Quote from: Zafra on May 07, 2017, 02:01:10 PM

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I think Ross is a named variety of sapote. It's a sapote named Ross.

Yes you are mistaken. It's not a named variety. I think almost all the trees out there are seedlings. Ross is a name that was made up by Bill Whitman. He was given this fruit during his travels in Costa Rica. The only thing he knew was that it was given to him by a fellow named Ross. He noticed it was different from regular canistel. The story is in his book Five Decades with Tropical Fruits.
It's not known with certainty if it's a type of canistel. It probably is not. Probably is a different species of pouteria. This from a pouteria specialist on pouterias T.D. Pennington in personal converstation with him. Also Whitman correctly noted it is Pouteria sp., not canistel. Look at p. 206. Whitman also believed that due to fruiting in clusters "it is not P. campechiana, (canistel) p. 401..
The only reason to graft it is to find good quality types and speed up fruiting. But as far as i know there are not named varieties.

Fascinating. So to say "Ross sapote" is like saying "mango" or "avocado"?

thanks I'll do that. and I just might pm you regarding your very generous offer.

hmm. and yet still a big temptation.

sounds terrific thanks for the reply! I don't suppose Fruitscapes ships plants...

Hi all. I'm super-tempted by the tt description of the Honeymoon variegated guava. But I know they're selling plants and don't always have the most accurate descriptions. Does anyone have any first hand experience with this variety? I'm looking for a great tasting fruit on the less mealy (for a guava) side. Does this one qualify?

Hi everyone! I'm desperately seeking scions of:
Nishikawa
Wurtz
Day
Kampong
I'll of course pay for the scion, your trouble, and shipping to Miami. Happy to wait for the best time to take quality scions - I don't know when that is - for the best chance that the grafts take.
Any leads please let me know! Thank you!

On this topic, and speaking of youtube videos, I was studying one about hand pollination of cherimoya that talked about humid vs dry climates, stating that in humid climates you don't need to hand pollinate. I thought it had to do with there being or not being pollinators that do their thing with these flowers. I don't get how the humidity can make the difference. Can someone explain?

I'm in tropical wet/dry with heavy clay "soil" and we find very few worms near the surface even in the wet season, nada in the dry. dig further down though, where the soil cools off, and there are fat pink worms - not the red wigglers people use for composting - doing their thing down there. knowing that worms like cool and dark, the only thing you can do to encourage them in a hot dry climate is mulch the living daylights out of everything, a couple of feet deep or more at all times, especially with stuff worms like to eat. populations are so low there you probably won't attract them naturally, so you'll have to "seed" worms under the mulch. then the key will be keeping up the mulch and some amount of moisture in there, or they'll dry out and bake pretty quick.

Hmm. Well I'll keep watching it, but I'd love to know if there are any other possible causes...

None of the above I'm afraid. I don't fertilize these guys at all, and it never get's below the high 50s F here at night, and that hasn't happened for quite a while. Also seems unrelated to hydration, as it was the same during the rainy season as it is now in the dry season. It is only on the very tips of the stems, the newest growth. And yes, the plants do seem in general quite healthy and they do keep growing, which makes the dieback more mysterious!

Hi everyone, I have a mandarin tree that I stupidly let hold quite a few fruit last year, its first year in the ground. Since then it's been completely dormant while the other citrus planted at the same time have been putting on tons of growth. So that's to be expected and I wasn't worried, except that the leaves started showing the discoloration you see in the photos. For awhile it's been like this and hasn't put out a single new leaf. Now finally it's covered with buds, which is encouraging, but I'm still wondering what if anything I should be doing about the issues with the older leaves - I'd prefer the new leaves not end up looking the same. Is it a nutrient issue? I can't match it to the photos I find online of any particular deficiency. Thanks for your input!

Wow terrific harvest! What are those gorgeous striped things?

It would be a subforum, like the citrus subforum, no? If you're not into veggies, just don't go there. No distraction issues.