Longan dont like pruning too much, once pruned the following year might be bad or skipped all together.  I am not great at it, but there are certain ways to prune longan/lychee to help aid in yield and also maintain tree shape/size.

If you got lots of flowers, probably like they say, pollinators.  if you are getting sporadic flowering try not pruning for a year or 2.

Annona squamosa/hybrids fruit in winter here.  Pomelo are (can be...) nice if you like citrus.

great thanks guys!  I would let them fall but we have LOTS of snails, ants etc that dont let things sit around long before making it a meal.

I will pick the few that are fully yellow now and see how they go

Quote from: murraystevena2 on May 27, 2013, 03:43:07 PM

If Canistels are sterile, would it be possible to pollinate them with other Pouteria sp like green sapote, lucuma, mamey or Ross Sapote? Do they hybridize? I would also like to add my self to the list of your next harvest of canistel seeds if possible,
thanks
Steven

Steven, I've never tried cross pollination, but would guess that it's not so easy. You might have do a huge amount of hand pollinating until you figure out which species will hybridize and then after that do another huge amount to get some flowers to take. Then you would have to do field trials taking years to find out if the cross pollinated fruit is any good. Also the pouteria flowers are quite small so not easy to hand pollinate. That might be a good PhD thesis for your pomology degree?
I will make an announcement in this thread when i have more seeds of Phillippine pointed canistel available again.

if you had a lab and access to geneticists it may be nice too.  Sometimes plants that are "hybridized" actually just self, even species that require foreign pollen.  Lots of things can be done to trick a pollen grain to germinate and grow a tube to fertilize the seed.  one thing to definitely start with if this is speceis which does not cross readily, is demasculate (right word?).  taking the male organs (anthers with filaments) out to prevent selfing.  usually the flower needs to be opened prematurely, or so i think anyway, to avoid more pollen spills.  lots of other cool tricks for creating stubborn hybrids.  some environmental, some require physical change of the structure, others chemical.

I had no idea canistel was unable to cross pollinate.  I am reading this info correctly?

does anyone know what kind of naming this sort of thing would go by?   i want to search for similar laws in other countries, but cant seem to get the terminology right.

ya they are pretty bland.  but there are lots of new varieties in Taiwan that are getting better for sweet/flavor.  more sweet than flavor, but they are hugely improved.  Though they do seem to focus on year round fruiting and cracking it seems.

What are some yummy varieties in thailand?

ya, some books are bad.  one local fruit book here has numerous toxic species, even castor bean without so much as a mention of its danger.

I like the books drawings. 

I just received some seeds from a Ugandan Aframomum species from Soren (thanks).  Looking around the net it seems hard to germinate.  so was wondering what people have had luck doing?

following these links i will try the following, looking for suggestions though.  I dont plant on doing any tissue culture because i hate setting it up, but im not totally against it if need be.

http://www.tropentag.de/2012/abstracts/links/Amponsah_xYNrvBoE.pdf
http://www.icidr.org/jeiadc_vol2no1/The%20Effect%20of%20Pre-treatments%20on%20Germination%20of%20Seeds%20of%20Aframomum%20melegueta%20%28Alligator%20Pepper%29%20in%20Southern%20Nigeria.pdf

So my first batch i want to try 5 seeds in each way.

GA3 soak

Sulfuric acid scarification (25% as per link, I am familiar with this chemical and realize its hazards).  i wonder if i could simply use a less harmful acid like acetic acid and just use a highly acidic water maybe around PH3?

Hot water soak

sphagnum moss (like i do for most tropical seeds)

cold shock for 1 week, followed by sphagnum and perhaps a GA3 soak(?)


Its wet season right now and planting anything in soil right away is just asking for rot.

after that scale and sooty mold took one down and stunted the other.

yes they are prone to insects.  Here i find those white fluffy mealy types to be the biggest problems.

for sooty mold, you may find this is a direct result of other bugs on the plant.  aphids, mealy, maybe scale all release waste, and it is often quite sweet, hence ants farming them, and so they release onto whatever is below (leaves/fruit) and mold grows.

I think pretty much every guava farm in Taiwan bags their fruit to protect them.

no ton your list, but i just found this and find such things pretty helpful in finding new material.

Durio, a Bibliographic Review

http://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/bioversity/publications/pdfs/654_Durio.pdf?cache=1364804737

a non tropical fruit in the tropics, not sure if this is the right forum.

But with all the advancements going on are there any heat tolerant species, or more accurately any species that dont need a harsh cold spell?

we are in a protected pocket in southern Taiwan so warmer than Florida but slightly cooler than Hawaii i think.  our coldest lows are snaps down to 11C at night, but usually winter is above15C at night and 17+ in the day.  usually 1-3 few day cold spells from the north.

I really crave cherry so bad.  Like a lychee but dont need to peel, best fruit in my opinion. 

I also have mountains up to 3000m near me, they can get ice some exceptionally cold nights, but the road is only accessible up to 1600m, where it can get down to 5C that i know of.

Is there any chance?

I dont have any picture right now, but a question.  If any of you have monkeys, how do you prevent them from coming in and eating up the fruit?  unlike with birds, netting doesnt really work that well.

**I dont want to harm them**

If you want seeds you have import the fresh fruit   That's what we do for Thai and Vietnamese durians.  But then you get seeds, not clones.

Fruitlovers, do you know the other species that are also forbidden to export?