The Tropical Fruit Forum

best source of knowledge about this would be from the communities who drink 'sour' starfruit juice.  I'm sure they have several generations of common sense knowledge about how much to drink and who should avoid.

Just like in Thailand they recommend people to avoid Durian if you suffer from hypertension or to pair with mangosteen to help offset... but in Western science there is no evidence to support any of this.

In this one I think is a great study, and I was shocked, until... correct me if I'm wrong the type of juice given to the subjects was not specified.

Shortly after a graph showed that juice from unripe fruits (sour juice) contained 820 mg/100 ml of oxalate, compared to ripe fruit juice around 40 mg avg.. so 950% increase in oxalate in unripe?

Still interesting, but still not entirely clear, but this study definitely has scared me and will be concerned with any food containing oxalate.

btw other two studies were looking at people already experiencing kidney problems, so those are suspect.

Perhaps in summary, people with diabetes should avoid green starfruit, and also the fact that starfruit is picked and sold green is not helping.

I've never really used insecticides before, but it looks like I need them.

Bugs love my passion fruit vine; I regularly see big holes chewed out of leaves. Bugs like new leaves the best--sometimes, when I can see the plant is going through a growth spurt, it will mainly be a vine extension that grows because I can see most of the new leaves got eaten. I never actually see anything eating it though.

Today, my pumelo tree was crawling with bugs, most of which were the citrus psyllid. The tree already has greening, but with regular fertilizer and root growth hormone application it's starting to come back. But I doubt it can put up with all the bugs on top of greening.

I think insecticide is the best way to deal with the problem. Right now, I'm looking at this one. I don't want one that harms bees, and I'm unsure of the proper time to apply fertilizer. I haven't applied insecticide before; can anyone help? Thanks.

when inspecting the new flushes on the 30 lime trees I planted there are consistent problems with two types of pests.  Both lay eggs or breed on the new flush, and the leaves are going to be very inefficient once mature, prone to fungus, and fruits will be stunted from the inefficient leaves.

When I am there I will spray the new flushes as preventative, and trim any damaged areas off the tree and burn.  Also if I get water I will wash and rinse off by hand, because of thorns just cutting off the areas is much easier.

Also would mix in foliar nutrients with the insecticide, so giving the new leaves a good shot of vitamins and protection for a bit.

Using it once a month like this in this limited targed amount I think is very responsible, I also catch all run off in fish ponds, so who knows... perhaps once the trees are larger can make do with hand washing and targeted pruning.

hey Sunny, I planted a few new kinds 2 years ago, picked up some very healthy air layered ones from the Ag University fair in Surat Thani.  The one in the picture caught my eye for the odd large shape, and also it is seedless. I'll let you know later if it is good.

think I want to live in Cairns if you found that walking home.

Some urban foraging on the way home

said this variety thornless, I would not plant it, might be impossible to get rid of later, too many scarred fingers from dealing with the thorned kind.

plugging is very smart, I have my gardener hammer in 2-3 holes with a sledgehammer and a steel pipe to delivery 12-12-12.  About 12" deep.

Since so easy, and another person mentioned spreading it out, just do with steel pipe but instead do 3-4 holes around perimeter of tree.

I really like the R2E2, but heard even superior varieties are available already.

flabbergasted

very normal in my experience, the same can be said about soursop and durian, they like to fruit on large branches, the bole of the tree is a large branch.

Other fruits need strong sun to flower, causing fruits to flower on the apex of the leaders, like star gooseberry and bilimbi.

helps to see tree, but can kind of guess it is not too tall, maybe at most 10 foot some of them?  Looks like a Gros Michel or similar newer variety, big spacing between bunches and skinny slender fruits, pointy flowers, only a few medium sized leaves.

Would expect cavendish to be much tighter spaced and a bit fatter.

Good way to tell is the Gros Michel ripens much better color naturally, while the cavendish need to be chilled in their own gas to get that store bought yellow.

still have?  you have red vein?  How do you root the cuttings?  I had no luck rooting my own cuttings, but they were from a dying mother plant. Need phytosanitary cert to ship to hawaii right?  send me a pm, thanks.

lucky mine, never pruned