I'm curious what folks think of North-facing hillsides (that is, the hill goes down as you go North, here in California) for tropical fruit growing.  My concern is that in the middle of winter there will be less light because of shade from the hill.  The area I'm interested in is ideal otherwise in terms of microclimate (probably zone 10b/11a and quite hot in the summer) but it has a North-facing hillside that I worry won't allow enough light for some tropicals in the winter.  Does anyone know whether this is an issue, and if so for which tropical fruits?

I'm curious if anyone in California has figured out which Artocarpus is the most vigorous for use as rootstock.  Right now I'm growing seedlings of Jackfruit, Wild Jack, and Kwai Muk, and of the three Wild Jack (A. hirsutus) grows the fastest for me.  I haven't tried grafting any Artocarpus yet, and I've heard in general it can be a bit tricky, but I'm willing to try if one might be a good rootstock for some of the more rare Artocarpus species that generally don't do well in our climate.

I've been curious what folks think are the best tasting Inga species / varieties.  I've tried a few different types but have never been sure about the differences in flavor between species, especially when grown in California.  And the labeling for this genus seems pretty bad -- most folks who I know who are growing it don't know the species.  Anyone have thoughts on which species produce the best tasting pulp?

I'm hoping to get some more Mexican-type avocado seeds as rootstock, and am hoping that someone in the hotter areas of California has some right now, of an early-fruiting variety (Duke? Zutano? Mexicola? others?).  I don't care about the fruit, so it can be dropped fruit or damaged fruit that you'd toss -- just would like some seeds.  I don't need many -- 10 or 15 would probably be plenty.

(If you're wondering, this is for the public fruit tree planting I started in the bay area -- most of my avocados from last year have germinated, but a few didn't so I want to fill in the gaps.)

I'm curious if any folks in dry-summer areas (like California, the Mediterranean, parts of Australia, etc.) have grown startfruit in the ground without irrigation, and how well it handles it.  I have a couple of starfruit trees in 15 gallon pots that have been doing well outside (when I keep them protected from the wind) and I'm debating whether to put them in the ground.  One I grafted to Kari, the other I grafted to Mark Lee's selection -- thanks Mark!  (Mark's selection is growing the fastest of the two.)

However I don't want to have to irrigate them in the summer after the first year.  We get something like 25 inches of rain here (El Cerrito/Albany California) on average (give or take), all in the winter, and the temperatures are mild in the summer.  It's easy to dry farm many other fruits here, but I don't know about Starfruit.  The nice thing about Starfruit, if it's possible, is that it's not a high-sugar fruit, and that gives me some hope that despite our mild weather (not many growing degree days) it'd be possible to grow decent tasting fruit.

I'm curious what mango variety/varieties have the smallest sized fruit while still having a good pulp/seed ratio and good flavor.  (The tree doesn't need to be small -- actually a vigorous tree is good -- just the fruit.)

I ask because I'm trying to find good varieties to try in milder CA locations where the accumulated heat may not be enough to ripen larger fruited varieties.  (This general approach seems to work in many other types of fruit, so my hope is it will be true for mangoes as well.)

Edited to add: Just to clarify, I'm really looking for good cultivars here, not just random seedling trees that happen to produce small fruit.  Ataulfos can be pretty small, but I'm hoping there are ones that are smaller and with better flavor and better pulp/seed ratios.

Just wanted to unofficially let everyone know about the upcoming Diablo Valley College plant sale: Friday, May 13 from 2-5pm and Saturday, May 14 from 9am-1pm (The Golden Gate CRFG chapter meeting at DVC will be at noon of the Saturday sale).  The students have been propagating many veggies, fruits, greens, herbs, and ornamentals -- there'll be a wide selection.  Some of what I've been propagating will be available, listed below.  All proceeds support the DVC horticulture program.  The address is 321 Golf Club Road, Pleasant Hill, CA -- directions and the latest info are here:

http://www.dvc.edu/events/garden/greenhouse-sale.html

I've also started a project to create an officially sanctioned, public rare fruit orchard here in the East Bay.  The basic idea is to have a public collection both for CRFG and to introduce the broader community to the fruits.  It's taken two years to get things approved, but I've finally started planting.  In some ways it will be similar to Prusch Park in San Jose and can serve as our local germplasm for scion exchanges.  The focus will be on uncommon Avocado varieties and other fruits that struggle in the winter in Prusch Park so that the two collections complement one another.  I'll be talking about this project at the Saturday CRFG meeting.

I sent the list below to the Golden Gate and Monterey Bay CRFG chapters, but thought some folks here on the forum might be interested (and some of these are thanks to seed from some of you here on the forum -- Oscar, Raul, Berto, Luc, Ajesh, Vipin, Adam).

Here's most of what I've propagated that will be at the sale (some only in limited quantities) -- everything on the list has been tested in my rooftop garden for hardiness:

Araca-Una (Psidium eugeniaefolia)
Bird Plum (Berchemia discolor) -- limited
Black Sapote (Diospyros nigra) -- limited
Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana)
Capulin Cherry (Prunus salicifolia)
Catherine's Find Elaeagnus (Elaeagnus sp.) -- limited
Chachafruto (Erythrina edulis) -- limited
Cherry Mangosteen (Garcinia intermedia)
Cherry of the Rio Grande (Eugenia involucrata)
Coffee (Coffea arabica, Nana, Kona, and Jamaican types)
Grimal Jaboticaba (Myrciaria sp.) -- limited
Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis, yellow and black types) -- limited
Guabiju (Myrcianthes pungens)
Guamuchil (Pithecellobium dulce, red and white types)
Guava (Psidium guajava, Egyptian, white, and red types) -- *plentiful*
Guaya (Melicoccus sp., sweeter relative of Melicoccus bijugatus) -- limited
Ice Cream Bean (Inga sp.) -- limited
Jamaica Cherry (Muntingia calabura)
Lemon Guava (Psidium littorale)
Limoncillo (Garcinia sp., unofficially Garcinia vleerackerii)
Lucuma (Pouteria lucuma)
Mango (various grafted, some on double rootstock) -- limited
Marula (Sclerocarya birrea var. caffra) -- limited
Pakistan Mulberry (Morus alba)
Passionfruit (grafted Passiflora alata on P. caerulea rootstock, grafted P. venusta on P. caerulea rootstock, P. ligularis, P. edulis "Red Rover") -- limited
Pineapple (Ananas comosus "Kona Sugarloaf")
Pitangatuba (Eugenia neonitida) -- limited
Rainforest Plum (Eugenia candolleana)
Rose Apple (Syzygium jambos)
So Shan (Elaeagnus latifolia) -- limited
Starapple (Chrysophyllum cainito, giant purple type)
Surinam Cherry (Eugenia uniflora, smooth and regular types)
Sweet Madrono (Garcinia madruno)
Tree Tomato (Solanum betaceum, red and orange types)
White Sapote (various grafted) -- limited
Wild Jack (Artocarpus hirsutus) -- limited
Wild Starapple (Chrysophyllum oliviforme) -- limited

I'm going to be in So Cal in June and was wondering if anyone knows of farms or fruit stands that sell locally grown tropical fruits -- fruit like starfruit, lychee, longan, non-standard passionfruit, jaboticaba, mango, papaya, sapodilla, guava, etc.

There are a few shops around here that sell imported tropical fruits but the fruit is usually not very good given the distance it has traveled.

I'm still hoping to get in touch with someone in Colombia or Ecuador to get seeds of Passiflora popenovii (Granadilla de Quijos).  From what I've read, this is the season for it, so I'm hoping to not miss the opportunity to get some seeds this year.  If you know anyone in Colombia especially, I would be grateful if you could send me a PM and put me in touch and I can ask them about it -- apparently it's available in some markets, so it's not necessary that they grow the fruit themselves.

Thanks!

I'm new to growing Annonas, and am curious what people have found in terms of growth rates of Cherimoya vs. Atemoya generally.  I'm also curious which combinations (C on C rootstock, C on A rootstock, A on C rootstock, and A on A rootstock) seems the fastest growing.  Given my location, I'm mostly interested in this for California, both coastal/mild locations and hotter/more variable inland locations.

There's been a lot of great discussion about multi-rootstock trees in other threads, but I haven't seen much discussion of multi-rootstocking of avocados.

My motivation for multi-rootstocking avocados is mostly to produce a stronger tree that can withstand greater drought (at least I'm hoping that's the case).  My secondary motivation is that it might produce a more precocious and dwarf tree, but I don't know if it'll have that effect.

I've tried it a couple of times (last year) by approach grafting two Avocado seedlings (one Mexicola seedling and one Zutano seedling) together and then grafting on the top of the main one.  One one graft of this sort took, but after some time both the rootstocks showed some sort of incompatibility where there was a constricted band below the approach-graft union, almost as if I had tied some tape around each of them too tightly.  Eventually the tree died.  I haven't tried Simon's single cleft on two rootstocks approach (which has worked for me as well with Mangos).

Has anyone tried it, and what method was successful?  Did it matter what rootstocks were used?

I'm curious if folks have opinions on the most productive perennial legumes, in terms of edible yield (say by weight or calories per acre).  There are a number of leguminous trees but not all of the seeds/beans from them are edible.

Carob, Chachafruto, Mesquite, Pigeon Pea, and Ice Cream Bean are all possibilities, though I don't have a sense of their comparative yields (and not all parts of the pods are edible in all of them).