Greetings everyone,

As you all know the Caribbean was hit hard this year.  First our sister islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and British Virgin Islands took a serious beating from Hurricane Irma.  St. Croix was the hub for relief efforts to those islands and many of us donated our hurricane supplies to them.  We had just come down from the stress of barely being missed by Irma when Maria showed up on the horizon.  Everyone hunkered down and while the entire island was spared a direct hit, the west end suffered extreme damage as the northern eyewall scraped by. 

My property is on the north side of the island and I estimate about 15 miles from the eyewall.  Needless to say, the island got severely damaged and my property was thoroughly shredded.  Luckily much of my plantings are juvenile so not a complete loss as I could stand them back up.  But my beautiful genip forest was hit hard and several large lignum vitae trees on my property were uprooted and never to be seen again.

I was in the process of building a house and all my concrete forms and rebar got blown down along with the electrical conduit I had worked hard putting in place.  It's going to be a long road to recovery.  6 months before I expect to see electricity again.  We are grateful though for health and life!  We are also better off than Puerto Rico because most houses have cisterns and generators.  I also run the reverse osmosis water plant for the public drinking water supply and we had our system back up 48 hours after the storm so both St. Thomas and St. Croix residents have access to potable water which is something PR is struggling with.

If anyone has extra seeds they would be willing to send my way I would be very very grateful.  This severe pruning event gives me an opportunity to replace some of the surrounding forest with more fruit trees.  Any seeds, scions, or small plants are very welcomed.  I would be willing to pay the shipping via paypal but can't afford a lot right now as much money is needed to redo what was lost on my construction project.

You probably don't hear much about the Virgin Islands in mainstream media but our territory was hit with two CAT 5 storms while PR was hit with one CAT 4.  So its bad here.  There are 300+ year old Mahogany trees uprooted which says a lot about the strength of the storm.  Hugo decimated the island in '89 as a CAT 4 and those trees survived that storm.  So Maria was significantly more powerful.  I could write so much more about the before during and aftermath of the storm.  It's been a whirlwind of emotions and the ups and downs fluctuate daily.  But the community is strong!  And me and my family are survivors!  We harvested fallen coconuts, I've been spearfishing which is a passion of mine so we have plenty of fresh fish, and we are good friend with some folks here that teach survival skills classes so we know what and where to forage wild greens to add into our staples for vitamins and taste.  Its like long term camping!

Purchased a one acre property on St. Croix about 2.5 years ago.  Started with clearing by hand with machete and chainsaw. 

This is what it looked like in March 2015:


We have come along way with just my wife, six year old son and myself doing all of the work.  Now in the process of building a house.

Here is a video I made this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i_F2zogAJI

After learning about this forum, I have done lots of reading on here.  After doing keyword searches, I recently started on the last page of this forum and am slowly working my way to the beginning.  Not reading every thread, only the ones that pique my interest. 

There is so much great information in this forum and so many great members!

Has there ever been a forum meet and greet?  Would there be any interest?  Something like a seed and scion exchange and an opportunity for forum members a chance to meet and arrange trips to come visit each other's fruit paradise. 

I know there are a lot of FL members on here and you all probably know each other already.  I am originally from Lake Worth but have been in the Virgin Islands for over a decade (with a brief respite when I spent a wonderful year in Kauai).  But I would definitely make a trip somewhere for something like this!

Just throwing it out there to see if there's much interest.

Hi everyone,

So I started planting up my property here on St. Croix a couple years ago.  Started with raw land and carved out areas by hand with machete and chainsaw.  We started with grafted mangos and avos, guavaberry, carambola, tangerine, and lots of dwarf coconuts and along several other species available here on island.

Lately I have really gotten into buying seeds from forum members here and also a recently placed order with Fruit Lovers.  So now I have several Pitanga seedlings, Sabara, the Boca Snob Jack fruit, Miguel's 'Neylita' Jabo, Mangosteen, Blue Jabo etc etc etc.  Its such a rewarding feeling seeing those seedlings pop up through the dirt!  I know I will have to wait 10 years or more on some of these but that's ok I'm still in my early 30's  .

Fighting the urge to buy more more seeds   I have a dream of one day having this great variety of fruit trees with lots of rarities that no one on St. Croix has- much less even heard of.  I am also germinating more seeds of each species than I will be able to plant so hopefully can recoup some seed costs in a few years as they mature.

Until then, does anyone have any tips on how to maintain my growing collection?  I am starting them all on a covered lanai with a few hours western sun exposure before it sets in the evening.  I am having good success with germination.   As the seedlings grow and mature, I re-pot them into bigger pots and move them outside to my "nursery".  The nursery is a table under some large Moringa trees which provide dappled sunlight and also drop their blossoms into the pots which seems like it could be beneficial.  I have a worm inn and put the vermicompost on top every couple weeks.  Besides re-potting when it seems they need it, providing adequate water, and topping off with vermicompost, is there anything else I can do to ensure vigor and health? 

As my collection grows, I will start segregating like species together since they will start to have different needs.  I sort of fantasize about the idea of having a small rare fruit nursery one day and be able to offer these hard to come by species to other residents of St. Croix.  Any tips on how to do this are much appreciated!

Hello everyone,

I am a coconut aficionado.  I have many colors and varieties.  Someone from Hawaii sent me a "Samoan" but its looking more like a tall as it grows so I am thinking it got cross pollinated with a tall and will not be a true Somoan dwarf.

If anyone has any or knows where I can obtain a Samoan aka Fiji dwarf coconut, I would be much obliged.

I am also looking for a brown dwarf.  This would complete my collection (except for a macapuno).

Thanks

Hi everyone,

Checking in from St. Croix Virgin Islands.  I have a banana tree here that I was told is a Bacuba.  I am not 100% sure it is and also having a hard time finding many references to Bacuba on the interwebs.  Attached are a couple pics.  It really is a great variety.  Produces fruit when its about 12' tall.  Good resistance to drought. And the racks it produces...let me tell you are a sight to behold.  60 pund rack is pretty normal and the banans are on average 1.5 -2" in diameter.  Somewhat firm but no fibers and very sweet. 

Any thoughts?

I also have another type that I have no idea what it is.  I'm thinking Burro Banana?  It doesn't start fruiting until about 15' tall.  Produces big racks and the fruits do get sweet but not overly sweet.  They are very firm.  We have never cooked them green but I'm thinking it could be a good type for this.  I attached a couple pics of that one as well.

Bacuba?

Bacuba?

Bacuba?



Burro?

Burro?