What's the deal with Grewia ?

[luc]

I have one plant , a messy grower , doing well but no sign of flowering . Isn't this one supposed to be a fast fruiter ? Is it worth keeping ?

[FlyingFoxFruits]

there's quite a few species..I've tasted the most common one in FL, and it's very pleasant to munch on.  You can eat the fruit at various stages of ripeness, all being very tasty.

my friend grows a few of the harder to find grewia..and they are taking their time to flower.  I'm interested in these plants!  they seem easy to grow, and very rugged.

[luc]

there's quite a few species..I've tasted the most common one in FL, and it's very pleasant to munch on.  You can eat the fruit at various stages of ripeness, all being very tasty.

my friend grows a few of the harder to find grewia..and they are taking their time to flower.  I'm interested in these plants!  they seem easy to grow, and very rugged.

The branches grow very long and droop , I read somewhere one should prune them to 1 meter ?? Can you check with your friend what he does Adam ? No idea which one mine is .

[FlyingFoxFruits]

don't be afraid to prune the tree!  The cold knocks them back sometimes in FL, and they resprout just fine...and fruit on new growth.

they are hard to kill  once established...I'm sure they can handle coppicing.

I bet you have the same one I tasted, G. asiatica

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/v4-348.html

here is the info your looking for...from the link above

"Culture and Management

One-year-old seedlings are usually spaced 2 to 4.5 m apart. Bushes flower progressively during the spring months. Since phalsa bears fruit on current season's growth there is a need for regular but severe annual pruning before the on-set of spring. Annual pruning to a height of about 1 m encourages new shoots and higher yield of marketable fruit than does more drastic trimming (Singh and Sharma 1961). Gibberellic acid has been reported to improve fruit set and increase fruit size (Randhawa et al. 1959). The phalsa plant shows good response to nitrogen applications. High levels of phosphorus supply increase sugar content in the fruit while higher potassium suppresses sugar and promotes acidity. Phalsa is considered stress-tolerant and is commonly grown under neglect (Hays 1953)."

there's quite a few species..I've tasted the most common one in FL, and it's very pleasant to munch on.  You can eat the fruit at various stages of ripeness, all being very tasty.

my friend grows a few of the harder to find grewia..and they are taking their time to flower.  I'm interested in these plants!  they seem easy to grow, and very rugged.

The branches grow very long and droop , I read somewhere one should prune them to 1 meter ?? Can you check with your friend what he does Adam ? No idea which one mine is .

[fruitlovers]

Luc, probably what you have is phalsa (Grewia asiatica). That is the most commonly grown one and commercially grown in India. There it is mostly made into a juice and valued as nourishing for women who are pregnant. The fruit is pleasant, but nothing to crow about. It makes a lot of fruit once it gets cranking, but they tend to bear over long period, so it's hard to pick a lot of fruit at once. Mostly i find this plant valuable as an ornamental. Very pretty flowers and attractive also when fruiting. It can be pruned back radically after fruiting and that is the commercial practice in India. I find that mine fruit just fine also without any pruning, so it's certainly not necessary. BTW plants are fruiting here right now.

[luc]

Fruit size Oscar  ...2 cm or so comparing with the leaves ?

[fruitlovers]

Fruit size Oscar  ...2 cm or so comparing with the leaves ?

I wish! More like 1 cm. Supposedly there are cultivars that get 2cm but i've never seen them.

[edself65]

Here is some info on Grewia tenax

http://cropsfordrylands.com/wp-content/uploads/Grewia-Tenax-Nutrition.pdf


Ed