Just wondering which of the theobroma species is the hardiest.

Currently for my seed propogation I am using space in a friends poly tunnel. This results in a reasonable germination rate, but im wondering is anyone uses bottom heat and what sort of improvement if any  you are seeing?

They are supposedly edible but not sure how palatable they are . They are more curiousities than anything. The smyrelliana is really vigorous compared to the others. May try hybridising them later.

There are low chill blueberries I know but when it comes to sub tropical and tropical climates, even some of these can be recalcitrant fruiters. I have aquired seeds of the maidera blueberry and am going to have a go  fruiting them. They have been used in hybridizing projects for commercial blueberry cultivars. They are supposedly almost evergreen and frost tender hopefully translating to no chill. they can also be pruned to one trunk. If i can germinate them I will give a few updates on how they are going.

Came across this old topic and found it interesting to note the popularity of fingerlime as a standout fruit since this conversation started a couple of years ago.  I have both native elderberry species and both walk all over the nigra species and subspecies.  Athertonia as well as horsefieldia both show potential as a popular nut as does pindan walnut for people in more arid climates. I think the native rubus moorei could be bred to a european standard but with much more heat tolerance whilst rubus gunnianus could be the southern cloudberry with a little work. Tasmannia lanceolata is a popular spice used in Cornwall for years, in fact its probably Australia's first exported bush food. My native longan is quicker growing and more cold hardy than normal longan i havent eaten this fruit yet but believe selection or hybridisation could make for good fruits.  Davidsonia are sour but there are people working on selecting these as well. Whilst I agree the lack of highly palatable fruits in pre history may be due to a lack of primates I think that could be made up for.     After all primate breeding went something like this : monkey eats fruit, fruit tastes bad monkey spits it out. monkey eats next fruit fruit tastes good monkey scoffs it and deposits seed in poop.  so on and so forth until a dozen centuries or so later you have nice fruit. Controlled breeding goes something like : choose species with possible potential i.e. black apple, sample hundreds or thousands of wild specimens noting best for fruiting size flavour. Take seeds as well as budwood, plant original budded specimens in breeding ground. grow on seedlings, graft to mature specimens to  encourage early fruiting, select best progeny and breed again. one lifetime later bring out phenomonal varieties. or you could be damn lucky and find that rare genetic fluke first up.

If I understand correctly, It appears zill havent officially released the tree due to vigour and fruit quality issues. This screams backyard tree as opposed to commercial proposition to me, that aside however the seeds are polyembryonic which means they should come true to type, and enough fruit seems to have been going round that a few people are growing them. So surely in a couple of years someone will have a fruiting progeny that could be used as budstock that technically as a seedling isnt protected. Could this be sped up by grafting the young shoots onto mature rootstocks? I know zaiger does it with stonefruit and I have seen it done with citrus. just curious is all.

what he said 

Subject to conditions. Even seeds for sowing are meant to be reared in quarantine.

AQIS is that ultimate sump where  talentless drywombs, fuddy- duddies and drybobs who, having failed utterly via their own sloth and incompetence in the private sector, pool like so much effluent bi-waste in a gigantic drainclog of bureaucracy to sully and foul the initiatives and innovations of the industrially adept. « Last Edit: Today at 03:18:19 AM by starling1 »

Its not fair really, with the CO2 emissions causing such problems you'd think we would be able to report the people in these departments for stealing oxygen but nooo,  and whats worse is they dont even do anything useful with it.

Just check the taxonomy is right 😉

Yup thats the one, just wondered if its legit and if its even pouteria caimito or something else.

Available seeds have listed a "big" abiu, apparently with fruits up to 800 grams and only one seed per fruit instead of the usual 1 - 4. does anyone know anything about this?

Thankyou, thats excellent to hear and exactly the sort of info I was hoping for.  Do you have any recommendations for nurseries there? Have you tried growing white sapote?

Im new here but Im sure I have heard of Helton.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32048891