The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi, Achachariu will probably do well enough. Hopefully you would be high enough for chirimoya. I’m not sure. Chirimoya does appear at the market mentioned but I don’t really know what altitude it needs. Lychee is something you don’t really see and that has always surprised me. Like chirimoya I would think that you just keep going up the hill until you find a climate that it likes. But I never see it and that is strange for CR as practically every tropical and sub tropical fruit is grown here somewhere.
Peter

Puerto Viejo has perhaps, the best wave in CR, Salsa Brava. 
But in September it has some of the best snorkeling and the best fruit.
Hope to see You then!

Most of the fruit sold by Tony Gracia is bought from different farms around CR.  Last year he came to Puerto Viejo at least 3 times to buy mangosteen from us and durian from others.
Lowland fruits start to come up against a barrier at about 2500-3000’. Some go beyond that but that’s the general point of reference here in the equatorial tropics. 
I have done consulting in Perez Zeledon and while there is some good soil I would be cautious about soil quality. It’s not unusual to find farms with a ph of less than 5.  My farm in Limon has a PH of 6.1 and we are still adding calcium.
Peter

I stopped dealing with sending seeds anywhere.  It’s gotten more complicated on both ends.  Best to come here, experience the fruit and take the seeds back yourself. 
Right now I don’t have any but I could post when I would have some if anybody is willing to come.  We have a lot of great fruits here.  Best to plan on September/october.
Peter

Bicolor is fairly common here. Nice creamy pulp and the dried seeds make nice nuts.
Peter

Salacca can flower in about 3 years under ideal conditions.  That would be a size that could still work in a 25 gallon container.
Peter

I grow mangosteen commercially and we occasionally dehydrate mangosteen pulp with the seeds and sell it as well as eating it ourselves.  We’ve always enjoyed it and never suffered for it.
Peter

Where Wani grows in SE Asia the temps are going to be probably from a low of 70 to a high of less than 90.  I have it growing here in CR and it looks pretty good.  I realize you have different conditions but it is important to avoid drastic temperature changes.
Peter

Does your potting medium not have any clay?
Seems to me that where these trees grow naturally there’s plenty of clay in the soil.
Peter

Coconut cream, you could if you had the scions but he plainly says that he has no access to any!!?

Tropo, that is very bad luck.  I would plant more pululan seedlings, pululan is worth it!
Plant at least 5.  With two only you have a 50% chance of failure.  If you don’t have the space then just plant them closer, see how it goes.
Peter

Has the mold actually passed to a plant and caused a problem?
The biomass is supposed to be broken down by fungi and bacteria’s.
Peter

There was a small agricultural ministry project to search for criollo cacao trees in CR about a year before the pandemic.  I was contacted by a participant and given a grafted tree.  I was told that two trees had been identified and that there were 35 grafts and I got one.  Six months later the guy checked on me and all good.  The pandemic came and the ministry was re structured so I have no idea what happened to those guys.
The tree is not a fast grower but has produced.  The first few pods had white seeds only, completely white.  This is pretty good as there are many other cacao trees around my farm and neighboring farms.  I originally bought an abandoned cacao farm. 

I grow what we call sapote Colombiano in Costa Rica.  Some are pretty good, others not so.  I do consultations and planting design around CR and I’d say that chupa chupa does not like dry.  In good, wet conditions it is a fast grower but when it starts to get dry it’s the first tree in the grove to start looking sad.  So I would be cautious about California.
Peter