The Tropical Fruit Forum

So I’ve asked other vanilla growers if you’ve ever seen vanilla start from seed naturally on your farm.  Nobody had seen it until I found a very unconventional farm in Papantla and saw it for myself.
But the only reason to grow vanilla from seed is to try and improve the cultivar.  It’s a big project and you better know what you are doing.
You won’t need so many plants and the cuttings grow like crazy.  50 cuttings well taken care of would be a great start.  You’d be way ahead of the game than by trying to grow seeds.
Peter

The person who gave me 3 seedlings said he knows, for sure, of one other tree!
Peter

That’s an interesting question, and well put, wanting to know about the trunk and branch girth.  More commonly people only ask about the tree age.
I’ve only had one seedling flower of zibethinis and it was a long time ago.  I don’t remember. That tree is now 35m tall and a heavy producer.
 I just had a Kutejensis seedling flower for the first time.  The trunk girth is about 12-13cm and the branch is about 5cm.  No set and I’m wondering if it needs cross pollination.
Peter

Leave the lower branches. Cut the highest branches back, opening so light reaches the lower branches.  You want access to the fruits for careful, selective harvest.
Peter

Something might have eaten there.  It’s hard to be certain but that sort of thing wouldn’t be unusual.
Peter

You might have picked it too early. How long after you picked it did it take to seem ripe?
I gently feel the bottom on soursop. It will soften from the bottom up. Once it seems about ripe, check it every day until the bottom is soft then it finishes ripening quickly.
Peter

I grow several species of Herrania and cross pollination helps for sure.  But I have had a Herrania flower for years and never set and now it does set so….it might be ten years old and 12’ tall.
Peter

Interesting Arvind.  What is your distribution like?
I think that ideal here is 2500mm with two short dry seasons in March and September.  And we get something like that sometimes.  The ground doesn’t completely dry out but dry enough to induce flowering for two harvests a year!
When it is prolonged dry with lots of sun the temperature goes up to about 33-34C.  A friend to the north in Guatemala got overly dry weather this year with temps to 40.  They lost the durian fruit set and some established trees even died.

We are just starting to get some early durian drop this past week, so pretty exciting.  This, right now, is from some very early flowering and we’re expecting our peak harvest of durian and mangosteen in September.
Peter

I would add acerola to the list.
Peter

I only use a grafting knife on very hard wood but mostly I am grafting green wood and my preferred cutting tool is a surgical scalpel that I buy on Amazon.
I use grafting rubber band wraps and parafilm.
The cutting and wrapping technique and the idea to use the scalpel I got from Gary Zill.
Peter

Would be interesting to try them all.many of the best durians have been discovered from plots like that. Perhaps there’s a new rival to Red Prawn among those old trees!
Peter

Hi Ben
So I would apply calcium carbonate or dolomite in a wide band on both sides of the drip line at least twice a year. 500 grams per square meter. When fruit sets apply calcium with boron foliar spray every two weeks.
It would be nice to have a soil test to work with and to be doing leaf analysis to see if the trees are really absorbing the calcium and then see how it effects fruit quality.
Suerte!
Peter