I've wanted to try growing chironjas for a long time -- now my wife and I are spending some months at her farm in Thailand, and I'll be able to take care of seeds.  If anyone is growing this plant, and feels up to mailing me 10-15 seeds, I'd be happy to repay them with money, traded seeds, or both.

We'll be there in about a month.  PM me if this might be a possibility for you.

OK, this is my situation -- for the past year I've been ordering seeds and having them sent to my Thai in-laws to plant.  Because of the state of the Thai mail system, and the fact that some were sent express and some were sent regular, and my in-laws don't read English and would just plant them without bothering to tell me, I have no knowledge at all of what has actually arrived.  These are the possibilities:

1)  tree tomato
2)  abiu
3)  Rollinia
4)  custard apple (red variety)
5)  cupuassu
6)  black sapote
7)  green sapote

Before I go back I'm going to google images of seedlings of these to try and figure out which is which -- my question is this, are there any here that are going to be tricky to tell apart?  I have no talent at all at plant identification, and am just throwing this out for anyone who wants to comment . . .  To me a lot of tropical plants look pretty similar . . . 

Anyone know anything about the yellow-fleshed rambutan my wife found a picture of in Kanchanaburi?

Has anyone tried using these?  I'm curious if they will hold up for one to two years in a tropical climate, and then really degrade decently after planting.  I need something that will last for at least 9 months, and won't disintegrate in a rainy season, nor bond with the clay beneath it.  Any experience?

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/root-pouch-grey-fabric-pot-3-4-year/biodegradable-pots

I've been reading about Hawaiian avocados, trying to sort a few things out before making an effort to getting some high quality varieties in Thailand, and I have a question for people who know more than I do.  A few weeks back it was widely recommended that I grow seedlings there and then order budwood, instead of pre-grafted trees, but this was more of a general question; and from what I read about avocados, it sounds like this is more difficult, and that grafting them is not straightforward.  At the same time, reading about the Hawaiian varieties has made me determined to obtain them . . .  Is this a situation where trying to order small trees from a nursery might be worthwhile?

For the record, the varieties I'm looking for are:  Sharwil, Malama, Linda, Kahaluu, Murashiges, Yamagata

Any thoughts are welcome, or experiences people have had either grafting or ordering from nurseries.  Bear in mind that I have no experience at all with grafting . . .

I'm sure this isn't news to many people here, but I thought I'd put in a link to a good article on it.  It's the first I've heard of it:

http://qz.com/164029/tropical-race-4-global-banana-industry-is-killing-the-worlds-favorite-fruit/ 

OK, everyone ignored my question about pecans and chill requirements, that's OK . . .  not everyone cares about pecans . . .  However, I know that you all do care about chermioyas, and know a little something about them as well.  Here is my question -- given the following facts:

- the chill requirement for cherimoyas is 50-100 hours
- 'chill requirement' seems to be a technical term that means above freezing but below 13 C (55F)
- there seems to be a general consensus that cherimoyas don't do very well in South Florida

Is the requirement that there be a certain level of chilling AND summer temperatures that aren't excessive?  Where I live in Thailand, we'll normally have 50-100 hours of the above level of chilling (but not all at once, on consecutive nights) each year; but then the hot season gets up to ~41C.  Any point at all in planting cherimoyas there?

I haven't been able to find any -- should I give up and have them shipped to myself in the States and carry them onto a plane?  Anyone have any experience with this?

OK, my last post about a bare-root black sapote graft received no input . . .  So now let me ask, where can I buy a rooted black sapote?  I suppose it would be preferable if it was in some kind of light moss or sterile potting soil -- any suggestions?  I need a small tree, one that can be wrapped easily and not stimulate a lot of interest at customs.

In general, I love gardening in the tropics.  I love the fact that it is year-round and there's always something coming into fruit; I love that you don't have to stop for winter and spring, and stare at your barren, snow-covered orchard (I hate that I live in Alberta now).  I love the fruits -- mangoes, lynchees, mangosteens, and dragon fruits are awesome, and I hope that abiu, biriba, and jaboticaba join the list.  But there are three things that I specifically hate:

- no persimmons, especially the deep red kind shaped like a huge bell pepper
- no apples
- no peaches

And I'm curious, off my own topic, does anyone here grow pecans in a completely tropical environment?

I lived in Thailand for several years, and then spent time in Micronesia -- I saw the difference between a grain-based agriculture and a tree-based agriculture (breadfruit), even though the island economy isn't subsistence level anymore and most people didn't actually depend on breadfruit.  Then years later I read Morton's book and became interested in the pejibaye; and a couple years after that read 1491, which described how the Spanish didn't fully recognize Amazonian and equatorial agriculture, because it was mostly fruit-based.

For some time I've been wondering if there might be horticultural combinations of Old and New World trees that could equal the value of rice farming.  The great virtue of rice is that it stores so well, and can be productive on a small parcel of land; its drawbacks are the labour and the dependence on water control.  In Thailand the people who make money from rice are middlemen and exporters, never the farmers themselves; and there is no fruit crop that earns more money than rice per acre (at least according to the farmers).  So my question is really just if there could be a combination of trees that could provide a subsistence diet superior to rice?  Is it worth it for rice farmers to work so hard for a few hundred bucks  (and sometimes nothing)?

Thinking about this in the most superficial way, I've come up with three trees that might work well in combination:
     - breadfruit (productive carbohydrates, can have extensive fruiting seasons)
     - pejibaye (less productive, but contains more fat and protein and other nutrients)
     - avocado (dietary fat)

Thoughts?

P.S. -- here's a ref on the pejibaye, I love the FAOs 'neglected crops' series.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/T0646E/T0646E0l.htm

This is a question for anyone who is familiar with the pejibaye research on Hawaii, Peruvian varieties, or anything to do with the development of the fruit.  This video (link below) shows a landrace that is clearly macrocarp, and completely thornless.  I've planted two accessions I received from the research facility on Hawaii, which are 100% heavily thorned, and haven't fruited yet; but they come from a landrace somewhere in Amazonian Peru/western Brazilian Amazon.  I was struck in this video by how much larger the pejibayes on these trees look than those I've seen elsewhere.  Two questions.

1)  How do these compare with the varieties being researched on Hawaii?

2)  Does anyone know where I can find seeds of this type, heavily macrocarp but also spineless?

Pijuayo Bactris gasipaes

I have a question -- my wife and I lived on Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands for several years.  While there, we ate a peculiar tangerine that was different from any I've seen elsewhere:  it had a loose peel that came off easily, very few seeds, and a bit of a watery flavour.  I found a couple pictures on the Internet of what it looked like, and have sometimes wondered if it was what Morton calls an Otaheite Rangpur (or lime) or a kusiae lime.  This type rarely had seeds.  Any thoughts?