First and only fruit on my small, grafted plant.  Been checking it everyday and almost lost it.  Went from no where close to falling apart on the tree in a day.  Delicious!  Would be nice to have about a dozen more!

Mainly a Stanley tree with Golden Transparent and one other purple plum(very small) grafted onto the plant.  It's been producing fruit the last few years but all drop.  This is the first year it held nearly all of them.  Good flavor from the two purple's.  The GT flavor was probably the best I've had from any plum.  We ate all of those.  So what to do with more plums than one can eat?  You make wine!  My first time doing it...may be my last.  What a pain in the ass...as well as the feet, back, and hands.  Took me about an hour to pick all of them and about 4 hours to cut, remove the pit, and hit a few times in the food processor.  My hands/fingers are stained an ugly brown.  By the time I finished, I had two 5 gallon buckets of plum mash...and I very much hated plums by that point.  All I can say Robert(Stressbaby), is that this better be the best damn wine I've ever tasted!!!     I stll have gobs of them on the counter and been giving them to neighbors.  I should have done this last weekend when my wife would be around to help.  She's in Thailand laughing her ass off.  I will be pruning the HELL out of the tree!

And I must say that they had a very TROPICAL flavor!  Bend over Sheehan so we'll know where to move this post!!!   

A double wide and double depth sink.


One of two 5 gallon buckets.  I probably could have come close to filling another.

In order to keep from trashing my lower back, I now have a new method of repotting my larger trees.  I hoist the bastard right up into my ash tree! 
1.  Gets the tree up off the ground. 
2.  Allows me to easily knock off the old container. 
3.  Sit down on my trusty little, wheeled garden seat.
4.  Easily root prune and expose roots.
5.  Allows me to lower and raise back up to get the depth in the new container just right.
I had to do a little modification to my 2 wheel dolly to accommodate the larger container.  In the pics, I'm repotting my Kohala longan from a 24 gal to 45 gal container.  A local nursery actually had 45 and 100 gal containers.  Wish they would have had the 65 gal.  I would have gone with that.  So I almost went with the 100 gal. but figured I would be too tempted to put a Jacuzzi motor in the damn thing instead.  It was so huge!  I had to take both doors off the GH in order to get the plant out and back in.

The hoist worked well.  The most difficult part was getting it way up into the tree with the extension ladder to give me enough clearance to raise the longan up in there...and mixing the soil.  Took 3 wheel barrows full of dirt to fill it up.  I didn't fill it up completely until I got it back into the GH.  Man!  It was heavy!  When that dolly started coming down the ramps inside the GH, it gave me an idea of what a runway train is like!  I'm declaring the process a success since I can still walk upright and I'm not snorting crushed up Advil.

Sorry a few pics are a little blurry thanks to my POS camera.

My largest pawpaw finally started producing several fruit of size this year.  A very attractive tree and Ohio's only native tropical fruit tree.  I have two, one of which is a grafted Overleese and the one producing is either a grafted NC-1 or Sunflower...lost the ID.  Both trees produced gobs of flowers and were covered in small fruitlets...only to drop the majority and the smaller tree dropped them all. 

The smell of the ripe fruit is very pleasant resembling a nice mango in fragrance.  The flesh is very creamy with no fiber.  The seeds are bigger than cherimoya seeds but there weren't that many.  The flavor was not bad at all.  Sort of like a combination of a mild cherimoya and mango but not nearly as good as that combination would actually be.  I'd rate it maybe a 5 at most.  I think most of the remaining fruit would be best put to use in a bread similar to making banana bread.  I could not eat more than one at any given time...unlike cherimoya and mango which I could eat till I passed out.  Next year the smaller tree should hang onto a few fruit and maybe it will be a little better.  Hope so.

This was my fifth year organizing our trip to PR and this year it was something else.  A big thanks to our hosts of course...Ian Crown, Zaida at Jardines Eneida, Felipe Osborne Shea, Juan Miranda, and Sherry Ballister.  Thanks also to all the gang that made the trip and sorry for those who missed it.  A big thanks to Sheehan, Patrick and his wife for their time and care on Sunday.  And I don't want to forget Gwenn and Ray.  Without them, we all might still be driving around the mountains looking for some of the farms!

Group members include:  Myself from Ohio, Warren(fruitguy) from Florida and his girlfriend Kim from Australia, Gerry(lycheeluva) from New York, Harry(hmhausman) from Florida, Ethan from California, Noel(floridagreenman) from Florida, Lindsay(durianwriter) from Oregon, Gwenn(gwenninPR) from PR, her husband Ray, and their friends Jimmy and Esther, Helmut and his wife from Mexico.

My trip actually started Sunday morning flying into Miami where I was picked up by Sheehan and Ethan.  We stopped off at the Juice Palace(?) and got some shakes.  We then stopped off to visit Clint(Sleepdoc) and got to see his amazing yard and trees.  Clint has a wonderful collection of trees and keeps everything in good shape.  He sent us off to Harry's with a box full of mangos.  Harry is always the ultimate host and never fails to have something from his orchard to keep his guests happy.  We sampled mangos, jackfruit, dragonfruit, starfruit, and anything else ready to be plucked from his trees.  The next stop was Patrick.  We met up with Noel(Floridagreenman) and Alex(Squam).  Patrick had picked up a bunch of mangos from Zills and Noel brought mangos, abiu, and sugar apples.  Patrick's wife treated us all to a wonderful meal.  The rest of the day was spent chatting, checking out Patrick's trees, and eating fruit.  Patrick and Alex later gave us a cool demonstration of two types of mango grafting. 

I have several videos from the trip that I will upload and post later.  For now, I will include links to my Photobucket albums.

Monday
Monday started off bright and early with our plane departing Fort Lauderdale at 6:00 a.m.  Warren, Kim, Ethan, Harry, Noel, and myself met up with Lindsay at the airport in San Juan.  After securing our vehicles, we took the southern route on a leisurely drive to Jardines Eneida in Cabo Rojo where we met up with Gerry, Gwenn and party, Ian, and Felipe.  Of course no trip to any farm on the island would be complete without us getting lost at least once and getting off the wrong exit proved to be a pain in the ass getting back on track.  But we finally made it with minutes to spare for our meeting time.  Gerry was supposed to have picked up Helmut and his wife at the hotel in Mayaguez for the trip to Eneidas but for an unknown reason at the time, they were a no-show.  Turns out their plane broke down in Mexico and after more nightmares, did not arrive until the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Zaida is the daughter of Milton, the original owner of Eneidas.  The family remains good friends with Ian so he was able to once again get us a tour of the family farm which the nursery is a part of.  The farm is not open to the public at any time so this really was a rare treat to be a part of.  There is a huge diversity of fruit trees around the farm and most were producing fruit just waiting to be sampled by our group.  The farm is simply beautiful to behold surrounded by large, rolling hills in the distance...with the threat of thunderstorms on the horizon.  Their rambutan are always sweet and delicious.  With stops to listen to Ian telling us of the farm's history and to eat fruit, and great weather, our first day in PR was off to a roaring success.  There was not many plants purchased this time around.  Just was not a great selection unfortunately.  Probably for the best.  Half our party was staying in Mayaguez while the rest continued on to Rincon to stay.  We were all too tired to drive further that evening so each group ate dinner locally.
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/ohiojay/library/Puerto%20Rico%202013/Jardines%20Eneida

Tuesday
Helmut is now with us after his crazy trip from Mexico.  We all met at our hotel in Mayaguez.  If you are not familiar with the streets in downtown Mayaguez, let me tell you they are a pain in the ass as far as traffic goes and every one of the damn things are one way only.  Trying to coordinate four vehicles to stick together in this mess is nearly impossible and would certainly test the patience of a saint.  After more than a few times around the hotel area and multiple phone calls back and forth between the different vehicles, we finally were able to get the hell out of the town and on our way to Ian's farm.  The drive up the mountain, while sometimes hard on the stomach, kidneys, and whiplash-prone muscles, was actually smoothing the stress of leaving the city.  PR is a beautiful country and it never fails to awe the traveler.

Ian Crown is a master at playing host.  Few people can match his generosity.  Every moment is spent making sure each of us is getting as much out of the experience as we can.  After some quick introductions to the new members of our group, we were off to see the farm.  One of our biggest concerns in the months leading up to this trip was whether or not there would be durian available.  It was sure looking like it and when we arrived, Ian was proud to announce that we would not be disappointed.  We were free to pluck any fruit from the trees that we could get our hands on...mangosteen, rambutan, pulasan, kwai muk, rollinia, marang, pedalai, abiu, and of course durian.  Ian was having probably his most successful mangosteen crop ever.  No hint of gamboge or translucent flesh disorder.  One could probably eat their fill and still not come across a bad fruit.  And the flavor was just freaking excellent as well.  Just could not get enough of them.  It started sprinkling a little bit early in the tour but soon stopped and stayed beautiful...although hotter than hell and muggy to boot.  As soon as we got to the pulasans, it was like opening the doors at Best Buy on Black Friday.  Delicious.  Once we arrived at the durians, it was like a huge Easter egg hunt.  Down the hill we'd go looking for any durian that had fallen from the trees.  We sampled one on the spot and probably brought back at least a dozen to try after the tour.  There were lots of marang and we were all first timers for pedalai.  What an odd fruit.  Alien looking...especially when broken apart.  The snow white arils are like little marsh mallows and sort of had the flavor of them too.  Big freaking trees too.  Back to the house.  It was now time to start cutting into the durians.  Very good and gets better each time I get to try them.  I can certainly begin to understand what all the fuss over them really is.  When you get into a really good one, it is quite an experience of flavors and textures.  Everyone in the group was really getting into them...except for Gerry!  We pressured him into trying them twice now and I doubt we will ever do so again.  This fruit is just not for him...which leaves more for the rest of us!!!  LOL!     We probably spent over four hours here on the farm and it was time to head to Felipe's place.
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/ohiojay/library/Puerto%20Rico%202013/Ian%20Crown%20Panoramic%20Fruit

Felipe has numerous varieties of nearly everything growing on his farm.  Unfortunately, there was not many fruit available for eating this year.  It was still wonderful to walk the farm with Felipe.  His mind is sharp as a finely honed blade and does not fail to recall the name of any plant pointed out to him.  His age certainly doesn't slow him down a bit either and we all seem to leave more tired and worn out than he appears!  Felipe is a treasure and we appreciate him opening his farm to us.  This was probably the first year we didn't end a tour here with a violent thunder storm.  All-in-all, a terrific day.

We all met up with Ian for a good dinner that evening.  Long day on the farms, local PR food, drinks, and good company...made for some good sleeping that night.
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/ohiojay/library/Puerto%20Rico%202013/Felipe

Wednesday
We're getting a bit smarter and decided to meet outside of town this morning.  Much better!  Another beautiful day.  We start off going to Juan Miranda's farm.  Juan is a terrific and gracious host and it's always a pleasure spending time with him.  Juan is an independent farmer with approximately 90 acres and pretty much cares for the land on his own.  He has not planted out the entire acreage of course but has carved out a good chunk for fruit trees and heliconias.  Juan only had two pulasan trees.  One male and one female.  This pulasan was certainly a winner too.  Just delicious.  Unfortunately, fluctuations in the weather caused his fruit to start maturing late so we were not able to enjoy them this year.  As you will see in the pics, he made some large platforms beneath the tree so he could airlayer and approach graft lots of seedlings.  When ready, these will all be planted out on his farm.  Juan also had some great marang for us too.  He has lots of varieties of rambutan including a couple seedlings that were just fantastic and definitely worth propagating.  My lower back starting killing me and I stayed back with Harry and Noel while the rest of the group went further down the farm and visited some lovely spots.  Hopefully one of them will share some pics.
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/ohiojay/library/Puerto%20Rico%202013/Juan%20Miranda

Our next stop was Sherry Ballester's farm.  Sherry is a sweatheart and always finds the time to share with our group when we visit.  When we showed up, we were greeted with hugs and kisses and one of the most beautiful tropical fruit arrangements I've seen.  Lot's of time and effort went into this too.  She's had lots of work done here and there which include concrete steps on some of the more steeper trails.  Sherry has all kinds of fruit trees growing:  rambutan, mangosteen, langsat, durian, marang, rollinia, and others as well as many beautiful heliconias and such.  Her Amazon tree grape was finally ripe for us so we got to try this.  Very juicy and with a mild, but good flavor.  A very large tree that makes harvesting this fruit an adventure.  We were not too far into the tour when our first thunderstorm of the trip struck.  And did it ever!  It really started to unload on us.  Lucky for us the canopies were so thick, we were able to make it back to the house without getting drenched.  So we sat around chatting, eating fruit and drinking a delicious mix of fresh squeeze lemons with cranberry.  Very refreshing.  Once the sun appeared, we decided to call it an early day and head back to our hotels to rest.  We met up with Ian in Rincon for another wonderful dinner.
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/ohiojay/library/Puerto%20Rico%202013/Sherry

Thursday
We had to part with Gerry, Helmut, and his wife.  They had to start home early so will not be joining us for this last tour.  We are heading back to Ian's farm for a big party, more tours, more fruit, and more fun.  Many local folks that Ian knows were invited as well as a few gentlemen from the USDA and surprise of all surprises...Dr Richard Campbell!  This guy was effing cool to hang out with all day.  He's done so much and visited so many places, you could stand and listen to him talk for hours on end.  Rare fruit is not just his job, he loves it too and he absolutely has a soft spot for pulasan.  One minute he's standing there grinning and talking, and the next he's off up the hill like he was shot out of a cannon!  We also found more durian and a few of these were the crown jewels of durians...red prawn and a hybrid that was just unbelievable.  Everyone there was super nice and definitely fruit lovers.  A lot of interesting people.  Ian was once again the circus ringmaster and in his element of speaking to a crowd.  All very educational and inspiring.  One had to split their attention between Ian and Campbell...always coming away with new info.  Another beautiful and long day on the farm.  A weather front is definitely moving in so it's time to make an exit.  A last dinner with Ian that evening and our PR trip comes to a close. 
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/ohiojay/library/Puerto%20Rico%202013/Ian%20Crown%20Party

Friday we made an leisurely trip back to San Juan and all flew for home.  A successful trip from start to finish.  New friends and new fruit.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  Jimmy, Esther, Lindsay and Helmut were new to the group this year and it was a pleasure to have them along.  If I left out anything, hopefully someone else from the gang will fill in the blanks.

I will quote Ethan here from an earlier email:  PR is truly a tropical fruit paradise. 

“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”

― Miles Kington

Fruit were quite small this year and virtually seedless.  Trying to decide whether the plant is worthy of a permanent spot in the ground inside the GH.

From the many mangos packed and carried back from the weekend in Florida.  Last night we ate a Fairchild.  This is our favorite so far from the group we received from Alex and this one did not let us down.  Tonight we tried a Chocanon, Kensington, and Rataul.  The Chocanon and Kensington were okay, not great.  The Rataul was very good.  Nice color, creamy, fragrant, and very tasty to me.  Definitely is one I would seek out.  If anyone else has tried this mango, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on the fruit and any characteristics of the tree or fruit....good and bad.  Thanks

Grafted last summer from scions sent to me by Sheehan.  Variety unknown.  This was the only graft out of several to have taken.  He assures me they were all very good varieties.  Hopefully we will soon find out!  Was grafted on to one of two seedling plants that I've kept quite compact.  Was hoping for the seedlings themselves to start throwing out some blooms but so far nothing yet.  What is the normal time for wax jambu to bloom from seed?  Thanks.

Thanks to Gerry telling me he had to go and order mangos from Florida just a few weeks of us visiting there, I didn't want to miss out so ordered a box as well.  Afterall...I figured I would taste a few of these before seeking out budwood.

The box from Squam(Alex) arrived yesterday filled with the following varieties:  Julie, Fairchild, Jakarta, Edwards, Valcarrie, Dupuis Saigon.  Each mango had the variety written on the peel and each were wrapped in several layers of newspaper.

I sampled a Julie and Dupuis Saigon so far.  Yes...it was difficult not to sit down and just eat them all.  My wife would probably have killed me.  The Julie was scary flavorful, sweet, and juicy.  Dupuis the same.  I will say that I think the Julie may have a slight edge on the Dupuis so far.  I have another here at work to help pass judgement.

So if the rest are as good as the first two, and I'm sure they will be, the box was money well spent.  Wife disagrees but...she's not the fruit fanatic that I am.  I certainly look forward to getting down there two weekends from now.

My first fruit to come to term is nearly ripe.  Do you normally eat the skin or would this mess up the overall taste?  Thanks

Damn few things happening.  Much less than I was hoping for this year.

First Imbe fruits.

More Imbe

Kohala longan

Hak Ip lychee.  First fruits.  One other panicle with a few more fruit on.

Gold Nugget jack.  Male blooms.  The emerging bloom turned out to be male.  It was very compacted causing me to misjudge the stem for a larger female.  Turned out to be a huge male.

Carolina Reaper peppers.  The latest super hot and supposedly will be crowned world's hottest.  A few already have pods ready to start turning color soon so we'll see.

Various tomato plants waiting for the garden.

NamWah bananas.  A smaller plant is putting out a very small bunch.  Will soon be digging out half of these to open up room for something else.  Great nanas though.

Fruit from a plant I put directly into the ground out in the GH.  Got really huge really fast.  Pruned back a few times.  Got maybe 6-8 fruit.  Got the seed from a Hawaiian fruit purchased at a local Asian market.  Very good and sweet without that musky flavor in some papaya.  My fruit turned out to have a very pronounced floral taste to them.  Sweet and fiberless...almost like butter.  The floral tones were a little odd.  I'm since cut the plant back to the ground.  Too damn big.

Only wax jambu graft that took out of 8 tries on 3 different plants.  I'll take it.


Bell carambola


Cherimoya


Tucked away for the winter


Papaya


Lots of male jackfruit blooms after the big pruning.  I'm sad to report that the lone female/fruit that was forming earlier dropped.  Not really surprised.


Nice size.


Harry...this pic is for you!!!!