropical example: Wamuran, Queensland, Australia (map here https://goo.gl/BjeOBC).

There is massive production going on there (http://www.pinata.com.au/our-farms/wamuran-queensland) but looking at the climate of Wamuran (http://weather.mla.com.au/climate-history/qld/wamuran) we can see that from May to October its average mean is often well below 15ºC. Just this month the place has reached a low of 5.3ºC.

In Cartagena, Spain there is ongoing research trying to cultivate pineapple outside of greenhouses (http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/20140401/local/region/garcia-carrion-prepara-salto-201404011922.html) but apparently that isn't very easy beacause their plan now is to find a way of developing the fruit to maturity in 8 months only, in order to skip the winter months.

But looking at the climate of Cartagena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartagena,_Spain#Climate) I get the impression that the average mins are very similar to those of Wamuran.

To finish off such a long post, the question is: Why is it so hard to cultivate pineapples in mainland Europe when there are places where we can climates similar to that of Wamuran ?

Hi Zé,

It's not exactly hard. It's not profitable or competitive with cheap imports from tropical regions.
I'm sure you noticed that imported pineapples are rather cheap, often costing around 70 cents per kilo, including taxes, in Portugal.