Where are these selected kuini varieties? Hawaii or Asia?

Have you heard anything about the flavor of the lalee jewo? I read online that it tasted like the cross between a lychee and a mango. Have you heard similar?

Selected varieties of kuinia are in Asia, mostly Indonesia. You can read about them in the book Fruit and Fruit Cultrue of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) by J.J. Ochse, published 1931. So they had them there way back then, we just haven't caught up yet!
I haven't tried the Lale Jewo yet. I saw them fruiting at Frankie's nursery, but they were still green. Bought one of his trees, and darn it i somehow managed to run it over with my tractor. 
Oscar


Mod edit: I just fixed the quote box.

Quote from: Felipe on January 27, 2012, 05:10:17 PM

My guess is that in bigger markets you could find al kinds of fruit from all over the country..

I would look for agricultural research stations, universitys, botanical gardens.

India is in my agenda for the next years. I will go hunting for mango budwood 

Forget India for mango budwood. We have better mangos in FL without all the abject poverty! Fairchild Farm (formerly known as Williams Grove) has a few hundred different varieties of mango, combine that with TREC, the F&S park, and Harry's house and you'll probably be able to get budwood from every variety of mango that is worth getting.

Have to disagree with that one! India has more cultivars of mango than all the other countries put together. But what pleases a western palate is very different than what pleases an Asian palate. So cultivars that are considered really superior in Florida may be considered inferior in India, and vice versa.
Oscar

Oscar
Have you seen the new "Specialty Crops of the South Pacific" Book by Craig Elevitch?
It is really awesome...
 

Just finished replying on a different thread about this. I saw it, fell in love with it, and decided to add it to collection of books i'm selling. I've been lazy and haven't added it to my website yet. If you're interested in purchasing one contact me offgroup.
Oscar

Here's a few for the fruit hall of shame 

1) Noni (smells like an outhouse)
2) Quince (tastes like soft wood)
3) Kiwano / African Horned melon (why are these even sold?)
4) Pond Apple (Annona glabra) Racoons love them 
 
Also in this group, are those Mangos grown in places like Peru and Mexico that are picked a month before they
are mature, then refrigerated, hot dipped according to USDA requirements and sold here in Florida and elsewhere
in the US for 50cts to $1. The vast majority of these are HORRIBLE     

Noni, i think it's more of a medicinal. Don't see anybody claiming it's a pleasure fruit. 
Membrillo, a canned paste made from quince is extremely popular in S. America. Guess it's not one of those out of hand fruits.
Kiwano, makes nice salad dressing if you mash them a bit. Can become invasive here, and nasty thorny groundcover.
Pond apple, was used as rootstock here for other annonas, but most nurseries have abandoned that.
Oscar
Oscar

@ Oscar
Refractometers are actually going mainstream, even for people without gardens. 
they are being used to measure not only the quality of fruit, but also for the health of the plant, and this goes for non fruit plants also.

for example, herbs could be monitored, and by comparing brix, you pick herbs at their peak.

Simple refractometers, like those 40-50 dollar ones on ebay or amazon should do the trick. they are simple optical devices, all you do is squeeze a bit of liquid on the glass plate, which "bends" the light,  the higher the brix, the more the light bends.  accuracy I believe would depend more on the scale,  I mean if you get one with a 0-50 scale, every little line mark may represent 2 brix. where if you get one close to the range we gardeners will be using which is about  0 - 18 brix range, you will be able to measure fractions of a 1 brix.

Thanks! I didn't realize they were so versatile or cheap. You've helped me to come a lot closer to rationalizing spending the dough!
Oscar

Quote from: fruitlovers on January 27, 2012, 06:11:22 PM

I now see what you mean Adam, but still think you're a bit Florida-centric, meaning Florida is the center of your universe. But it's curable after some travelling. HAHA
Oscar

U R CERTAINLY RIGHT OSCAR

I AM FL CRACKER TO BONE, BORN AND RAISED, DON'T PLAN ON TRAVELING...I'M A REAL HOMEBODY, HOMEBOY.   don't like planes, or leaving the house...even more now that I have a fragile rare plant collection, and animals that need my attention...a jail sentence I'm willing to serve, even if a life sentence to being on house arrest (or limited to trips only as long as 3 days) with my plants and animals who I love more than anything  (except family of course).

Thanks for coining the term...it may have opened my eyes...somtimes I am selfish and must consider other places more....

Absolutely nothing wrong with being a homebody! I envy people that can be totally content always being in their little home town. Certainly does lower your carbon foot print! Do you know how many gallongs those jumbo jets burn up on a long trip? I think it's like 10,000 gallons of prime jet fuel.
But you can still travel in your mind. You can still expand your mind through books, travel series, etc. You don't need to be small minded even if you always stay in your small town. My two cents.
Oscar

And Adam is scared to come to Hawaii??? HAHA
Hey this gives me a new marketing angle: Plant Alarms. When you lift the plant a very loud noise sounds and the thief is automatically tasered. Might go over well right now in Florida?
Just teasing guys and galz. Don't take offense! We have plant theft here, but they usually target nurseries and steal hundreds of plants, not a couple of measly plants! Big time crooks only pleaze! 
Oscar

Have both, grafted and seedlings. The one flowering is a graft, a cultivar here being called Makawao, or Bullock.
Oscar

The only ones i've tasted are M. odorata (kuini) and M. casturi (kasturi). The kuini is nice, but not as good as a mango. Has a strong odor, you don't want to bring them indoors. They are great in that they will fruit consistently here where mangos don't due to too much rain during flowering. I think kuini is also much more cold tolerant than mangos. Also have found out there are selected types of kuini that may be a lot better than the ones i have. Also very ornamental plant with large leaves and super vibrant red flush of new leaves.
The kasturi is very nice, tastes very similar to mango. I've only had them once and they were quite small, only down side. But this could have been due to insufficient fertilizer...not sure yet.
Oscar

Sorry Gerry, the jaboticabas are not in fruit, but they are in flower which is impressive nonetheless.  LOTS of carambola, black sapote (try the ones there as a comparison), candlestick fruit (will make you long for a black sapote), bananas, guavas (try the Cas guava!), some Gac, jujube (large Thai variety), and a few others.  There is an interesting smelling Eugenia right next to the main grouping of jaboticabas that smells like a peach, but it not as yet identified.  Good luck!

Could it be Eugenia stipitata? That is the only eugenia i know that smells like peach. But i guess you Warren already know about these large peach smelling eugenias? Do you have a photo of mystery eugenia?
Oscar

Quote from: fruitlovers on January 27, 2012, 06:27:33 AM

PS i love this species name "torta" because it means cake in spanish! You can have your cake and eat it too! 

Torta doesn't mean cake in all Latin American countries.  For example, Cubans don't use the word Torta for cake. Back in the old days in Cuba, cakes were known as Pastel. Don't confuse that with pastelito cause it's something different.

We use "torta" as a short slang/abbreviation for the word Tortillera, which means Lesbian.   

It's interesting, cause even though all latin American countries speak the same language, they all have different ways of speaking.  A Spanish word could have different meanings, depending on what country from Latin America you're from.

Spanish is my first language. Torta means cake in Spain and in all of spanish speaking South America. Pastel usually means pie, not cake. What you are saying about it meaning lesbian is purely slang, not official language. True every country has different slang.
Oscar

Quote from: Felipe on January 26, 2012, 04:41:14 PM

Oscar told me they taste similar to abiu...

My seeds are slowly germinating, no leaves so far. Pretty slow for a Pouteria IMO 

BTW FELIPE and OTHERS INTERESTED!

I have some very viable seeds of the P. torta (not the gallifructa subp.)...The fruits are fuzzy, and I love the leaves!!! and growth habit....The fruit isn't the sweetest I've read, but I'm sure us fruit lovers would love to have them just to snack on, maybe when other abius aren't in season? and who knows what benefit you may gain from the Pourteria torta vs. P. caimito? they have different genetic profiles and potentially contain contrasting botanic medicinal qualities.


Let me know if you are interested in the regular P. torta...it handles much more drought and cold I believe....considering it's deciduous and from the cerrado of Brazil.

THanks

The gallifructa i think will handle more cold than the cerrado (savanna) type because gallifructa is from highlands of Guatemala, where it gets quite cool and foggy, but not freezing!
I've had the Pouteria torta subsp. glabra here. Also has fuzzy orange exterior, just like the cerrado fruit you mention. But the glabra had very nice taste. Some sweeter than abiu. But the fruit is quite smaller than abiu. But the glabra tree seems more disease resistant than abiu. So each has it's own good/bad.
I tried to grow the cerrado type here and they just don't like our high humidity and rainfall.
BTW, the 4 subspecies of torta are
cerrado type (savannas of Brazil) Pouteria torta subsp. torta
Central American type: Pouteria torta subsp. gallifructa
Pouteria torta subsp. tuberculata
Pouteria torta subsp. glabra
(Info from Pennington's Flora Neotropica, Sapotacea monograph)
Oscar
PS i love this species name "torta" because it means cake in spanish! You can have your cake and eat it too!