The Tropical Fruit Forum

Interestingly the cold and rainy winter really worked for me. I usually have issues with pitanga leafing and flowering too early and getting destroyed by frost or rain. They are not so happy but are coming back. My big vermillion lived in greenhouse as did the Regina. You can probably tell which those are.

I've had a "Gold Nugget" growing very big in the ground here in Chula Vista. The only problem is we are too cold all winter for the fruit to size up and ripen properly. The fruit get about football size, but then soften up in spring and drop without fully ripening. There are other places where some varieties do fine in the County. I'm looking for a variety that doesn't need to get very big to ripen properly.

Does the aroma of the crushed leaves indicate the resin flavor intensity? I had 2 pitangas with one that had very resinous smelling leaves and the other with no leaf smell. The resinous leaf died, and I still have the non-resinous smelling one. Neither fruited, though I am expecting fruit from the one I have this year.

The Zill dark looks pretty tasty, although I find the petrol taste unique and somewhat addicting.  I have a Lolita seedling that is about 3-4 years old and pumps out a ton of fruit.   I noticed the darker (riper?) they get, the less gasoline aftertaste is detectable. The fruit will hang until it turns purple and starts to shrivel a bit. At that point it’s like a super sweet tart cherry with no aftertaste.  Here are some pictures of the Lolita fruit at different stages. Small but delicious!

This is a sweet tart seedling that looks a tastes just like sweet tarts.  These mangos are so good.  It's 4 or 5 years old.  It was a tree Simon planted here.  It made a lot of fruit this year and they are awesome tasting and the tree sets big clusters of fruit.  The tree is sagging from all the fruit is the only downer.

Hello Mason yes seeds that Simon sourced over the course of several years.  They are not all planted at the same time.  I think we planted seedlings in 2018-2021.