Author Topic: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida  (Read 1177 times)

Grow Tropicals

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I just noticed my Blackberry Jam Fruit (Randia Formosa) is flowering.  I never complain when a fruit tree is flowering, but I thought these flowered in late fall and produced fruit around December/January time frame.  Do these normally bloom this early in the summer?  How long does it typically take from flower to harvest fruit?
Small South Florida Urban Permaculture Food Forest with ~50 different species of tropical edible perennial plants

achetadomestica

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2021, 05:12:09 PM »
One out of my two trees is also flowering for the first time.
I read somewhere they fruit year round?

Grow Tropicals

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2021, 06:06:23 AM »
One out of my two trees is also flowering for the first time.
I read somewhere they fruit year round?

Interesting!  I read from multiple sources that they bloom in fall and winter and that one of the advantages is that they produce fruit when most of the other fruit trees are done for the season.  I purchased my tree back in January, or so, and the (trust-worthy) nursery told me it had just finished fruiting. 
Small South Florida Urban Permaculture Food Forest with ~50 different species of tropical edible perennial plants

Mike T

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2021, 06:42:55 AM »
Great fruit like soursop, jackfruit, atemoya late rambutana and longaan, rambai and some special mangoes can be still available in winter here.Canistel, rollinia, guavas, mameys also.
I say enjoy the heck outa those flowers because you wont be laying awake at night marvelling over how great the fruit are,

Vlk

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2021, 07:41:54 AM »
I say enjoy the heck outa those flowers because you wont be laying awake at night marvelling over how great the fruit are,
Hahaha, this made me laugh  ;D
Durian & avocado lover

RS

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2022, 06:11:15 PM »
Wanted to check, how long did it take from flower to fruit? Mine just started flowering for first time, also read they were supposed to be fall/winter, not summer.

achetadomestica

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2022, 09:11:00 PM »
My two trees have been flowering heavy the past month as well. I don't see
fruit set yet but I need to look closer. When the fruit sets its green and takes
a good while to turn yellow. Kind of hard to notice when green. Last year my fruit ripened
in the Fall

pineislander

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2022, 06:54:11 PM »
My Randia are flowering just now for the first time, only 30-40 miles from Achetadomestica. They are closely related to ornamental Gardenia which flowers in March around here.

Jack, Nipomo

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2022, 07:27:21 PM »
I have a Randia megacarpa collected in Mexico, but it has never fruited nor produced flowers.  I did eat the fruit in Baja CA and collected the seeds.  How old does Randia need to be to fruit?

achetadomestica

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2022, 08:42:14 PM »
I checked closer and both of mine are loaded with fruit now.
The green fruit look like the leaves but when I looked close
I started seeing the fruit everywhere. I grew mine from seed
and one fruited last year. It was 2 years old. This year the
other one which is now 3 is setting fruit also

RS

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #10 on: June 24, 2022, 07:43:54 AM »
Mine is 2 years old. That's helpful to know it can take awhile for fruit to ripen, and it'll probably be fall if flowering now. Some of these tropicals are so fast from flower to fruit.

achetadomestica

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2022, 08:27:03 AM »
when the fruit turns yellow it is ripe. mine turned yellow and I was waiting for them
to soften. The fruit has a shell that never softens. when they turn yellow crack them open

Finca La Isla

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2022, 10:45:22 AM »
One of the very few plants that seems to always have fruit no matter what. Another would be the rutaceae we call gin berry. Not super great fruits but fun to share with the uninitiated.
Peter

RS

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Re: Randia Formosa (Blackberry Jam Fruit) Flowering in South Florida
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2022, 07:23:49 PM »
The fruit really does take awhile to ripen, they look like mini watermelons after 5 months. Hoping for ripe yellow fruit sometime this winter!

Do they like extra water when they're fruiting? I thought I read somewhere they didn't like much water in winter, but unsure since it's fruiting. It's planted in the ground and just gets rainwater.