The Tropical Fruit Forum

Looks like the egg case of a parasitic wasp that kills the caterpillers / hornworms that eat papaya leaves.

Sorry I don't know the species names off hand.

One member had seeds a few years ago, if that fact was overlooked:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=11032.0

There's a cat in clearwater here:

 https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/grd/d/clearwater-tropical-fruit-trees/6996522514.html

 I do not know him, have never been to his place, just have seen his ads, judge for yourself.

 

There are many lychee around Tampa as well, 28F for 8 hours only resulted in defoliation for me, no die back, in slightly protected location. But they love humidity which Arizona is sorely lacking.  Occasional misting in summer would be futile, continuous misting, expensive.  A large humidity tent / greenhouse might be impractical, but that may be the only way.  Difficult to replicate jungle conditions in the desert.

Just wanted to second the lightning hypothesis, I had a mango tree struck about five years ago, four inch diameter trunk about three feet up, it looked very similar, bark blown off, but my tree was cracked all the way through, fallen over and leaning on the hedge.  I did nothing with it, its still growing and it produced a few fruits this year.

Consider using hydrogen peroxide instead of plain water. The 4% from the drug store should not be harmful to the seeds or seedlings, but will kill mold and mildew and such.

Mokeyfish Moringa does not fix nitrogen

Quote from: monkeyfish on August 18, 2019, 07:15:56 PM

One useful tree not yet mentioned is Moringa, supplying not just nitrogen but food for humans too.

Some sources say yes, some no.

It has been suggested that because Moringa was initially classified a legume, it was then assumed it fixed nitrogen like other members of the family, but reclassified in brassica, its now assumed that the initial assumption was erroneous. I think its not as simple as that.

It has been established that Bradyrhizobium inoculation results in increased growth rates, leaf protein content and overall yield by weight, but without root nodulation. I think we don't fully understand what's happening.

Then we have this, from about 20 months ago:

"Seed-transmitted endophytic bacteria colonize all tissues of Moringa seedlings. Endophytes isolated from the Moringa seeds show positive effects on growth and potential for imparting increased disease resistance in plants. Bacillus pumilus and Pantoea agglomerans displayed growth promoting characteristics and the Klebsiella showed strong antifungal activities.  Examination of seedling roots showed presence of oxidizing intracellular bacteria as seen in many other plants where the rhizophagy cycle has been hypothesized. The rhizophagy cycle is a process whereby plants obtain nutrients from bacteria that alternate between an intracellular endophytic phase and a free-living soil phase. Bacteria acquire soil nutrients in the free-living soil phase; nutrients are extracted from bacteria oxidatively in the intracellular endophytic phase. A previous experiment suggested that 30% of the nutrients absorbed by plant roots may come from the rhizophagy cycle. It is possible that much of the enhanced protein accumulation capacity of Moringa could derive from the rhizophagy cycle and direct extraction from symbiotic
bacteria. Additional research is needed to confirm this possibility."

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_White15/publication/321484411_Endophytes_of_Moringa_oleifera_Evaluation_of_Growth_Promotional_Features/links/5a2439f40f7e9b71dd0739bf/Endophytes-of-Moringa-oleifera-Evaluation-of-Growth-Promotional-Features.pdf



In the article "Constraints And Opportunities For Cultivation Of Moringa oleifera In The Zimbabwean Smallholder Growers" from "International Journal of Agricultural Research, Innovation and Technology" it is stated that Moringa benefits from mycorrhizal nitrogen–fixing association, but the species of fungi are not mentioned.



Finally in

http://ijpsr.com/bft-article/biodiversity-of-the-endophytic-fungi-isolated-from-moringa-oleifera-of-yercaud-hills/?view=fulltext

we have:

"This present study is undertaken to isolate and identify the potential endophytic fungi from Moringa oleifera, a traditional medicinal plant. Based on the macroscopic & microscopic features the fungal isolates were identified as Alternaria spp., Aspergillus spp. Bipolaris spp., Exosphiala spp., Nigrospora spp., and Penicillium spp. "


There may be more about the interactions of Moringa, bacteria and fungi that we have yet to discover.  In any case, leaf litter from the tree will decay and the proteins will revert to nitrogen in the soil.

One useful tree not yet mentioned is Moringa, supplying not just nitrogen but food for humans too.

For those interested, the green fruit pictured did turn yellow with some brown, just setting on the table.  Salmon colored flesh similar to ripe, slightly less sweet, very little juice, then the familiar tanginess was short lived.  The complexity of flavor was lacking, next I noticed the texture was different, more stringy and a bit pasty, which upon further chewing yielded a bitter aftertaste, something I never experienced with tree-ripened fruit. My conclusion is that green-picked fruits allowed to ripen are much inferior. The tree-ripened fruits are so soft and delicate, I expect that this has little potential as a commercial crop, and will likely never be seen at the farmers' market or produce stand.

Rex, I can only suggest a tall narrow pot for sprouting the seeds, and planting them out before the tap root gets cramped. To prune the root might yield interesting results, but I have no experience with that.

Posci, the ripe fruits are not sour,  I had one this morning before coffee, sweet and juicy, flavor of grape at first, had to move quickly for a paper towel, then the zing or the zest or whatever it is, just like a good peach or mango, the sweetness hits you first, then the brighter flavors, then the deeper flavors.

Then chewy, different than chewy sugr apple, but similar.

A few pictures:

A picture I just made with my webcam showing a ripe fruit cut in half and a green one not cut.



I was reading that green ones will ripen in a few days, I have doubts, but its worth a try.

Here are two others from a couple years ago,

one showing the tree trunk, the bottle cap is about four feet up

https://postimg.cc/Bj6wd1nv

and one showing fruits and leaves in situ

https://postimg.cc/v4BWQrnp

Hopefully you can see those and get some idea.

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Not sure if this is A. hypargyraeus or A. lingnanensis, or if there are two species. If one grows larger than the other, this is it.

To confuse matters, I also see references to Artocarpus nitidus subspecies lingnanensis. That seems to be something other.

Comments and questions always welcome.