Stuart, I'm curious how you'd recommend growing Marula once it reaches a certain size.  I have them in 15 gallon pots, and they are growing like crazy (one is probably 4 feet tall not including the pot height, only sprouted 9 months ago).  Is that normal and ok to let it keep growing in a pot?

My concern is that the location I'm growing it at will get mild frost in winter (probably at worst a couple of degrees below freezing), and we're also expected to get some heavy (cold) rains because of El Nino.  My main consideration is whether it will fruit in a large pot or whether it needs to be in the ground.

Thanks!

Quote from: siafu on July 03, 2015, 06:24:35 PM

Quote from: Delvi83 on July 03, 2015, 02:45:25 PM

Does Jackfruit grow and bear fruit even in Ca? I thought it would grow only in Miami area !? Am I wrong?
If it was possible in Ca, there should be some chance even in the wamest are of Italy?

Hi Delvi83,

I picked this one today, grown in Southern Portugal. 6.8 Kg.
It's a seedling from seeds I got from Oscar.
My plant is not exactly outdoors (it's under mosquito netting), but I know of some plants growing outdoors, nearby,
that are doing fine. Moreover, there are reports of fruiting jackfruits in Malaga, Southern Spain.

So, there's plenty of evidence it might do well in Sicily, Calabria, etc.

Hello Sergio,
how many years passed from planting seed for the tree to bear fruits?

Sergio, how old was that seedling green sapote before it fruited?

I have been researching about Pineapple cultivation and so far things don't fully add up in terms of the geographies where it is currently being done. Let me explain:

For the most part, we know that pineapple grows well only in tropical regions. A few exceptions that I know of are the Azores (although they do it in greenhouses there), South Africa and Australia. It's true that parts of both SA and Australia (for example, Darwin) indeed have tropical climates but let's take a concrete non-tropical example: Wamuran, Queensland, Australia (map here https://goo.gl/BjeOBC).

There is massive production going on there (http://www.pinata.com.au/our-farms/wamuran-queensland) but looking at the climate of Wamuran (http://weather.mla.com.au/climate-history/qld/wamuran) we can see that from May to October its average mean is often well below 15ºC. Just this month the place has reached a low of 5.3ºC.

In Cartagena, Spain there is ongoing research trying to cultivate pineapple outside of greenhouses (http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/20140401/local/region/garcia-carrion-prepara-salto-201404011922.html) but apparently that isn't very easy beacause their plan now is to find a way of developing the fruit to maturity in 8 months only, in order to skip the winter months.

But looking at the climate of Cartagena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartagena,_Spain#Climate) I get the impression that the average mins are very similar to those of Wamuran.

To finish off such a long post, the question is: Why is it so hard to cultivate pineapples in mainland Europe when there are places where we can climates similar to that of Wamuran ?

Quote from: siafu on January 17, 2015, 04:35:15 AM

Given that I've previously killed a number of tropicals by my growth environment getting too hot and humid without me noticing... that, I can manage    My main concerns are more about how needy they are about root space and light. Fruit set with the plant in a 30L pot? Really, 30L, not 30 gallon? If so, then just, wow, that's a tiny pot for a fruiting tree. I'd be glad to give them four times the root space, maybe then they'd be happier about giving decent fruit.

30 liters - we're metric down here.

At one time, I had lots of plants on 30L pots.
Can you imagine how ridiculous a 4 meter Jacaratia spinosa looks on a 30 L pot 

Sure, larger pots will make a difference for the better, except for your back...

Quote from: fyliu on January 08, 2015, 03:03:32 AM

I'm not understanding the significance of this discovery in advancing fruiting plants.
It's saying gene exchange could occur if you plant something like a fig and a papaya together. It's not saying it will definitely occur and nothing about the speed at which it will occur.

My mother always thinks if I graft a sweet orange onto a lemon I'll get sour oranges. I think that's just wishful thinking. What would be the point of grafting if that's true?

Tell your mother that if you graft some ice cubes onto a lemon tree you will also get lemonade.