Has there been any progress in figuring out what this might be?

John

Quote from: Vernmented on October 03, 2016, 07:57:55 PM

Have you guys tasted Ross Sapote? That has been my favorite canistel like fruit so far.

Not yet.

Me neither.  What other canistel-like fruit have you tried so far, V.?  (macrophylla, hypoglauca, lucuma, etc -- good to know what was in the running)

Climate affects quality. A fruit grown outside the tropics is not going to be up to par.

I wonder how often a fruit gets slammed here because it was not grown under the conditions it needed to produce good fruit.  The French like to talk about terroir (climate, sun, soil, rainfall, exposure, etc) with grapes, I think we need to consider that concept for all fruits. 

John

Thanks for the review -- did you score these from Frankie's?  Do these have the same kind of texture as canistel?  I've got one or two in the orchard but still may years until bearing size.

John

I'll be attending when the mini conference travels over to Hilo but money's a little tight to hit the full conference on your island.

John

I am guessing you are seeing two effects at play here.  One, I'm guessing that the long dry spell is probably not helping the growth rate.  The other is concerning the size.  How large are the leaves on yours?  From what I am seeing, it seems like the plant needs to attain a critical mass before the growth rate really increases -- I'm guessing a leaf size of about 2 1/2'. 

I have seen these growing in anything from full sun to shade, in deep soil and in barely any soil on lava rock.  I think the key to growing well is probably ample moisture.  Mine are growing in full sun on as east-facing slope with deep soil.  I got these as a "bonus" when I was picking up some hapu'u for a palm & hapu'u grove I was working on.  I got good-sized unrooted cuttings that just sat for a while until I could deal with them.    As a result, they were set back for a while & leaf size actually decreased for a short time until they got amply rooted in & established so that they could build size again.  The larger cutting starting carrying fruit within a year.  The fruit takes a long time to mature and the young plant then took a break before setting any more.  I now see both plants carrying fruits again (a smaller variegated one I got as a potted plant has still not set any fruit but leaf size has also not attained the size of the others).  Large plants I see at a local garden seem to be constantly setting new fruit so I believe the growth rate & fruit production is very much a function of plant size.

A few people have posted here advocating putting multiple trees in one hole to insure pollination and save space.  I have done this with a number of trees of various species & it seems to be working fine so far but still way too early to say for sure.  Anything I have that is dioecious but I don't want to take up a lot of orchard space with, I have been doubling up.

John

pics of dulcis' aril generally look translucent but evidently also occurs as opaque, as you would see here:
http://picssr.com/photos/69028902@N00/interesting/page9?nsid=69028902@N00

This is probably a stupid question where I am reading something unintended into your comment, but you are not under the impression that something you purchased in the picture is salak, are you?  Aside the the common or already mentioned fruits, I see longan and lanzones.  I have never seen salak at Hilo market (or other markets on this side) in over 5 years of looking (although some are being grown here).
John

Hi OC,
I have promised to give all the seeds to a local grower here in Hawaii,
since I understand that the "top" fruits (durian, rambutan, pulasan, rollinia, selacca)
is impossible or not easy to fruit in California, so I have no intention to bring
those seeds home.
I also in the dark as to rules of bringing those seeds home to the main land...

$4/lbs for pulasan is spot on Oscar, how about $5/ lbs for "out of this world" fresh durian?

I was corresponding with a guy in Central America who also mentioned it grows well in wet soils -- so he plants mocambo in areas of his property that are wet & cacao does not like.

I think the test is do you like strong tasting chempadeks? They are similar.
BTW, beautiful upright tree, and the pods are also usable as they are thick and break down very slowly. I believe the lumber was also used in Mayan temples.

I suspect that you are right, that there is a good degree of variability with this fruit.  Just curious, Oscar, are yours from the same strain as those as John Mood's?  I have had two different reviews of that strain -- one said it was quite good & the other said it was awful.  I'm kind of looking for a tie breaker before I decide if I am planting any more of it.

I had a pod from John's for seed & waited a bit too long to open it (I am sure it was no longer safe to eat) -- it had a really vile, very strong aroma that I am sure is not indicative of ripe mocambo, kind of like bad clams. 

John

Has strong smell, but didn't taste anything like durian,and the smell is quite different to durian also. Seems to me people confuse anything with a strong smell with durian. For example the kuini is also often compared to durian.
To me the mocambo tastes somewhat similar to some chempadeks. It's certainly not watery, has a strong taste. But apparently there is quite a bit of diversity in this fruit, and some are better than others.

Just curious, Mike, are these trees in full sun?  There's a guy here in Ninole and I recall him being excited at the first blooms on his a few years back & my recollection that they were 2x that size or perhaps a bit more.  However, his was an understory in his durian orchard so was probably not receiving very high light.

John

Ebay is not the most reliable place to purchase seeds.  There are some good vendors but a lot of crooks as well (as well as some idiots who don't know what they are selling).  There are numerous cases of Photoshopped pics on ebay as well (I would not be shocked if someone was offering yellow starapples with red polka dots).  I would not count on getting any of these new & elusive starapple strains on ebay.

John