Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - simon_grow

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 10
1
Hey everyone,

I’m looking to purchase some Ceci Love mango scions. If you have any for sale, please let me know here of PM me. Thanks in advance!

Simon

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / King Lychee
« on: July 02, 2023, 10:43:51 PM »
So I was shopping at 99 Ranch market and found these “ Litchi King” Lychees and they are friggin huge. The larger ones are about 75g and are larger than a chicken egg. Every single fruit is extremely large. These Lychees are from China and they have a sweet, slight subacid flavor. The peel is thick and has a tannin taste if you try to bite through it. There is little to no Lychee/Rose flavor and the flesh has a slight taste that I don’t like so much. I rate this Lychee a C+. Oh yeah, the seed is pretty large but there is still a lot of flesh.







Simon

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Leo Manuel’s passing
« on: June 02, 2022, 06:50:19 PM »
I am very sad to announce to the community that Leo Manuel has passed away this week. I just stopped by to give my condolences to his family and they are very appreciative of the support they have received.

Leo was a pioneer in the rare fruit community and he frequently opened up his yard for tours, especially for CRFG members.

Leo played a huge roll in getting me hooked on growing rare fruits and he also mentored me in my early years of grafting. Leo grew many different types of fruit in his yard but he especially loved his Mangos, Lychees and Annonas. Had I not met Leo way back when, I would probably not have discovered one of my true passions in life.

Leo’s passing is a huge loss for the rare fruit community and he will be dearly missed.

I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen to all of Leo’s fruit trees but there are several people that have volunteered to help out with the yard.

Here is one of the last group pictures we had at a fruit tasting pre-COVID


Here are a few links with pics of Leos trees

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=3188.0

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=18187.0

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=13514.msg171283#msg171283

Simon

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / 2022 Indian Mango season in SoCal
« on: May 17, 2022, 12:28:29 AM »
I just picked up a box of Kesar Mangos from Miramar Cash and Carry in San Diego. The price has gone up to $45 for a box of 10 mangos. I don’t know the quality yet because the fruit are not ripe. Please feel free to post updates about varieties available at the local Indian Supermarkets and or taste reviews.





Simon

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: March 07, 2022, 01:09:41 AM »
I’m starting this thread to track the progress of our Yangmei trees in the hopes of learning as much as we can about this exciting and delicious new fruit crop. I am especially interested in tracking the growth rate, fruiting season, identifying morphological characteristics (leaf shape, size, etc…) and fruit quality of the various varieties.

My understanding is that there may be some varieties that fruit a little earlier or later and it would make sense that there would be males out there that produce pollen earlier or later in the season as well. According to one article I read there are also some monoecious (hermaphrodite) trees out there.

Since this is such a new crop in North America, I would love to gather as much data as possible. Please feel free to post pictures of your trees, links to articles and share your success and failures. There is a lot of information out there but almost all the information is in regards to growing Yangmei in China and some of the information may not translate well to growing this crop in the US.

I recently started a new job so I don’t have as much time as I used to have but I will come back to this thread to post a lot more information and pictures as time permits.

Simon

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Is this a fruit? What is it?
« on: December 06, 2021, 02:17:22 AM »
My family hiking around the canyons today we found this thing on the ground. It looks sort of pebbly, kinda like a small Jackfruit. It is the size of an apple and is relatively light in weight. There were several of these things laying on the ground and some of them were about the size of a large cherimoya.

I looked up to see if any of the nearby trees had this fruit like thing but couldn’t find any trees holding this fruit. I also found a fruit that was cracked open. Anybody know what this is?

It smells somewhat fruity with a bit of that sandalwood smell. Thanks in advance!





Simon

7
Please see attached link if you would like to bid on my Yangmei fruit tree grafted onto California native rootstock (M. Californica).

http://ebay.us/ernSlf?cmpnId=5338273189

Here is some additional information

Up for auction is this “Biqi” variety of Yangmei grafted onto Morella Californica  rootstock.

Yangmei is a delicious and exciting new fruit crop in the US and trees are extremely rare. This is the first ever Yangmei grafted onto Morella Californica up for public auction in the US that I am aware of.

Yangmei is an evergreen tree with a densely rounded canopy that produces small fruit that varies in color from white, green, red, pink and black.

Fruit from the “Biqi” variety are dark in color, almost black. The fruit size is larger than a quarter but smaller than a half dollar and this variety is highly coveted for its sweet taste and smaller seeds. Biqi has a slightly sweet smell with a tinge of berry and a hint of Osmanthus.

The Biqi fruits I sampled had a Brix of about 13.4% and tasted sweet with a combination of flavors from Blackberries, Pakistani Mulberries, Strawberries and something very unique that was reminiscent of Sandalwood.

Many people have difficulty growing Yangmei on its own rootstock and the Californica rootstock may or may not grow better for them. 

This tree is grown outdoors in full sun but it gets placed under some shade on extremely hot days. This tree is in a #3 container and has two grafts that have pushed.  The larger branch is 6.5 inches long and has approximately 25 leaves.  The smaller branch is 2 inches long and has 12 smaller leaves. There is also one additional grafted bud that has healed over but it has not pushed yet so I’m selling this tree as a double graft.

I keep the pH of my soil around 6.3-6.7 and I only water my plants when the soil has dried out about 70% or more. For the best chance of success, this tree should be planted into the ground because the soil moisture will be easier to control.

In most cases, Yangmei will require both a male and female (Dioecious) tree to produce fruit. This tree is only grafted with female scions from the “Biqi” variety. 

For a male pollinator, you can plant seeds or purchase seedlings (if available) in the hopes of getting a male.  I plan on selling grafted male trees in 2022 but there are no guarantees.

This tree is for local pick up only in the San Diego, California area. If you need shipping, you will have to make your own arrangements to have someone pick up the tree and ship it to you.

Total tree height with pot is 28 inches. Plant alone is 21 inches.

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Rudy Haluza passed away
« on: October 08, 2021, 03:06:49 PM »
Hello everyone,

I am deeply saddened to inform you that Rudy Haluza has passed away at 92 years of age from Cancer. Rudy will always be remembered for his introduction of “El Bumpo”, Rudy #20” and many other seedling introductions.

Rudy had a passion for the delicious tropical and subtropical fruits that can be grown in SoCal and his seedling selections are one of the reasons why I began planting seedlings along with grafted trees. With grafted trees, you know what you’re getting but with seedlings, you can push the envelope and come up with a selection that will wow the world like Rudy did with El Bumpo.

<br /><br />
Rudy is the one sitting up in the middle in the front row.

My condolences goes out to the Haluza family. I’m sure a huge void will be left in his family but Rudy will always be remembered in the lives of all those he touched around him.

Simon

9
Hey everyone,

I’m looking for small one gallon Myrica/Morella Cerifera plants in #1 containers that can be shipped to San Diego. I did some searches and the nurseries I found with reasonable prices don’t currently ship. If you have or know any nurseries with these Southern Wax Myrtle trees please let me know. Thanks in advance!

Simon

10
I’m looking for Frankia Bacteria/Actinomycetes for my Yangmei plants. Please let me know if you have any for sale. Thanks

Simon

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Beware of these fertilizers
« on: May 27, 2021, 12:13:52 PM »
This was shared on the fig forum. Some “Eco/natural/organic” fertilizers have harmful chemicals in them. I think many of us are aware of this issue already but I thought I’d post about it anyways in the hopes that it will reach people that didn’t know.

https://bestlifeonline.com/harmful-fertilizers-news/

Simon

12
Hello everyone, I have lots of neighbors and friends that ask me for mango seeds to grow out so I’m hoping that anyone with spare seeds for the following varieties can please mail me some seeds. I’m looking for Sweet Tart, Orange Sherbet, NDM, CAC, Cotton Candy, E4 and any other good tasting polyembryonic varieties. I’d gladly pay for each seed, postage and your time. I will be giving these seeds away. Thanks in advance!

Simon

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Hunt for the best Surinam Cherry
« on: February 12, 2021, 02:55:29 PM »
So I’ve been reading through the various Surinam Cherry (Eugenia Uniflora) posts and wanted to get the most updated information regarding the best tasting Surinam Cherry found so far. It would be great to see pictures of your favorite variety and why you like that particular variety. It would also be great to hear a detailed flavor description.

I’ve only tasted about 5-10 different varieties of Surinam Cherries and I wasn’t in love with them before so I didn’t keep track of their names. The only named ones I can recall are Vermillion, Jim/Mark Thick leaf and, Zill Dark and my Zill Dark Seedling #1.

The only variety I’ve recently eaten is a special Surinam Cherry that was purchased by Jim Neitzel from Walter Anderson Nursery some 20+ years ago. It was labeled “Eugenia Smithii”.

Mark Lee got this special plant from Jim and shared a few cutting of it with me a few years ago. I grafted the scions onto a seedling and it has given me fruit for the last two years.

If Mark Lee didn’t save this variety, it would probably be lost already. What makes this variety so special is that the leaves are very large and extremely thick. The leaves feel twice as thick as regular Surinam Cherries. This variety makes extra large fruit that is very dark, almost completely black that is sweet and has very little Diesel/turpentine taste, if you know what I mean.

My grafted plant was growing in a 5 gallon container and I just up potted it a few days ago. I’m surprised how big the fruit got considering it is in a relatively small pot and I didn’t water much. This fruit is probably especially big because there are only a few fruit on the tree at that time.

This small tree consistently produces fruit Quarter sized and the larger fruit are Half dollar size or slightly larger. This particular fruit had a Brix of 14.3% and I’m sure it can get sweeter with age and if planted in the ground.


Simon

14
I was never a really big fig fan but that was because I never had a really good fig. After tasting a perfectly ripened Violet de Bordeaux and Black Madeira fig from my friends tree, I was hooked. All those years prior, I only knew about the Black Mission and Brown Turkey from the supermarkets and they’re good figs but there are significantly better figs out there.

The difference between the common and commercially available Brown Turkey vs a premium Black Madeira is like comparing a Tommy Atkins Mango VS a Lemon Zest. The premium figs taste like a dense, sticky sweet strawberry jam! Here’s a picture of a partially dried Craven’s Craving fig I recently harvested




There are many different flavor profiles when it comes to figs. There are Honey flavored figs, Berry flavored figs, melon flavored figs, figgy flavored(fig Newton), and many different combinations in between.

Figs are an excellent fruit to grow and eat. One of the best attributes about figs is their quick return on investment. What I mean is that with the proper growing conditions, a rooted cutting or a grafted tree can easily give you wonderful tasting fruit within its first season.

Anyways, I recently got bit by the fig bug and joined some fig forums and Facebook groups and a couple of my friends decided to turn their passion for figs into a business.

This first website was established by David Burke. He is known as the fig hunter and he has a passion for discovering new fig varieties. He scours the countryside in search of seedling fig trees that produce top quality fruit. For those that aren’t aware, figs that are pollinated with male fig pollen via the fig wasp creates a bigger, sweeter and richer tasting fruit. More importantly, female figs pollinated by male fig pollen via the fig wasps creates viable seedlings that can become the next incredible tasting fig.

David has done all the footwork discovering many new seedling fig varieties and he has made his discoveries available to the public as cuttings. I forgot to mention that David also sells fresh eggs, fig jams, soaps and other great products at his family farm website!

https://www.burkefarms.shop

https://www.thefighunter.shop/

This next website was founded by Brian Melton. Brian is very well known in the fig community and also has a passion for figs. Brian has a huge collection of figs that he has acquired through friends around the world. He has figs from France, Italy, Spain and pretty much every country that can grow figs. Brian has an orchard where he grows only the top tier varieties. His orchard pumps out truck loads of the most premium figs and he has turned the figs into various fig jams for sale.

Brian’s website will be selling the various fig jams, seasonings, fig cuttings, fig trees and various other products. For those of you that have not tried Fig Jam, it is absolutely amazing! I’m a meat lover and when my wife told me she made me a vegetarian sandwich, I was really not looking forward to it. What she made me was a Brie, green apple and fig jam sandwich. It took me just one bite and I’m hooked for life.

Check out this recipe that is almost identical to my wife’s recipe

https://honestandtasty.com/brie-grilled-cheese/

If you trust me and my tropical/subtropical fruit reviews, trust me on this sandwich, it will blow your mind. Using Brian’s specialty fig jam will take this sandwich to the next level.

Brian’s website won’t go live until today at 5pm Pacific time so if you log in now, the products won’t be available until later tonight. Here’s a link to Brian’s website

https://calfig.com/

Here’s what Brian had to say about his new business:

Monday, December 7th at 5pm Pacific time we will officially launch our CalFig business website. We will be introducing our new line of gourmet fig products along with fig cuttings, fig trees and Japanese Maples. We hope our fig friends and family will support our business and our goal to introduce premium fig products into the market place. This is the first step, so please be patient with us as we start this journey.
I have many people to thank, but without Lance Knoechel this website would have never been built. His patience and professionalism has been crucial in the website building process. I would highly recommend him to anyone.
One last thing, the fig cuttings are from my Private Fig Collection. Each order will be labeled in the field and bagged personally by me. Cuttings will be good quality from in ground trees. Some varieties will be thin and some will be thick. But ALL will be an acceptable rooting size. Expect 1-4 weeks to receive your cuttings. I will add a suprise to the first 10 orders placed!
The website is CalFig.com

Brian and David have both helped me along my fig path and they didn’t ask me to plug them here but they are both good people with a passion for figs so I wanted everyone to know about there new business and hopefully support them. Please share this with your friends and family and help support the small businesses! Thanks in advance!

Simon

15
I was never a really big fig fan but that was because I never had a really good fig. After tasting a perfectly ripened Violet de Bordeaux and Black Madeira fig from my friends tree, I was hooked. All those years prior, I only knew about the Black Mission and Brown Turkey from the supermarkets and they’re good figs but there are significantly better figs out there.

The difference between the common and commercially available Brown Turkey vs a premium Black Madeira is like comparing a Tommy Atkins Mango VS a Lemon Zest. The premium figs taste like a dense, sticky sweet strawberry jam! Here’s a picture of a partially dried Craven’s Craving fig I recently harvested



There are many different flavor profiles when it comes to figs. There are Honey flavored figs, Berry flavored figs, melon flavored figs, figgy flavored(fig Newton), and many different combinations in between.

Figs are an excellent fruit to grow and eat. One of the best attributes about figs is their quick return on investment. What I mean is that with the proper growing conditions, a rooted cutting or a grafted tree can easily give you wonderful tasting fruit within its first season.

Anyways, I recently got bit by the fig bug and joined some fig forums and Facebook groups and a couple of my friends decided to turn their passion for figs into a business.

This first website was established by David Burke. He is known as the fig hunter and he has a passion for discovering new fig varieties. He scours the countryside in search of seedling fig trees that produce top quality fruit. For those that aren’t aware, figs that are pollinated with male fig pollen via the fig wasp creates a bigger, sweeter and richer tasting fruit. More importantly, female figs pollinated by male fig pollen via the fig wasps creates viable seedlings that can become the next incredible tasting fig.

David has done all the footwork discovering many new seedling fig varieties and he has made his discoveries available to the public as cuttings. Please check out his website and support these small businesses.

https://www.thefighunter.shop/

This next website was founded by Brian Melton. Brian is very well known in the fig community and also has a passion for figs. Brian has a huge collection of figs that he has acquired through friends around the world. He has figs from France, Italy, Spain and pretty much every country that can grow figs. Brian has an orchard where he grows only the top tier varieties. His orchard pumps out truck loads of the most premium figs and he has turned the figs into various fig jams for sale.

Brian’s website will be selling the various fig jams, seasonings, fig cuttings, fig trees and various other products. For those of you that have not tried Fig Jam, it is absolutely amazing! I’m a meat lover and when my wife told me she made me a vegetarian sandwich, I was really not looking forward to it. What she made me was a Brie, green apple and fig jam sandwich. It took me just one bite and I’m hooked for life.

Check out this recipe that is almost identical to my wife’s recipe

https://honestandtasty.com/brie-grilled-cheese/

If you trust me and my tropical/subtropical fruit reviews, trust me on this sandwich, it will blow your mind. Using Brian’s specialty fig jam will take this sandwich to the next level.

Brian’s website won’t go live until today at 5pm Pacific time so if you log in now, the products won’t be available until later tonight. Here’s a link to Brian’s website

https://calfig.com/

Here’s what Brian had to say about his new business:

Monday, December 7th at 5pm Pacific time we will officially launch our CalFig business website. We will be introducing our new line of gourmet fig products along with fig cuttings, fig trees and Japanese Maples. We hope our fig friends and family will support our business and our goal to introduce premium fig products into the market place. This is the first step, so please be patient with us as we start this journey.
I have many people to thank, but without Lance Knoechel this website would have never been built. His patience and professionalism has been crucial in the website building process. I would highly recommend him to anyone.
One last thing, the fig cuttings are from my Private Fig Collection. Each order will be labeled in the field and bagged personally by me. Cuttings will be good quality from in ground trees. Some varieties will be thin and some will be thick. But ALL will be an acceptable rooting size. Expect 1-4 weeks to receive your cuttings. I will add a suprise to the first 10 orders placed!
The website is CalFig.com

Brian and David have both helped me along my fig path and they didn’t ask me to plug them here but they are both good people with a passion for figs so I wanted everyone to know about there new business and hopefully support them. Please share this with your friends and family and help support the small businesses! Thanks in advance!

Simon

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Finally a giant Megalanthus
« on: November 27, 2020, 02:08:11 AM »
So my quest to find and grow the large fruiting giant H. Megalanthus(used to be S. Megalanthus) began about 11 years ago on my last trip to Hong Kong. There is a high end supermarket that sold melons for hundreds of dollars, strawberries for about $50 and a bunch of imported fruit from Australia and elsewhere.

Among the fruit were the largest Megalanthus fruit I have ever seen. I was growing the Pine island Nursery variety of Megalanthus at the time and the fruit were very good and sweet with a nice seed crunch but the fruit were tiny.

The fruit were very similar in size to Sugar dragon(S8) and some were even smaller. This giant Megalanthus I discovered in Hong Kong blew my mind and I posted pictures in the fruit forum but some people were still skeptical that a giant version of the Megalanthus existed.

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=8090.0

Here’s the thread where I was seriously questioned about there being a real giant selection of S/H Megalanthus

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=26177.0

When I returned home to San Diego, I began my search for seeds and cuttings for the giant Megalanthus. In my quest, I discovered a research article that described how farmers in Ecuador and Peru had selected large fruiting versions of the Megalanthus.

In the article, it described several selections. Some of the selections had more fins, some had less fins. Some fruit were more elongated and others were very round. There was even a selection that had fewer spines.

I asked around and discovered that my friend Leo Manuel had acquired some seeds of a supposedly giant fruiting Megalanthus from another friend. Leo gave me those seeds and I grew those out.

Not knowing if I had the true giant, I continued my search and was able to get my hands on seeds of giant fruiting varieties from Ecuador and Peru. The people that sent me the seeds had pictures of the giant fruit the seeds came from so I knew they were the real deal.
Keep in mind that back about 11 years ago, the giant Megalanthus that we now know as Palora or giant Palora was not available in the United States like they are now. Nowadays, you can go to just about any Asian supermarket and find the giant Megalanthus.

Anyways, to make a long story longer, I planted all these seeds from Leo Manuel, Ecuador and Peru. The seeds sprouted easily but the seedlings grew at a snails pace. With my neglect, they only grew a few inches the first year.

I then began researching on how to graft Dragonfruit and found an article that described how some farmers were grafting Megalanthus onto Undatus in order to get more vigorous plants.

For those that aren’t aware, Megalanthus is considered to be a slower grower.

Around that time, I lost interest in the giant Megalanthus because my brain got distracted with double rootstock technology, especially in regard to how it could benefit Mangos.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=16549.0

I gave most of my seedlings away and around this time, I met one of my best friends, Brad(Spaugh).

We were both into growing various tropical fruits and he invited me over to his, then, small orchard. He had a few avocado trees and a few citrus and two guavas and  maybe a few other fruit trees.

Brad had read some of my posts on the Tropicalfruit forum and when I stopped over to his property the first time, I brought him some Dragonfruit and Cherimoya fruit.

Brad immediately got hooked so I shared my cuttings with him and he also started his own quest to acquire additional Dragonfruit varieties.

I gave Brad one of each of my giant Megalanthus seedlings and Brad also acquired cuttings of supposed giant Paloras from other friends.

About three years ago, we found some YouTube videos regarding how to graft Dragonfruit. I’m sure some of those videos were from Richard(Thanks Richard). At this time, the giant Palora fruit started popping up all around SoCal. We noticed that some of the fruit still had little nubs of the Dragonfruit vine so we decided to try our hand at grafting them.  Aside from the seedlings, we were also able to graft the commercially available giant Palora onto Undatus rootstock.

Fast forward to the present and this year is the first year our giant produced flowers and fruit. The fruit is not fully ripe yet, they’re still green, but they already reached the size of the commercially available giant Megalanthus from the supermarkets so we definitely have a verified giant Megalanthus.

It’s been a long road but I’m Glad we are finally to grow out a few of these giants. I’ll update everyone once these fruit turn yellow and fully ripen.

Here is a current picture of the fruit taken today. All this would not have been possible without Brad’s gardening skills and his love of Dragonfruit.











Simon

17
I read this article that grafting with epigenetically modified rootstocks give rise to progeny that are more vigorous, productive and resilient than the parental plants.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2020-10-grafting-epigenetically-modified-rootstock-yields.amp

The research was done with tomatoes but the researchers say that it can be applied to other plants.

Simon

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mini mango tasting, SoCal grown
« on: October 19, 2020, 10:20:02 PM »
We are getting into the peak of the Southern California mango season and there won’t be any big mango tastings this year because of COVID but Leo Manuel and another good friend with a large orchard dropped off a bunch of mangos for me to sample.

This first picture are mangos with a bit of spice or Indian resin flavor profile. Some of these mangos may not have been picked at peak maturity but my friend lives pretty far away and hopefully they will ripen sufficiently.



These next few pictures are various mangos from Leo Manuel.









Simon

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: October 10, 2020, 07:03:55 PM »
Hello everyone, I’m starting this thread to track seed grown mango trees to fruition. I would like to gather information on the following:

1) Is it Polyembryonic or Monoembryonic?
2) How long did it take the seedling to fruit(include location)?
3) Growth habits of the tree, especially compared to maternal parent tree
4) Track production of the tree as it grows
5) If it’s a Polyembryonic seedling:
5a) How many sprouts did you get from the seed?
5b) Which seedling(s) did you grow out? The largest, medium, smallest or all?
5c) Which of the seedlings came out true to variety? The largest, medium, smallest or all?
5d) If you only got a single sprout from a Polyembryonic seed variety, did it turn out to be a clone or the zygotic seedling?

Edited post to include link of Mono Vs Polyembryonic mango varieties

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=12030.0

It would be great to have pictures of the trees in different stages of growth. For Polyembryonic varieties, it would be especially important to track quality of fruit from the zygotic seedlings or off type seedlings from a Polyembryonic seed.

I’m especially interested in Polyembryonic off types because of the potential for superior fruit due to plants produced through selfing which sets the traits of that particular variety. A selfed mango flower is a flower of Sweet Tart for example, that was pollinated by itself(Sweet Tart). The resulting seedling is 100% Sweet Tart genetics but it is not a clone because there is a re arrangement of the chromosomes.

Actually, the zygotic seedling that was outcrossed with a different variety is just as interesting because of the increased genetic material incorporated by the pollinating parent. The increased genetic pool allows for a significantly higher chance that the resulting seedling will produce fruit that is much different than the maternal parent.

A Zygotic Sweet Tart seedling that was not selfed, for example, may produce fruit that tastes very different than the fruit produced from the maternal parent or a selfed seedling. This however, is highly unlikely because Sweet Tart is a variety that has certain dominant traits that have been concentrated or binned over the years.

Sweet Tart is a seedling of Zill Indochinese(ZIC) and both ZIC and Sweet Tart have that Indochinese flavor. Venus and Kathy(K3) are also descended from ZIC and they all have a similar Indochinese flavor according to my palate. Hey m not saying that they all taste the same but I can definitely detect that Indochinese flavor in all three.

We know that the Indochinese flavor is a heritable trait of ZIC seedlings but but we don’t know if it’s a simple dominant recessive trait or if it’s a lot more complicated and involves multiple alleles.

I also want to mention that we don’t have all the data. For example, how many ZIC seedlings did the Zill’s plant out. If they planted out 100 ZIC seedlings and purposefully selected the seedlings that had the Indochinese flavor, then my statements above may be completely off base.

What if Sweet Tart, Venus and Kathy were the only seedlings out of the 100 that had the Indochinese flavor?

I’m pretty much just thinking (typing) out loud now but I hope that you can see that I’m just trying to gather as much data as possible. The more data we can collect, the more accurate of a picture we can create and the better we will begin to understand and perhaps predict which seedlings may give better fruit.

Many members have asked questions such as, “which seedling from a Polyembryonic mango seed is the clone?” The literature out there sometimes can have conflicting conclusions or it may be variety specific but if we gather more data, we may be able to come up with a reasonably acceptable answer in the near future.

I know that there are already many members out there that have already planted mangos from seed and it would be great if you can add that data to this thread.

I believe Chris Wenzel from Truly Tropical has a video or two regarding seedling grown mango trees. Videos are a great option if you are so inclined.

Anyways, i hope anyone that has a seed grown mango tree can contribute to this thread. Thanks in advance!

Simon

20
I joined a fig forum this year and met lots of wonderful members. If you’re into figs, you know that some of the rare varieties sell for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. I was completely new there but members contacted me and gifted me with many expensive fig trees even though they didn’t know me, although some did know me from this forum.

Anyways, we have a fellow fruit grower in need of help. He lives in Oroville and his name is Doug(BlueMalibu). His sons house burned down and he lost his livelihood.

You can read more about it here:

https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/839133-our-good-friend-in-oroville-ca-needs-our-help

I already donated and I’m asking everyone that can afford it to please chip in! Every little bit helps.

Here is his PayPal address if you can help chip in

BluemalibuFarms@yahoo.com

Please bump this thread to show your support and also to allow other members to see this post. I’ve only been coming on this forum every couple days because I have to do the distant learning with my two daughters and I might not have seen this thread if it were on an older page.

Thanks in advance! Just know that I would do the same if we had a member here that was affected. Natural disasters can affect any of us and it’s awesome to see that the fruit community has caring people that support one another!

Simon



21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mangosteen unprotected in San Diego
« on: September 19, 2020, 02:54:54 AM »
I tried growing purple mangosteen about 15-20 years ago but killed a few trees and after doing a lot of research, I realized that it would be nearly impossible to grow and fruit it in San Diego unless I had a greenhouse.

Anyways, I gave up on growing it and whenever anyone asks me about growing mangosteen in San Diego, I tell them not to bother because it’s a waste of time and money. I told this to my friend that lives just a mile or two from my house and when I visited him today, I was shocked to see that he ignored my warnings and proved me wrong. I told him last year that the plant won’t last one Winter unprotected outdoors and he planted it into the ground last year anyways and I was surprised to see the plant was still alive and even looked relatively healthy.

He’s had this plant for 6 years and had been keeping it under his patio and overhang of his roof for the last several years and also slowly adapting it to the full sun/cold.

Last year, around late Summer or fall, he planted it into the ground and here’s what it looks like today. I still don’t think it will survive very long outdoors unprotected but it’s at least survived one Winter outside. On a side note, last year, our Winter was very mild and I did not get frost for the first time in many years.

The community I live in is made up of houses packed tightly together with relatively small yards. I believe the large amount of fruit trees in his yard along with his Koi Pond is bringing up his humidity. He also waters his trees with pond water and perhaps the mangosteen enjoys that, I don’t know.

All I know is that my mangosteen didn’t seem to like temperatures below around 65F-55F. Mine died the firstWinter I put it out. Perhaps the close proximity of all the homes is holding in the heat from the surrounding area? I have no idea.






Simon

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Can anyone tell what variety of mango this is?
« on: September 13, 2020, 08:21:39 AM »
One of my friends asked me to post this picture of a mango fruit he is growing. Can anyone tell which variety it could be? I believe it was sold to him as a Phoenix.


Simon

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / First confirmed Jumbo Kesar in SoCal?
« on: September 10, 2020, 11:15:40 PM »
My friend and I really love the taste profile of Kesar. We have mostly been purchasing India grown Kesars from the Indian Supermarkets and from online sources like MangoZz.com for the last 10 years or so. We really enjoy the sweet taste combined with the complex Indian resinous flavor that I often describe as Piney.

When we discovered that there was a Jumbo version of the Kesar, we did everything we could to acquire scions from this selection. We contacted everyone that claimed to have the real Jumbo Kesar and put multiple grafts onto multiple trees to test each acquisition. Some of the scions didn’t produce fruit that were jumbo but it could be due to the scions/trees being too young.

We also found that some regular Kesar scions produced fruit that were larger but not Jumbo sized.

Some of the supposed Jumbo Kesar scions have been growing well for several years now and we finally got a proven Jumbo Kesar fruit grown in SoCal.

This fruit is over 7 inches long and weighs in at over 1 lbs 8 oz. it is larger than a good sized Valencia Pride.

I did not grow this, it is from my friends tree. He wishes to remain anonymous. He fertilizes his trees really well and all his trees are very well taken care of. He did not sample this fruit yet and we are not expecting too much from this fruit because it’s the first Jumbo fruit from this graft.



Simon

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Yu He Bao Lychee from China
« on: August 16, 2020, 04:09:46 PM »
I just saw these Lychees from 99 Ranch Market off Clairemont in San Diego so I gave them a try. They cost $1 more per pound than the regular generic Lychees that are currently in season. They are medium sized and have medium-small seeds. The shell is pinkish red with some greenish yellow. The shell has prominent pebbling that is not pointed.

The fruit has a dried lychee smell but no fresh lychee/rose aroma whatsoever. The flesh is thick and leaks juice when cut. When cut in half, the fruit has a slight medicinal smell to it. The sweetness is typical for a lychee but the flavor is bad for my palate. It tastes a bit medicinal with undertones of vegetables.

This is probably the worst tasting Lychee I have ever sampled.







Simon

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 10