Hi folks. I've had 2 different plants - sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis) and curuba (Passiflora mollissima) die a sudden death of what appears to be the same disease. The plants have all been perfectly healthy appearing, several months old, well but not over-hydrated. Then one day all their leaves wilt while still green. Then they're dead. When I give the base of the stem a squeeze a few have been hollow, while others are very hard and brown/woody. When I pull out the plant, the roots look normal. I've only had this happen to these 2 species. At first I thought it was transplant shock because the first couple times it happened it was a few days after a transplant. But now it has happened to plants that have been happily growing along in the same bag for quite some time. So I'm at a loss. Since these aren't your usual garden plants, it's not easy to find info on possible culprits. Has anyone had this experience or does anyone recognize the symptoms? It's very frustrating. Thanks!

hey Adam that's pretty tempting. can you give me any more info about the variety? (especially fruit color/size/flavor, and how dwarf is a dwarf mulberry?) also, if I pay a bit extra for shipping could it get to the Miami address by this Thursday? That would be ideal. Final question, it would be in transit another week after it got to Miami - would they survive that long partially bare-rooted? I'd be able to get them out into soil and fresh air either next Wednesday or Thursday.
Thanks for the offer!

ah ha! so it is indeed a true cherimoya. I'd seen threads here where there was much debate about whether a fruit was cherimoya, or atemoya or some other hybrid, and since here people are pretty loose with the names of things I wasn't sure. Good to know - thanks! Now the question is can I fruit one where I am - how much chill does it really need?

Hi all. A friend who lives on the other side of the mountain range and at a higher altitude brought us this (and one other, now eaten) annona fruit, calling it a chirimoya, (though as has been mentioned I get the impression that in Spanish speaking countries more than one fruit can carry that name), from a seedling tree he has. His tree is loaded with fruit, no hand pollination or special treatment whatsoever. It was the first of these fruits I and my husband had tried and it was DIVINE. We ate it with a spoon - smooth, creamy, fiberless flesh, super sweet and with like 7 different flavors going on - amazing. We can't wait for this next one to soften up.
One, can you tell from the pictures what this is? Also, I have a couple of El Bumpo cherimoya seedlings (seeds from Trade Winds) that could be fruiting age in a year, but I'm wondering if it's cool enough where we are. We're at just short of 1000m. Cool nights, even chilly in Dec-Jan. But if guanabana can fruit there does that mean that cherimoya can't?

Oh now I'm excited! I have several Lolita seedlings and I'm thrilled to hear they're delicious and come true! How long do I have to wait from seed to taste for myself?

Sorry I was away from my computer yesterday. Yes my plants are from a seller here in Venezuela - probably the same person who sold you the seeds! I'll check out the plants today to see if there's any new growth forming and what color it is, but I don't think it will be dark red as the younger leaves don't show any noticeable reddish tint that would imply they were recently dark red...

Hi! I'm pretty excited about the success - out of 20+ cuttings so far I've got 7 good takes and quite a few more that are still alive and healthy which could eventually take, although frankly I'm fine with 7! They came to me wrapped in buddy tape so I unwrapped only a section near the base, cut them near a node, dipped them in DipNGrow (I don't use chemicals in any other aspect of gardening but I can't get cuttings easily or cheaply so I really wanted to improve my chances) and put them in clear plastic cups with damp expanded clay pellets mixed with a little sphagnum moss. (I admit most of the cups also have some soil mixed in with the pellets, but apparently not enough to disrupt air circulation or cause rotting.) One thing I really recommend is to only water from underneath, and only occasionally. If you water from above the cutting above the rooting area can rot even when there's already root formation - I did that once before and sorely regretted it! Anyway, since each cutting was wrapped I didn't do any baggie tenting or anything like that. I've heard (and in my limited experience) Meyers are WAY easier to root than pretty much anything else in the universe, so I wish you luck with the other citrus you've got there. But the Meyer should be smooth-sailing.

Neither of my specimens have any brand new leaves at the moment. If they are dark red that means yes E. patrisii, or no?

Hi all. Just got a couple of red jabos and they're both showing the leaf discoloration you see in the pics (sorry the second one is blurry). Any idea what it could be and what I might do about it, if anything? Thanks!

Thank you! So it sounds like they prefer some shade to full sun, and rich soil. That's good to know. You say the fruit is crisp and interesting - is that a positive review? Do you like the fruit? (My grandparents used to describe things they didn't like as "interesting" to be tactful  )
Do you know how big the trees get eventually? They sound like they want to be understory...

Who can give me the dirt on E. patrisii? I've searched here and abroad to no avail. I have two 2 year old seedling trees - how's their care and feeding? Anyone?

I had an in ground tamarindo in Orlando, Fl 9b. The seeds were from a tree in Big Pine Key. It flowered its third year in ground and took the cold like a champ. Thankfully, I was ignorant enough to try it.

Are you saying a seedling tree flowered after 3 years in the ground? I always thought tamarind took a decade to flower - how old was your tree including before it was planted out? I'm asking because I have 3 seedling trees and I'd love to see a flower on one of them before 10 years from now!