When I started growing tropical fruits, I never thought I'd have a garcinia collection, I reserved stuff like that for people in tropical areas like Asia, HI, Puerto Rico and Ohio.  After a few years though.......I've quite a collection going and after repotting a bunch of them recently, I have a couple observations.

Garcinias tend to have really long taproots, so if you are growing them, plant them in deep pots.  Out of my collection G. livingstonei and G. intermedia have had the longest taproot.

Some garcinia are polyembryonic, most notably G. sp. achachairu.  I had multiple plants that chose to grow multiple smaller "trunks"  from a single seed.  At repotting time they easily separated into individual plants.  I did have one G. intermedia do this too but acuminata, aristata, mangostana, magnifolia, madrono and G. sp. Luc's have not.  I've sprouted less than 12 seeds of some of these from a small gene pool so perhaps they may show polyembryonic characteristics too?

Lastly, they are actually hardier than I expected, even mangosteen.  That is not to say they are easy (esp. mangosteen) but they are beautiful plants and fun to grow.  Fruiting them on the other hand might be a little more difficult, I'll report back in a few years.

I'm hoping to add G. sp 'two nose garcinia' to the collection this year.

-Ethan

I've gotten in the habit of using hydrogen peroxide soaks for all of my seeds.  I originally started doing this for old seeds but even do it now for fresh seeds.  Using store bought strength H2O2 I'll soak fresh seeds for 30min or less, mostly to remove any leftover residue.  For older seeds, supposedly it reoxygenates the seed embryo, I've soaked 10 year old seeds for a few hours and had them sprout.  I purchased some dialum inidium (velvet tamarind) seeds and had one sprout, 9months of continued trying, I soaked the seeds again and the within days had two more seeds sprout.

anyone else use this in their arsonal?
-Ethan

What is the difference between Mai 1,2,3?

thanks,
-Ethan

The latest discussion has me wondering about marcotting a seedling tree?  Could you say grow a longan seedling out and at about 10' airlayer the top off and plant it.  Then allow the airlayer to grow 10' and airlayer the top of that.  Then repeat the process one more time.  Would the resulting plant think it is 30' tall and mature?

-Ethan

Are any of you growing this guava and have any tips on it's care including cold tolerance?  I have one in a 15gal and a good spot for it.

thank you,
-Ethan

In reviewing the requirements for importing seeds using a Small Lot Seed Permit:

"10.  The shipment must be free from soil, plant material other than seed, other foreign matter or debris, seeds in the fruit or seed pod, and living organisms such as parasitic plants, pathogens, insect, snails and mites."

My question is, with seeds that need to be kept moist during shipment, can I get away w/wet newspaper or just have them put a few drops of water in the bag?

thank you,
-Ethan

Since my addiction uh I mean hobby has grown, so has my need for winter protection.  I'm lucky to have a giant grape arbor that was here when I moved in because it made it easier to slap together an even bigger greenhouse for this year.  Not only that but I created a GH inside my new GH for the more tropical stuff.  We've seen plenty of days of hard frost this year and been down to 28F a couple of times but inside the GH the 'main room' has not gotten below 52F.  The other room runs about 10F colder which is good because I want my lychee to get chill units.

The original GH, it is a swing arbor with passion fruit growing over the top during most of the year



with alien invaders



the GH for my Valencia Pride is on the right and the plastic on the left is the new GH



night time with the lights and heater going



looking in through the 'front door', epiphytic cacti on the right, hoyas, salaks, dragon fruit, seedlings straight ahead.  Back wall of the main room (GH inside the GH) on the left.  Dragon fruit and other epicacti probably don't need to be protected as much next year.



Standing at the very back corner shooting towards the sunshine (main room on L).



peek into the main chamber with star apple, rambutan, pulasan, chempedak, wax jambu, garcinias, etc.
 


I think I might know why I have so many plants (one reason)  one of 2 GH inside the house.  Lots of seedlings, sugar apple, black sapote, peppers, flacourtia, lemon leaf, clove, etc.



The other indoor GH, a few of the extra special ones, durians, mangosteens, Juan's pulasan, cashews, marang, acai, velvet tamarind, recent PR plants and others.  A few plants were brought in just in case the new outdoor GH completely failed.



cant wait for spring to get here,
-Ethan