I must say my personal experience is limited to about a half a dozen fruits grown this summer.
They are being grown in 5 gallon pots, in full sun, in my back yard.

Kevin

Also... when I shook the fruit, the seed rattled inside as though it were loose.
 I ate a Cedar Bay Cherry this evening and noticed it's seed had a (much smaller) root stub started as well.

Recently I ordered Eugenia seeds from Miguel in Portugal and they arrived already sprouted.
He said he ate the fruit and spit the seed into the shipping container.
Quite fresh and grew quickly.

I know Ice Cream Beans do this too.

Kevin

While eating a Star Cherry - Pitangatuba fruit today I noticed the seed already had a root sprouting from it.
Is this common for Eugenias or Pitangatubas?
Curious if anyone else has noticed this.

Kevin Jones

That's nothing...
Recently while on an archeological dig in Belize we came across the mummified remains of a local dignitary. In an urn next to the sarcophagus were 3 one-thousand year old (we carbon dated them) passiflora seeds.
Determined to see if they would sprout, we tried a secret germination formula handed down by the ancestors of the aforementioned mummified dignitary.
We started by soaking the seeds in one liter of 80 proof tequila for exactly 4 days. We then drank the tequila. (That wasn't in the formula... I improvised).
Then we hand dried them on the back of a young adult female pink flamingo. In flight.
Next we fed them to a toothless ocelot.  A mutant species that ate only soft foods.
After they passed, they were cleaned in a cool mountain stream (jobbed that out to the interns), after which they were planted in pure sugar cane pulp and left in a warm, humid dark room for 2 weeks.
Upon entering the room, we noticed all 3 seeds had germinate and the resulting plants were already several meters long and were flowering and setting fruit... in the dark!
In fact the plants were glowing with a soft pastel lavender color and the fruits (there were 124 of them) were 46 kilos each... and tasted like chicken.
I thought I would pass this experience on to the rest of the world.
Let me know when you are finished with the tequila.

kj

I would swear I saw Adam on Bourbon Street in New Orleans playing the "Pitangatuba Blues" on slide guitar for an excited crowd of tourists.

kj

I've got new surinam cherries sprouting right now.
And fresh Grumachamas and Cherry of the Rio Grande arriving soon
I'll leave they in the greenhouse away from direct sunlight as a test.
Certainly couldn't do any worse.

kj

Would you recommend partial shade while they are young... then full sun after they mature?

kj

They were started in filtered greenhouse light...  but they now reside in full Alabama sun.

kj

I can believe that. It's seem like the more mature plants shake it off.
Here's an example...

I see he's still selling Pitangatubas on eBay.

kj

Way to go guys!
I Must say I really like the spirit of this community.

Kevin

You can see the difference in fruit sizes. The large one is the Ruby Glow and the small purple one is Frederick.
I hand pollinated the Ruby Glow with pollen from the Frederick and the Purple Incarnata flowers.
Not sure which pollinated which.
The fruits of the Ruby Glow were delicious!

Kevin