Just wondering if the newer, tastier varieties of Australian finger limes are in SoCal yet? Does anyone know if the CCPP has them yet? Anybody grow seeds and get lucky with a good tasting variety? Any Nurseries selling the better varieties? Thanks

Simon

I got the Oro Blancos from either Mitsuwa Market, Nijiya Market or Hmart. I forget which one but I will be purchasing more this week and I’ll report back when I find out where I got them. They were not bitter at all. I hate most grapefruit I have tried with the exception of Oro Blanco. It is extremely sweet with just enough acidity to make the fruit delicious. I recommend OB for people that normally don’t like grapefruit.

Simon

I never even saw any flowers. I’ll tske a closer look at the trunk to see if I notice any flowers there. This tree was somewhat hidden in tall weeds so there was a lot of shading. Only the outer canopy of this tree was in sunlight.

Simon

Store bought Oro Blanco, April, 14% Brix. Very low acidity, almost no acidity and super sweet. Absolutely delicious!





Simon

Here’s the pics









Simon

Jim, thank you so much for the response. I wonder if a simple pH probe reading would give us usable information in regards to the sourness of a Fruit?

Simon

I’m sorry about your trees. Are your trees in ground? Did you over amend with organic matter? What type of fertilizer did you use?

The symptoms do look like Phomopsis but the only way to tell for sure is to send out sample which most of us aren’t willing to do. Since you are in a desperate situation, I would recommend using Abound after you familiarize yourself with the instructions and warnings. The rate would be 1tsp/gallon of water. Class 11 Fungicides are no joke and if used improperly, organisms will build up resistance. Maybe someone in your area has Abound or another fungicide that is effective against Phomopsis. If you can get Abound and decide to use it, read all instructions and warnings carefully. It can kill Apple trees for example, even in minute quantities. You also want to make sure you wear appropriate Personal Protective equipment/gear.

If you catch symptoms early enough and immediately spray, you can save trees. Your trees are close to the tipping point of no return but there’s still hope.

Many Florida trees planted in SoCal end up like this and I’m glad you were brave enough to post this and ask for help. Many other people have experienced this, myself included. Usually the Florida trees take several years to look as bad as yours so I’m guessing there’s something about your yard/climate/diseases in your yard or plant husbandry that may have accelerated your trees decline.

Hopefully you can save your trees but if they don’t make it, try planting Mango seeds of Polyembryonic and Monoembryonic varieties and graft onto the most vigorous seedlings.

I love Mangos so much and I hate seeing people loose trees like this. This is one of the reasons why I perform all my experiments. I may be selling some grafted trees on seedling rootstocks in the coming years.

Simon

Awesome, I bet it’s a seedling. I love seeing thriving Mango trees.

Simon

Store bought Moro blood orange from March reading, 10% Brix

Store bought Cara Cara from March reading, 13% Brix

Store bought Sky Valley Heirloom Navel Orange from March reading, 15% Brix


The Moro was not as good as in previous years and this Cara Cara was ok but the flavor was not in its prime. The Sky Valley Heirloom Navel was fantastic and tasted like how a good orange should taste like.

Jim, how are you taking your acid readings? I would like to start including this info and I was just going to take a pH reading. Do you perform an actual titration? Thanks,
Simon

The tops to both my innarched seedlings are starting to push new growth. They were actually already pushing before i innarched and I purposely waited until I saw active growth before grafting but the good news is that the branches continued to push new growth that hasn’t dried up yet. In the innarching process, I cut 1/3 to 1/2 the diameter of the branch off before joining and binding the branches and sometimes the injury causes new growth to dry up. It’s still way too early and I’m still skeptical about the success of these grafts but at least things are looking good so far.






Simon

Simon, my wife, son and I sampled the leo#3 fruit this morning.  I was skeptical that it would be as good as a cherimoya but it was excellent.  Very sweet but also nice fragrant slightly perfumy raspberry acid flavor.  My wife said she prefers it to cherimoya.  My son was begging for more once it was gone.  I thought the flavor and texture were excellent.  Very clean taste with good sugar and mild berry aftertaste.  The flesh did not come off as easy close to the skin but the heart of the fruit had exactly cherimoya juicy soft texture.  And the pice of fruit we got had pretty low seed count.  Thanks for the sample, we want more.

Hey Brad, I’m glad your family enjoyed the fruit. Unfortunately that was the last Fruit on Leo’s tree, his crop was decimated by rodents this year. I have a couple grafts from last year that can probably hold fruit but it would probably be smarter to let the grafts grow out so I can get more fruit the following year.

Leo brought a couple of these fruit to the Cherimoya tasting last year but he had to pick them early and they didn’t ripen in time for the tasting.

Simon

Mike, thanks for saving me the time looking up all those varieties. I would love to breed the near seedlessness of the pinks Mammoth into the progeny of these experiments. One thing I definitely want to keep in these fruit is the acidity that I feel Sugar apples and many Atemoya lack.

Simon