I would seriously question that his Fruit Punch mango is the real thing.  Just met with someone from Ft. Myers who said someone is selling bogus Fruit Punch fruit.  How do i onow its bogus, i showed this person a fruit and let him taste it qnd he said what is being sold in Ft. Myers was shaped different,  smaller in size and tasted different...a dead give away.

In some ways, that's my fear. Getting all kinds of varieties, only to have them fruit in a couple years and not be the correct variety. That's even if I would know! FWIW, if I bought a Fruit Punch tree online, I'd give away fruit calling it that variety until I was corrected.

I guess posting pictures of the fruit on the boards once you get fruit is a way to know if you got what you expected?

I have an extra Kohala tree that I was thinking of trying this with. Would need some budwood too. I guess it should be easy to come by since most people aren't grafting Lychee other than Emperor is that right? Might be good news for some of the more rare varieties, as I think the barrier to getting them was needing to get live trees as opposed to just scions.

Good to know about the petals. There has been some wind lately and it seems like they get blown off. I'm pretty sure I've been pollinating well. On a tree my size, I'm not hoping for a crop, but just a fruit or two to taste. Later this season or next I plan to get a lot more annonas assuming I'm liking Geffner. I've had some decent store bought cherimoyas, but never anything home-grown to compare them to.

Here's the same tree after it's grown out a bit more:


Flowers opening:


I'm hoping hand-pollination works well this year. Next year I'll try to defoliate a month earlier so I'm pollinating by early April.

I think the biggest problem is agreeing to moderate these kind of exchanges, and the man-power that it really takes to do it fairly for both parties.

eBay & PayPal used to moderate a lot more than they do now, and devote more man-power to case investigation, now it's just usually siding with the buyer in most cases (more profitable). Sellers still have to use the service since there isn't good alternatives, and buyers keep using because they are "protected". Of course, it opens the system pretty wide to scammers, but such is the system.

For plant material, you have the extra variable of it not only being damaged in transit, but also it not being cared for properly after it arrives at it's destination. That combined with the worry that as a buyer, you probably don't know that you're getting the correct variety you expect, until long after the transaction is complete (if ever), so buying from a trusted person is much more important.

All this makes me think it's just better to cut out the middle-man auctioneer service and buy plants straight from the source. If auctioning is done in a forum format, where the forum isn't involved in the transaction...I think it makes much more sense than an eBay style website auction service. Just my opinion anyway.

Lychee is a great fruit, and with the short season, it's not hard to see why they are in high demand. I had only guessed that maybe also this year wasn't that great, but it's good to hear I'm likely wrong about that! Hopefully some will start showing up in shops here.

Personally I'm willing to pay a bit more than others for fruit I guess. My biggest let down is when the price is high or not a great deal, and flavor is lack-luster. If it's a good variety picked at peak ripeness I'd have no problem paying $8-10/lb. But here prices usually go with availability, so early season and late season prices are higher, and flavor isn't as good anyway.

I use a diagram as well, in a Google Spreadsheet doc. Much less awesome than the one posted above, but it gets the job done. Just put a number in each cell, then have a lookup table. I don't have many plants and can remember mine for now, but I'm concerned that at some point as my collection grows, it just may not be possible. It also works better if you hand-water each one like you do, but if you set up a drip system it may make things worse for memory.

Wild strawberries in Minnesota where I grew up have tons of flavor, but tiny (smaller than my pinky nail) and few fruits. But when you find one, they pack an explosion of taste!

I agree with taste as a primary goal for me personally, but in nature it does seem to be at a balance between flavor, size, productivity and shelf life. You can have some, but not something with everything.

Trying to grow strawberries in Texas, my experience has been disappointing for everything. Next year I'll be trying out Chandler as I've heard they are good. If it doesn't work out, I'll officially give up on getting a useful crop around here. I'm sure some people can do it, but strawberries really seem to take dedication, and for me it's only worth that dedication in a tree or bush that stays around. When it's a plant that eventually dies off (strawberry, tomato, etc), it feels harder to invest so much into it...

I think it was here I read:
http://www.petersonpawpaws.com/About.php

"In retrospect, it is clear that none of the fruit at Zimmerman's was of special quality (unlike the fruit later discovered at Blandy). That is not difficult to understand. The named cultivars in Zimmerman's collection would naturally have been grafted by Zimmerman from scion wood that cooperators mailed him. Forty years since Zimmerman's death is a long time in the life of a pawpaw tree. Doubtless the tops, the grafts, had died."

Like I say, not sure exactly the full meaning, but I guess I must have remembered that grafts eventually die off. Maybe it's unique to pawpaw, or maybe he meant in reference to something else.

Anyway, here's a pic of my 2 plants:

Is there any benefit to growing paw-paw in places where bananas grow well? My impression, just from reading about them, is that they're inferior and have a very short season.

Taste is pretty individual, so I wouldn't rule out pawpaw as being a fruit you might prefer. They do have many seeds inside tho.

I've heard chilling requirement on them is quite low, 100-200 hours is what I've seen needed for a good fruit set. But it could be possible with less. But I do think people that live in zones less than that for chilling end up planting something else instead of pawpaw.

Filters are a lot different than water softeners. Around here a water softening system means salt exchange. You switch out "hard" salts for "soft" ones. End of the day, it's still high TDS water. I would prefer to filter and add back anything that's needed, or to just catch rainwater.

I've been looking into rainwater collection, but likely I just won't be able to do it until I move out to the countryside.

Do filters like this really help with city water? I find that my plants do decently on my local city water, but I know it could be a lot better. I'm thinking for $50-100 it's worth a try, but interested to see other's experience on how well they work.

I stripped my entire Geffner Atemoya. Every leaf I took off has now turned into several leaves and at least 1 flower. Likely some will also become good size branches depending on where.

I defoliated just before spring hit, but I notice that buds are already forming underneath the leaves, maybe they would fall off on their own and push through anyway?