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Messages - Epiphyte

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1
from bellamy trees i purchased my very first jaboticaba seeds, which i sowed on 21 february.  here's a recent pic...



look how big they are!  just kidding, the big seedlings are the nitrogen fixers, in this case albizia julibrissin.  the jabo seedlings are much smaller.  the jabo seed in the pot without nitrogen fixers hasn't germinated yet.  correlation doesn't mean causation.

i'm curious why you guys don't include nitrogen fixers with your jabo seeds.  this is how they grow in nature.  actually i don't know if this is true or not. 

my pots have drainage holes cut around an inch from the bottom.  this creates a resevoir of water which i think helps in my relatively dry conditions.  at the bottom of the pot are rocks from my overgrown front yard for inoculation of hopefully beneficial microbes. 

the medium i use is a very well-drained mix of seedling bark, peat, perlite, pumice and sand from a local stream bed, again for inoculation.  on top of the seeds i place a 1/4" layer of very lightly damp sphagnum moss.  basically i take a small handful of wet sphagnum moss, spread it flat and round in the palm of my hand, squeeze out as much water as i can, and then gently press it down on top of the seeds. 

here's more pics and context

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / baked agave tastes like sweet potato?
« on: March 28, 2024, 11:22:18 AM »
guessing that this doesn't work with all the species... agave roast.   seems like a lot of work though. 

while you're visiting agaveville, here are my attempts at not preaching to the choir...

tropical fruit

who should we send to bolivia?

not seeing the forest for the trees


3
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: I Sell and ship fruit trees
« on: March 28, 2024, 10:08:40 AM »
do you ever get any capulin cherries (prunus salicifolia)? 

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Gardening
« on: March 28, 2024, 02:22:21 AM »
Or, since you like sci-fi, you will be cloned out of a plant like Lyekka from Lexx.

that sounds good.  is lexx worth watching? 

i tried watching the knights of sidonia anime.  didn't really catch my interest but i did like how the humans were able to photosynthesize. 

5
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: I Sell and ship fruit trees
« on: March 28, 2024, 02:16:30 AM »
seems like he's located in riverside, southern cailfornia.  here is the website...

https://utopiatrees.com/

i'm disappointed that the coconut cream mangos are sold out.  :(

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Gardening
« on: March 26, 2024, 06:39:05 PM »
i'm a plant nerd and a sci-fi nerd so i kinda love the idea of plant bots getting harder and harder to detect.  in fact, in 500 years time, a super advanced ai named seldon will resurrect me by using all my posts to reverse engineer my mind.  not this post of course, since it's going to be deleted. 

7
i recently sowed some seeds from a variegated kumquat, most have germinated and they've all been albino.  one seedling seems to have a hint of green but it's probably my wishful thinking. 

last year i sowed seeds from a variegated calamansi and the seedlings were all albino. 


8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 25, 2024, 02:09:38 PM »
which fruit trees should fnf add next?? 

mammea americana - my friend from martinique says this was her favorite fruit there
ficus auriculata - i linked to the variety at fairchild that doesn't require pollination and tastes like strawberries
jelly palm - for a palm the fruit is quite good, but not sure how well it grows in florida? 
spondias tuberosa - this is tricky to grow? 
solanum muricatum - i tried this recently for the 1st time and really enjoyed it, but might not be so happy in vero beach? 
davidsonia pruriens - also tried it recently for the 1st time.  too sour but the tree is beautiful. 
psidium friedrichsthalianum - another recent 1st time taste.  sour but also sweet, enjoyable. 
garcinia russell's sweet - does he already have this? 
garcinia xanthochymus - i don't remember him ever mentioning it? 
manilkara bella - no idea how the fruit tastes but it's a beautiful tree
noronhia emarginata - another attractive tree, looks like a clusia but fruit tastes like lychee (haven't tasted it myself yet)

what else? 


9
i like this video of kevin cruz partially clearing an abandoned orchard in floridahere's an update video.  most of the fruit trees were still alive but i didn't get the sense that they were thriving.  then again, there were only a few fruit tree varieties... longan, avocado and...?  there are probably plenty of species of fruit trees that would have thrived in those conditions.   

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 11:28:12 PM »
but just the fact that I use irrigation and mulch made me part of the horrible ones....

What's wrong with mulch? I never heard anyone in the organic/regenerative space criticize the use of mulch. In my Environmental Horticulture AS program, the instructors drove the point home about all the benefits of mulch.

any given space covered by mulch can't also be covered by diverse plants.  fnf doesn't apply typical mulch, but he does apply big piles of hay and manure (from his beloved zebus), which smothers the plants underneath.  it doesn't take long though before things start germinating on his input.  to be clear, fnf doesn't do this everywhere, just under the trees he wants to give a big boost to. 

for lack of a better term i'm going to use "weeds" in quotes to refer to a mix of arguably beneficial plants that come up on their own, more or less. 

mulch and "weeds" are mutually exclusive, at least initially.  it's hard to say if one of them is definitively better.  perhaps it's on a case by case basis.  maybe a really good mix of "weeds" is better than a low quality mulch. 

i wish that my "weeds" were a lot more diverse.  the ground in a relatively shady and moist area in my backyard is pretty much owned by a green tradescantia.  it's hard to imagine it providing more benefit to the surrounding trees than some decent chop and drop.  recently a 3 gallon jackfruit from florida came with the smallish daisy that i often see in fnf's videos.  but i doubt it would be able to compete with the tradescantia. 

Intercropping and Companion Planting with Joel Williams on youtube gets into more of the technical details like "root exudates". 

right now it doesn't seem like fnf has to do a lot of chopping.  at least not compared to your video.  i'm closer to being in your boat.  if i don't regularly drastically chop the trees in my relatively small backyard, then there wouldn't be any light.  but at the rate that fnf is planting trees, and the space at which he's planting them, and at the rate at which they are growing, then he's going to be in our boat soon.  i think? 

just last year i got my 1st pole saw, and i couldn't believe how useful it was.  i sure wish that i had gotten one a long time ago.  i posted it in my facebook group.  it definitely isn't the easiest thing to use, especially when it's very extended, but it sure beats climbing the tree or paying $$$ to tree trimmers.

ideally our favorite trees and plants would somehow beat out things like pepper trees.  not sure if this is possible.  in the meantime, we have to do some pretty heavy regulation. 

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 01:29:37 PM »
Janet, i think its only tillandsia seeds that will germinate on screen mesh.  Maybe a few broms will as well.  Most broms and all the other epiphyte seeds need more consistent moisture to germimate, so they should be sown on a medium that drains well but stays moist.  Some orchid seeds are weird exceptions as they can germinate on straight bark, but only with the help of the relevant fungus.  Not sure if you saw but on the 2nd page of this thread i posted a pic of laelia anceps seeds germinating on my tree.

If you scroll down this thread that i shared in my previous post... https://www.agaveville.org/viewtopic.php?t=13109  you can see pics i shared of several years worth of tillandsia myosura seeds that i sowed on my pachypodium lamerii.  By far the best self sowing tillandsia i have is tillandsia aeranthos, not exactly sure why.  Its starting to bloom and pretty soon, thanks to the hummingbirds, i will have tons of seeds flying everywhere.  You would be more than welcome to come get some.  I might be on my 7th generation by now.  It will germinate anywhere that gets watered at least 2 or 3 times a week at night during summer.  Closer to the coast it might be able to germinate with once a week at night watering during summer. 

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 12:07:53 PM »
Satya, which part of costa rica?  A couple years ago i stayed for a few days in guanacaste province at the base of miravalles volcano in paradiso lodge.  I think it was at around 1000m.  The habitat was wonderful because a short walk down the road was dry forest.  A short walk in the opposite direction was rainforest.  The top of the volcano was cloudforest, which wasnt a very short or easy walk, especially since i was off trail nearly the entire way up.  All along the way i was forced to make incredibly tough carrying / rescue decisions as the ground was litered with a crazy variety of my favorite epiphytes... orchids, aroids, bromeliads, ferns, gesneriads, blueberry relatives.  Needless to say my large backpack was completely stuffed by the time i got back.

I spent the next couple days making bundles to attach to the trees at the lodge, which the owner jorge was happy about.  I attached bundles to a noid annona tree, and a star apple tree, and some other trees i didnt recognise.  In the front of the property there was a very big guanacaste tree already covered in epiphytes.  Even the fence posts, living as well as dead, were covered in epiphytes.

You should try to connect with this guy in costa rica...  https://www.orchidboard.com/community/outdoor-gardening/95805-orchids-yard.html  he sows orchid seeds on his trees with good results.  He has quite a few fruit trees as well.

Not sure if you already subscribe to bike hike botany
... https://youtube.com/@BikeHikeBotany?si=as0CPb-cAmJFInEg  she lives in costa rica and hikes arround primarily documenting aroids.  She also visited lankester botanical gardens... https://youtu.be/a7yPLjAiolw?si=Km_nj8mkSB_gfuMi  i am deeply embarassed that i didnt visit there, since its epiphye mecca.  For the longest time i thought that selby was the epiphyte mecca, but when i finally had a chance to visit, nope.  They didnt even have a single gesneriad growing on any of their trees.  Easily the biggest disappointment of my life.

If you love hummingbirds then columneas (epiphytic gesneriad) should be included in every epiphyte bundle.  They grow super easy from cuttings and seed, and many varieties, especially those found growing on fence posts, are relatively drought tolerant, such as columnea crassifolia.  Columnea seeds are small enough that 1000 easily fit in a letter. 

You can actually see a columnea crassifolia growing on a cas guava tree in a weird fruit explorer video.  I posted a screenshot here... https://www.agaveville.org/viewtopic.php?t=13109 

Yesterday i spent several hours roaming the san diego botanic garden, but unsurprisingly i didnt see any columneas on trees, which is my fault.  They did have some stags on trees which were low enough to sprinkle columnea seeds onto.  Next time.

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 01:42:37 AM »
Epiphyte, do you have a video of how you planted orchids on that huge tree, the seeds that sprouted? My wife is very much into aroids and we have lots of large trees here but the winds seem to have removed all her previous attempts at planting orchid seeds and anthurium seeds, so she wanted to go deeper into the forest. Would appreciate a lot the technical details, how far from existing epiphytes, which location on the tree etc.
sorry, no video.  coincidentally a couple days ago i noticed that our recent severe winds, for socal, had completely dislodged a huge and very old clump of plants including an anthurium from 3 stories up on my tree.  somehow the clump was hanging entirely from its quarter inch drip tube.  basically my big mistake when i attached the bundle was that i failed to attach right next to it an orchid with really long and strong roots... such as a cattleya or vanda.  if i had done this then the orchid roots would have secured the bundle to the tree.  for this purpose something like a typical oncidium with short wimpy roots would have been useless. 

when i attach a cattleya or similarly sturdy orchid to a tree i don't use any moss.  it goes directly on the plain bark via fishing line.  i use a slip knot technique with the fishing line to attach the orchid as tightly as possible.  if there's any wiggle room the fragile orchid root tips will break off and the orchid won't get its roots on the bark and it will languish.  for less sturdy orchids like typical oncidiums i'll put some moss inbetween it and the bark.  string can work just fine but it isn't as aesthetic.  in some cases after the orchid has established you'll need to cut the fishing line or string to prevent girdling. 

for the rest of the epiphytes i use a decent amount of sphagnum moss.  on a table or something i'll 1st use fishing line to create a moss bundle with a wide variety of epiphytes.  i go around and around the bundle with the fishing line until everything is super snug and i can lift the bundle up without any moss or epiphytes falling off.  then i'll use fishing line to attach the bundle to the tree right next to a cattleya or vanda or similar orchid with roots that will grow into the bundle and make sure it stays on the tree.

for the orchid seeds, basically i harvested seeds of various epiphytic orchids until i had like a small handful.  i put the seeds in a large plastic bottle, filled it with water, and shook vigorously.  then i slowly dripped it all over the tree.  all the seeds that germinated did so within a half inch of the roots of orchids on the tree.  in my dry conditions that's as far as the fungus managed to extend from their home in the thick and succulent orchid roots.  i'm sure it's a different story in wet and humid florida.   

as far as location on the tree... bundles typically are closer to the shady side of the tree, while sturdy orchids are next to them closer to the sunny side of the tree.  in terms of horizontal branches i prefer to put epiphytes on the bottom of the branches.  it makes them slightly less susceptible to being trampled on by the usual suspects. 

staghorn ferns create excellent "pots" for all sorts of plants.  at a local nursery some critters planted some lemon guava seeds on a staghorn attached to a palm...



if you look closely at the top, the seedlings are starting to fruit! 

the old layers of shield fronds combined with the fine roots of the stags create a medium that drains perfectly but also retains moisture.  i'm sure the ph is really good as well.  i've seen everything from roses to aroids happily growing in stags.  a guy in queensland that i follow on ig has a queen anthurium happily growing in a platycerium superbum.

that's cool that your wife is into aroids.  so you can both watch fnf videos together since he's got a really nice collection of aroids growing among his rare fruit trees.  i've always loved aroids and it's been a trip seeing all the new varieties flood the market thanks to the huge spike in demand that has resulted from their popularity in social media. 

let me know if you'd like any more details.  getting plants onto trees isn't always the easiest thing, but it's totally worth all the extra diversity and the associated benefits. 

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Passiflora phoenicea x caerulea?
« on: March 14, 2024, 04:43:28 PM »
SplorKeLZ, caerulea grows outside for you?  in my area its cold tolerance doesn't really get tested.  so far the hybrid seems to be more of a cooler grower than phoenicea and it even kinda slows down in the summer.  i was hoping that it would combine the grow temps of both its parents so it would grow year around here... aka "hercuthermal" (growing in a wide range of temps, a term i made up).  as opposed to eurythermal (tolerating a wide range of temps). 

for me dryness is a much bigger limiting factor than temps.  so the optimal hybrid swarm would most likely involve passiflora arida and/or passiflora palmeri, both of which come from relatively drier habitats in baja california.  no idea if either is compatible with phoenicea or caerulea. 

from raindance seeds i just ordered the following seeds for my public food forest...

diospyros californica (baja chocolate persimmon/sapote)

passiflora palmeri

passiflora pentaschista (desert passionfruit)

prosopis pubescens  (screwbean mesquite)

ziziphus parryi (desert jujube)

i'd like to try crossing these 2 passiflora species with my other ones.  this passiflora phylogenetic tree is worth taking a look at but it's a little tricky for a couple reasons. the countries indicate where the material, not the species, are from.  also, since so few species are included, the distance between them is probably misleading.  for example, there's only one species between caerulea and edulis, which makes it seem like they are very closely related.  but if we were to zoom out and see a phylogenetic tree of all the passiflora species then there would probably be quite a few species between caerulea and edulis.  on the tree i linked to, passiflora palmeri is surrounded by foetida.  in theory this should mean that they are basically the same species.  foetida is right next to quadrangularis, which is right next to passiflora alata, which is closely related to phoenicia.  again, this should be taken with a few grains of salt. 

please post updates on your hybridization efforts!  i'm very curious how your crosses turn out.  it's unlikely that you'll get the best of both worlds at the 1st attempt so you'll probably have to try some backcrosses.  if your hybrid swarm is big enough you're bound to get something good. 

Epicatt2, thanks for the tip. 

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Passiflora phoenicea x caerulea?
« on: March 13, 2024, 02:30:36 AM »
one of my minor pet peeves is when somebody posts a picture of a flower bud.  like, i get that you're excited, but now i have to sit around waiting for you to post a pic of the flower.  i already have enough on my plate, sheesh.  would it really kill you to wait a few more days?   

in other news, my plant is about to bloom...



my apologies for the overly dramatic photo.  it wasn't my intention. 

the plant itself leans more towards caerulea so i'm guessing that the flower will as well, and probably so will the fruit.  assuming of course that the flower isn't sterile.  i should have some straight caerulea flowers blooming at the same time so i'll have some pollen to use.  i can't imagine the fruit tasting better than phoenicea.  i also can't imagine the fruit tasting worse than caerulea.  so perhaps it will taste a little bit better than caerulea.  hopefully my straight phoenicea will bloom soon so i can backcross.  i'm too lazy to store pollen? 

so far my favorite plants to hybridize have all been hybridized by hummingbirds... aloes, echeverias and kalanchoes.  the hummers do the hard work and i steal the credit.  i'm going to feel weird if i have to do the hard work.  are there any fruits (besides epiphytes) that result from hummingbird pollination? 

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seed prices are silly
« on: March 12, 2024, 01:29:23 PM »
there are quite a few seeds inside a passionfruit ruby glow, and i've recently given quite a few away.  why haven't i sold them?  i guess that it wouldn't be worth it?  a quick google search shows that raindance seeds is selling 5 seeds of the same or similar for $7.  when i think of all the transaction costs, and the opportunity cost, it's just not worth it.  my friend who sells plants on etsy always tells me to remind her to not sell "boogers" (cheap plants).  the other day she spent like an hour dealing with a karen over a $15 plant. 

it would be a different story if 5 seeds of ruby glow were selling for $40.  and if they were selling for $100??  i'd be moving fast, and i wouldn't be the only one. 

a couple months ago i watched a video of all the fruit foraging garcinia latissima in the wild.  check out the comments...



"Now they know where the seeds are" lmao!  imagine if instead of the fruit/seeds, there were gold nuggets all over the ground and in the tree, would he have behaved the same way?  of course not. 

coincidentally, 10 days ago florida natural farming posted a video where he plants 2 garcinia latissima seeds that he paid $50 each for.  i think that guy is so cool, but i sure would have tried to talk him out of planting the seeds where they could be eaten by the rabbits. 

x - your behavior that only benefits you (ie all the fruit)
y - your behavior that only benefits others (ie Mike T)
z - your behavior that benefits you and others (ie anderson's tropicals). 

obviously in this case the behavior of all the fruit also benefited others since he documented and shared the experience.  i enjoyed the video and so did many others.  so it isn't a perfect example of purely selfish behavior.  but you get the point.  also, i'm sure that Mike T's behavior wasn't purely selfless.  perhaps he felt a "warm glow" and maybe each rare seed he shared functioned as a backup just in case he lost his plant. 

the other day i received an email with the subject "[permies] Thank you for your quality post"... it said "Hello carlos cruz, Congratulations, your post in the topic titled "City Council levels homeowner's garden" has been awarded an apple. You can visit that post at https://permies.com/t/242443/permaculture/City-Council-levels-homeowner-garden#2260935 "  my post has 2 apples, a few posts have 3 apples, most posts have no apples.  i think you can buy apples and spend them on your favorite posts?  now i have the ability to spend 2 apples, i think.  they should replace the apples with actual dollar amounts. 

i recently posted a relevant thread in agaveville... who should we send to bolivia?  what to document, what to collect, what to save, what to discard, what to post, we can't make truly informed decisions without knowing other people's true valuations. 

 




17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit forest videos
« on: March 11, 2024, 12:00:06 AM »
cool topic, in addition to florida natural farming and flying fox fruits, who i watch the most, i also enjoy watching aina bear farm in hawaii and kevin cruz in florida. 

18
I have Ficus opposita trees that are at least 4 years old in ground in FL. They seem to be doing well with limited inputs, I tried fig varieties in past and they scumbag and have stunted growth. No idea if I can successfully graft common fig onto it though.

it sure seems possible to successfully graft carica onto opposita

20
i've only heard of ficus carica having varieties that can ripen figs without pollination.  i suppose it's entirely possible for other species of ficus.  if you put the coronata seeds in water and none of them sink then perhaps they weren't pollinated.  if they do sink, and you sow them and they germinate, then they were definitely pollinated. 

according to this cladogram, the species in blue are dioecious, which includes ficus opposita and its closest relatives (sycidium subgenus).  ficus coronata wasn't listed but it's also in the subgenus sycidium.   

"Ficus opposita is unusual in another way as well. All figs in Section Sycidium are dioecious i.e. separate male and female trees." - source

pretty sure that this paper says that the species in the subgenus sycidium are dioecious. 

the plot thickens because, according to this site, ficus coronata "plants can be dioecious (separate male and female trees) or monoecious (male and female flowers on the same tree), so to be sure of getting fruits, it is best to plant several of them."

hmmmm.  that's too interesting.  well, the proof is in the pudding.  there's nothing more exciting than staring at ficus seedlings everyday trying to figure out whether or not they are hybrids. 


21
unfortunately i don't think that there's a definitive answer regarding when is the optimal stage to pollinate a fig.  i've read that when the fig is the size of a cherry is a good time, but this depends on how big the fig gets.  perhaps the best time is when a fig is 2/3 its ripe size?  or maybe it's when the ostiole opens large enough for a tiny wasp?  i've seen videos where the opening is so tight that the wasps lose their wings trying to squeeze into the hole.  i'm guessing that the window of receptivity must be at least a few weeks if not longer. 

thanks for the info about coronata and opposita.  coronata isn't native to your area, but its fruit is good to eat?  so the fruit must be getting pollinated?  i'm guessing by the opposita wasp?  since you probably don't have any male coronatas, then the pollen is probably from male oppositas?  if you sowed the coronata seeds, and some of the seedlings had opposite leaves, then voila! hybrid! 

22
David H, there's a decent amount of info on fig pollination via syringe on the ourfigs forum.  basically you harvest the ripe male figs from ficus opposita.  then you cut them in half and tap out the pollen.  lastly you mix the pollen into some water, put it in a syringe with a larger gauge needle, and inject the solution into female figs of ficus carica.  voila!  hybrids! 

the coronata grafts didn't make it, probably because i attempted them too late in the year, it was the end of august.  the following month i tried some formosana grafts onto carica and they didn't make it either, even though they are definitely compatible.  i'd be surprised if coronata and carica weren't compatible, given that coronata and opposita are so similar, and opposita is compatible with carica. 

do you think that coronata and opposita are very similar?  or am i being racist?  i remember my friend being shocked and offended when i told him that all his platycerium bifurcatum varieties looked the same. 

23
David H, please let us know if your palmata and carica x palmata do end up being more nematode resistant than carica. 

i'm guessing that you don't have the carica wasp there?  you should really try putting the opposita pollen onto carica.  that would be so awesome if it was successful.  i'm going to try the same cross as well, but it's a little tricky since we have the carica wasp here.  i have to figure out the optimal time to bag the figs.  too early and it could hinder the fig development.  too late and a wasp could beat me to it. 

24
palmata might be too closely related to carica to be resistant to nematodes.  then again, maybe what people are growing as palmata are actually hybrids with carica.  then again, not sure where palmata would grow in the wild that it could avoid being naturally crossed with carica. 

this cladogram is worth taking a look at.

ficus racemosa is monoecious and distant from carica on the cladogram.  then again, rubiginosa is close to carica on the cladogram, but i'm guessing that nothing in urostigma is compatible with carica.  actually i might as well try grafting rubiginosa onto carica.  the two urostigmas i tried, umbellata and lutea, are a lot more distant from carica on the cladogram. 

last year i grafted 2 small twigs of racemosa onto my neighbor's giant carica.  the twigs didn't do anything for the longest time and finally they leafed out and kinda started growing.  but then they died in the fall.  the mother plant has done incredibly well outside over the winter.  i'm getting the feeling that the neighbor's carica isn't the best rootstock, maybe because it's so big that it could care less about a couple twigs.  so i'll try racemosa again but this time on my friend's male carica. 

racemosa seems to grow pretty easily from cuttings.  i might try approach grafting a rooted cutting of racemosa onto a carica seedling. 

it's so funny that ficus villosa is right next to carica on the cladogram.  i'm sure it wouldn't be if all 800 species were on the cladogram, but it's closer than pumila and erecta, both of which have been crossed with carica.  i have villosa in a greenhouse growing epiphytically on a few mounts.  it's been growing slow since i'm sure it's a hemiepiphyte and would be a lot happier to have some roots in a pot.  maybe i'll put all of its mounts on pots and see if that speeds it up.  or something.  i'd definitely love trying to graft it and cross it with carica.  i can't imagine what the cross would look like.  could i grow it outside year around?  how would the fruit taste? 

on facebook, in the ficus study group, i posted a link to my palm talk ficus hybridization thread.  a fellow replied with a pic he took at raulston arboretum of ficus sarmentosa var. nipponica x ficus carica.  i'm not surprised that such a cross is possible because on the cladogram sarmentosa is closer to carica than pumila and erecta.  of course i'm surprised that someone made the cross. 

i haven't managed to track down a source for sarmentosa.  i do have ficus vaccinioides, which is another climber, and it's done surprisingly well grafted onto carica.  it's so tiny though that grafting it is challenging.  either i have super grafting skills or it's so compatible with carica that it needs barely any contact to establish.

vaccinioides isn't included in the cladogram i shared above, but here it is on this cladogram... Phylogenetic reconstruction of Ficus subg. Synoecia and its allies (Moraceae), with implications on the origin of the climbing habit.  in this more zoomed in view, we can see a lot of species between villosa and carica.  strangely enough, in this cladogram, ficus religiosa is only a few species away from carica, probably because this area is zoomed out.  but it's another long shot graft that i'd like to try. 

in my facebook post some genius commented... "Why intentionally encourage such a thing ? Especially in an already confusing complex Genus. Nature absolutely and definitely already “gives enough varieties”. No doubt about that".  i replied, "how many species of ficus can your friend in germany grow outside year around?"  no response. 

how many delicious ficus species can be grown in the ground in florida and other tropical places?  not enough.  never enough. 

i love nature, but there's definitely so much room for improvement.  anybody who doesn't see this is blind and/or dumb.  hybridizing ficus can greatly improve the genus in every way possible.  let's go!!

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if and when I get some land in central Florida, I plan to attach staghorn ferns to trees and then stick carica cuttings behind the stags.  might not be the most practical method of avoiding nematodes but it's definitely the coolest.  virtually everybody loves getting their roots into stags.  the medium that the stacks of their old shield fronds create is nearly the perfect combo of drainage and moisture. 

really the best long term solution is ficus hybridization.  as you can see from that thread, the ficus collectors don't seem that interested though, and neither do most carica collectors.  the venn diagram is pretty sad looking.   

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