The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hello all. Thinking about grafting at least one if not both of my pawpaw trees.

I'm in zone 7a north NJ. Some research mentioned doing it in May. Does this sound correct?

My two seed trees make small fruit, I don't mind the small fruit flavor wise but I'd rather have larger fruit, it's too hard to process such small fruit.

Varieties I'm interested in are Susquehanna or Overleese (spelling)?
Those are said to be sweet and the other mild (forget which is which).

I also like tropical flavors, more mango or pineapple than banana. Are there any varieties like this? Cherimoya flavors? What is "tropical delight" like?

If anyone has anything to offer let me know. I can trade as well, check my profile to see if there is anything interesting you'd like to trade for.

Thanks

My meiwa is dying back with brown branches.
First it drops the leaves then the branches turn brown and die back. I checked the roots and there is no sign of rot. The leaves fall while completely green. I simply touch one and it drops.

I repotted the whole plant into fresh 5-1-1 from the old potting mix it was in to see if it would help. It's been a few days and still dropping leaves and branches are dying back.

The rootstock is citrumelo with poncirus as an interstock. Absolutely 0 rotten roots. The root system is the healthiest of all of my potted citrus that I've seen so far.

Any ideas?

Nothing has changed, I always water with diluted water soluable fertilizer. The new mix shouldn't have any buildup either. 

Found this at Walmart. $1.98 each
Any info on it? Hardiness? Only found that it's an early variety & "low acidity"

I did some mid summer tbud grafts on a bunch of poncirus year old trees and discovered this Prague graft pushed out. This must have been due to the heat wave we had earlier in the month. I topped the rootstock hoping it will help harden off. Leaving some of poncirus buds in case the Prague perishes.

I now have 4 actively growing grafts of Prague, 2 on poncirus and 2 on taitri... at this rate I will have an orchard lol

I received a scion from a trade and t-bud grafted some as well bark grafting Thomasville citrangequat onto the following:

Sour orange (bark graft in pot)
Poncirus (bark graft in pot & bud in ground)
Taitri (bark graft & bud in ground)
Citrumelo (bud in pot)

As well as a small cutting for rooting in cococoir.

These are late grafts and I don't expect the buds to push out, but the bark grafts where I top worked the rootstocks might. The potted stuff will go indoors over winter. The bark graft to taitri is very solid wood so I hope it is lignified enough, if it takes at all, to survive winter we'll see

FFT graft from last year on taitri is blooming undeveloped green flowers, it's almost summer. Don't think the anthers will release pollen

Has anyone tried hybridizing eastern prickly pear/ opuntia humifusa (very cold hardy zone 3 or 4) with edible types of opuntia that have large fruit? I have a rooted nopal that hopefully will flower soon but not sure how the fruit is. I also have an elisiana (it's hardy in southern zone 7). Mine rotted out after a wet winter but a pad survived so now I keep it in a pot, also waiting for flowers. The fruit is small but edible.

The humifusa shrivels up in winter, expelling water, and does not take up water. I leave it in a pot all year and it has never died or rotted. The elisiana does not shrivel and expel it's water which is probably why it rots in my zone.

Does anyone have mature US852 they'd like to sell a cutting of or rooted plant? All I can find are seeds and I don't want to wait a decade for flowers

Would this be a good test for zone 7? I have US1284, it died to the ground after this winter, waiting for signs of growth from the base. 

My 3 year old Meiwa started browning and died back to the graft. Never exposed to cold and over wintered in my grow tent since I had it.

Scratching the bark reveals a brown ring at the graft point. The rootstock used is a type of mandarin.

Is this rootstock incompatible? The rootstock looks fine and was pushing buds on the trunk but I rubbed those off before the meiwa totally died back.

A friend of mine who you can find on youtube (Lautaro Dix @lautarodix2272) has made these hybrids. Not sure which plants recieved the pollen to make the cross but here is a list he gave me. I've asked him to make an account here but if anything I can post the pictures. Let me know if you'd like more information:

Kumquat nagami hybrids

Tarocco rosso
Rangpur lime
Genoa lemon
Willow leaf mandarin
Limequat
Meiwa
Calamondin
Citrus maxima
Nova
Hindsii
Nippon orangequat
Makrut

Kumquat meiwa hybrids

Nagami
Genoa lemon
Rangpur lime
Chinotto orange

Genoa lemon hybrids:

Nagami
Meiwa
Sour orange
Chinotto orange
Tarocco rosso
Moro orange
Juice orange
Citrus maxima
Makrut
Willow leaf mandarin
Rangpur lime
Calamondin

Limequat hybrids:

Nagami
Makrut
Willow leaf mandarin
Tarocco rosso
Genoa lemon
Hindsii
Calamondin

Chinotto orange hybrids:

Willow leaf mandarin
Genoa lemon
Nagami
Meiwa

Poncirus hybrids:

Rangpur lime
Genoa lemon

Bought a guava labeled as "Mexican" two fruit set in spring, today one fruit dropped while still green, more of a light green.

It was soft and juicy, but 0 sweetness. Tasted like tomato, I thought these are supposed to turn yellow?




Here is the other fruit, hasn't dropped yet

This is a seedling that survived 2021 mild winter in zone 7a without any protection grew well and developed a thick trunk but died to the ground this year after 6f.

I was cutting dead / rotting trunk that was freeze damaged until only a small stump was left. It's now growing buds on the stump!



I have mature Yuzu in a container now so this plant is not worth protecting as it is a seedling, but thought I would report on this finding. If this was a mature Yuzu on its own roots I'd probably try to protect it.

I picked these up from an asian grocery store. They were labeled as "Japanese kumquats" nothing else.

They are not sweet in the middle, although some did have a hint of sweet. They are definitely acidic but not as much as a Nagami...




I don't think they are Meiwa although that was my first guess. I looked at pictures of Marumi but those had a small depression at the base (not as pronounced as a Fukushu) but I also saw pictures of completely round fruit so the pictures online could be misidentified.