Have any of you heard of this variety of fruit? I can't find any info on it anywhere, and the person who gave me the trees doesn't know much about it as well. I wonder if it's a type of wax apple?

I went to the agro for a bag of calcium for my bananas and citrus but they didn't have my usual brand. So, I bought another brand. When I got home I realized I'd bought calcium hydroxide instead of the usual calcium carbonate. I know organic farmers won't usually use cal hydroxide. What is the objection? I'm not a scientist but it seems ultimately calcium is calcium. Have any of you had problems with the hydroxide form?

I started some longon seeds six or seven months ago. They all sprouted fine and grew up to six inches or so very quickly. But, that's where they stayed. I saw some longon seedlings started from the same trees at about the same time at the CATIE nursery the other day, and they all seemed to be stuck too. Any ideas?

I don't know if this fits the boundaries of this discussion board, but I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience using guanabana fruit or leaves as treatment for disease? A friend here enthusiastically says he is growing the trees to be used as a potential cancer treatment in place of chemo. Interesting idea! I have read about the fruit's supposed medicinal qualities but never have heard it directly confirmed by someone who has used it for this purpose. I have no opinion pro or con and am not interested in argument...just experiences. But, wouldn't it be wonderful!

I have three Sacha Ichi vines with loads of seed pods ready to harvest. There's lots of info on what to do with the nuts AFTER they're cooked, but I can't find any info on how to more easily extract the seeds or how to cook them. The beautiful seed pods are very difficult to open. There has to be a secret! I tried to eat a nut raw and was spitting for an hour afterwards. Very astringent. Any ideas?

By the way, the vines are very beautiful and carefree to grow. Mine are only eight month from seed and are already VERY prolific.

I've been gorging myself on big yellow tree-ripened biriba fruit this week from my four-year-old tree. I ate four yesterday! I have eaten a number of highly praised cherimoyas in the past (not from my trees yet), and they were wonderful. BUT, I have never had a cherimoya that I would rate as highly as these biribas. Also, the biriba trees are completely care-free, at least in my area.

I'll be in St. Pete in a couple of weeks and I would like to know of a market in the area that sells a good selection of tropical fruit. I want to collect some seeds to take back home. Thanks for the help.

Papaya fruits are at the bottom of my favorite fruit list. In fact they're not even on the list. I don't care for their taste, but I do eat them in fruit salads probably because when I was a kid my grandmother told me to eat them. She said they were very good for the body and would prevent bad diseases. Then she died...of cancer! But I still try the eat them. Maybe out of guilt.

Anyway, my problem is that I can't seem to grow them. I more or less successfully grow all sorts of fruits, but my papaya trees will grow up maybe three or four feet and then mysteriously die. One did grow about 30 feet tall, down my the river. But it only put out a few skinny malformed fruit.

Finally somebody told me to dig a big hole, add lots of compost, plant 10 or so seeds, and then choose the one that's growing especially well and pull up the others. And as the tree is growing pour the 15-15-15 to them. I don't use commercial fertilizers here on my place, but I followed that seeming good advice. Now I have two beautiful Papaya trees, maybe 15 or 20 feet tall. But, all I am growing are two beautiful tall trees with lots of wonderfully deep green leaves on them. (I guess all that nitrogen works?) The trees flower well and a few baby fruits do form, but they just turn yellow and fall off.

BUT, here's the mystery for me. As I take my walks around about I often will see a tree someone has planted in the far corner of their place, tall and green, full of fruit in various stages of ripening, but obviously completely ignored and uncared for. Then on the side of the roads I see nice wild volunteer papaya trees, with large fruits, perhaps planted by some bird who took a dump there. How does that happen??

But, the papaya tree that takes the award is in town beside a little store. It's a very healthy large tree absolutely loaded with big melons...mysteriously growing out of a small crack in a very large rock. No soil, no fertilizer, no nothing.... but rock! And, I can't grow papayas?

Once I heard a Japanese "master gardener" say that successful gardening is more of a mental activity than just a physical one. Maybe that's my  problem with papayas. I just don't like them.

Still, I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks!

I have a farm for sale here in Costa Rica. Is it kosher to post info here?

I picked up a seedling the other day at a Costa Rica vivero simply because I liked its name, Pan de Vida (Bread of Life). Its botanical name is Pouteris Hypogauca. The folks at the nursery couldn't give me any info on the species, and I found very little info on the internet about it other than it's called Cinnamon Apple and is a small to medium sized tree. Before I plant it I would like to know where and how to plant it and if the fruit would actually be worth the trouble. Thanks for any help!

I went on amazon.com to buy some Tanglefoot bug barrier glue and the price was fifty bucks for a little tube. And, it's not available for several months. The other sites I tried say it's currently not available at all. I'm in Costa Rica and the only thing available here is very toxic stuff. Are there any other products available in the States that are as clean as Tanglefoot and work as well?

Yesterday I tasted my first durian fruit. When I first smelled it I thought, well, that has to be the worse part of the experience. Well, it wasn't! Not by any stretch of the imagination! I could not believe how absolutely disgusting it tasted!!!! It took me a while just to get the taste out of my mouth. But, I had read that some people say that when they got past the smell they found it really "great" to the taste. Otherwise, how could it be called the king of fruit? So, I started wondering if I somehow had a "bad" durian. I know it's difficult to describe a taste, but before I run out to cut the tree down, I would like to have some other opinions. BTW, my fruit was slightly yellow and somewhat soft to the touch. The edible () inside around the seed was slightly yellow.