My first banana rack from a set of unknown pups I got from a family friend, most likely Williams or bluefield.


My dragon fruit flowers a few months ago, I got two variety's, a large type and a smaller type fruit.


The larger type fruit, must weigh close to two pounds! showing some color a few days ago.


Took this pic today, fruit is really taking on some nice coloring! Any ideas on when its gonna be ready for picking?



Side view of the trellis. I got 4 other fruit that are younger then my almost mature fruit. the two fruit on the far left growing next to each other are the smaller type.



Got one more flower that just opened, I usually pollinate them, but I discovered my larger type is a self pollinator. I tried cross pollinating the two in hopes of getting some kind of hybrid.


Heres a pic of an air layered mango from an unknown tree, I decided to turn it into a cocktail tree, I got three local varieties grafted on.


this graft is a Gouveia Mango, it started budding about 2 weeks after grafting, its showing signs of nice callusing.


This is a R2E2 mango, same as the gouveia, started budding within 2 weeks after grafting, today marks 4 weeks after grafting. The third is a Mapulehu Mango (pic not included) but it has not budded yet, but scion is still green so im keeping my fingers crossed! This is my FIRST attempt at grafting mango and im very happy with results!


That's all for now, ill keep you guys posted on the df and how my grafts are taking... Aloha
ps. click on the pictures to see it better, my mistake for them being small!

5 of my dragon fruit flowers opened last night, I usually just hand pollinate them since there are no bees. This morning the flowers were closing already, and out of nowhere some bees appeared and started going into the flowers. Are the flowers still able to be pollinated at this time or is the usual "10 @ night" the only time when the pollination can take place?

Went to my local farmers market the other day and picked up a 17 pound jack fruit for about 19 bucks. The jack was perfect ripe. Got home I opened that bad boy up and was delighted by the strong aroma of bananas and pineapple. The flesh was somewhat crunchy and soft (yellow fleshed) and tasted very good. The funny thing was, the after taste was very interesting. I could taste durian very slightly after each bite (I love durian). I wish I knew the cultivar name of that fruit, but I kept seeds and will try growing them. I finished half of the jack by myself in 2 days!!! Haha So about the dragon fruit tea, after I ate some df that I got, I dried out the skins for about 4 days and made a really nice purple tea this evening. To be honest there isn't much taste so I added a nice healthy serving of organic honey (produced on the farm I work on in the big island). I read somewhere when you make a tea, it realizes more antioxidants and vitamins out of the skin? Well not to sure but I'll say it's quite delightful.

Aloha all you hawaii guys,

I am looking for some trees of the garcinia sp. I've got garcinia mangostana already and I'm looking for any other species. Preferably seedlings that are about 12-36" tall. Please pm me if you have trees available. Mahalo

I've been looking for a grafted black sapote for a long time now here in Hawaii, the only place I know that carry them is Frankies Nursery. The hard part is... They hardly have them on stock and their very expensive (45-60 dollars) for a 3 gallon. I guess I'll just have to add this one to my "Desirable" list 

I was gonna put together an order with Frankie's over on Oahu. I was gonna order a mamey sapote and possibly a mammee apple. Could anyone tell me how long these trees would take to fruit? Their grafted trees, possibly 3 gallon sized

Interesting video of cultivation of rambutan, mangosteen, durian and pulasan. Great video other than the language barrier due to foreign language.

http://youtu.be/UJFlzBe4n-w

To start my summer vacation, I visited my family here on the beautiful Big Island here in Hawaii. I got a job working on my Uncle Charles Ensey's farm "Hawaiian Sunshine Farms". the specialize in lychee, mangosteen, longan, rambutan, durian, and macadamia nuts. I work on over 1000 acres of fruit trees and I love it. They are the largest mangosteen farm in Hawaii and possibly the united states. Their mangosteen are inter planted with lychee and longan. Working everyday, I journey to new sections of the farm, discovering all kinds of different fruits. Mamey sapotes, canistel, durians, and jack fruits are all planted as wind breaks in between the sections of trees, the mamey sapotes trees were the biggest I ever seen, trees easily towered 75 feet and the fruit weighed at least 3 to 4 pounds. Last week I went to the Maku'u Market to buy some plants, I came home with some black sapotes, mamey, and a rollinia and cacao tree. The Mangosteens are still producing and are very delicious. I have been taking pictures of the stuff that comes from the farm to share with all of you! Enclosed is a picture of a yellow fruit that I found growing in the farm, the tree looked like a species of garcinia, can anyone tell me what this fruit is? I will keep you guys posted with more pictures. Aloha

So I arrived on the big island to visit family for a month. Mangosteens are getting ripe and lychee is almost done. But the durian trees were loaded from head to toe and getting ripe. I picked a fruit that was about the size of a volleyball and was very ripe (had pungent odor). Just cut it open tonight and was really amazed at the smell of this fruit. Reminds me much like "stink feet" haha. The odor really turns you off in the beginning but once I tasted it, I was in auwe. The tast reminded me of a sweet garlic, it's was actually to strong of a taste for me to handle but it was that bad as how I thought it would be. Great first experience to start off my summer vacation!

My Apple Banana threw out a huge flower the other day without me even noticing! If all goes well, this bunch will be a good sized bunch.



My dragon fruit flowers this morning...



As of right now, only one opened. The others should open in a few days.



I never realized how fragrant the df flowers were. To me they had a really similar smell to peanut butter or nutella? haha just in my opinion.

so tonight here in beautiful Maui, Hawaii, I was just admiring the beautiful moon outside in my backyard. And that's when I noticed flowers on my dragon fruit!!! Its funny cause I walk pass this plant every damn day and didn't notice these small  buds till right now, and to mention there are a few other buds also growing... Im curious to know when these flowers will open and how long it will take to fruit and ripen? Any information would be a really great. Thanks

I was wondering how long an ice cream bean tree would take to fruit from seed? I know of a person selling trees that are about 3 years old and are very big and lush. Thanks

A few pics of my 8 year old mangosteen and 3 year old kaimana lychee.