The Tropical Fruit Forum

As a point of reference, if I remember the info from the Indian study correctly, the mango trees treated with the foliar phosphorus spray had 1-2 points higher average brix. Definitely enough to taste, but not enough to do back flips over. That % might be a lot higher if the tree was defficient in phosphorus. Apparently, phosphorus and calcium are the two main factors affecting brix. Har actually stated in a recent youtube clip from Truly Tropical that he recommends applying gypsum even to mangos planted in lime rock soil because the ph make it hard for the tree to absorb the calcium. The Calcium in gypsum (calcium sulfate) is available to the plant regardless of ph.

I read a research article from India once that demonstraited that nutritional sprays could increase fruit brix in mango. I think it was phosphorus. Interestingly enough, phosphorus becomes unavailable at high ph levels.

Great info Galatians, that's amazing about the "wine diamonds". You've given me confidence to investigate wild grapes further. Lost all my grapes this year to critters (again) so that will likely be the only way to have any!

RS, I am glad that someone found all this useful. Grapes are a wildlife favorite, that is for sure! I think I am liking cold press better for wild grape juice. Yield is less, but the juice has better flavor.

That is Pepper vine. Don't eat it. While the berries probably won't kill you, they contain an oxalate that stings your throat like raw taro--not as strong but similar. That is where the name pepper vine comes from.

That is a small plant in a tiny pot. I would put it in the ground and wait.

Regarding the technique for finding wild fruit trees, I would recommend looking in "transition zones" and along wildlife trails. Wild animals eat most of the same fruits that we humans are looking for, and they often follow the same trail from the water hole to the "cafeteria." I have found several groves of wild fruit this way. Lacking a good wildlife trail, I would search "transition zones" where topography, soil, or tree cover changes from one type to another. Those are the most common areas to find productive fruit trees in the wild. Another good plan is to, follow a stream. Native people's used them as roads for centuries. Their meal scraps often included fruit seeds and I think that accounts for at least part of the reason I find more fruit trees along water courses. High ground areas that would have made good campsites are the most promising. You may need to zig zag back and forth (always coming back to the stream) to do a thorough search and find these spots, though.

There is an old study that was done on this. As I recall citrus on wampee is a no go. The reverse (wampee on citrus) can work for a little while (I think the longest lived combinations petered out at about 10 years old).

I would say that its an atemoya that retained more of the cherimoya characteristics. Technically, I think any cherimoya x sugarapple cross is an atemoya regardless of parentage %. I don't think its possible to say more than that without genetic testing anyway. For one thing, the fruit certainly looks closer to Atemoya. However the leaves look closer to cherimoya. But, its not outside the range of what Atemoya leaves can look like. When we grew a bunch of Atemoya seeds out several years ago about 25% had cherimoya type leaves, 50% had the intermediate atemoya shape, and the other 25% had leaves like sugarapple just a little bigger.

Typically, my Dad uses it as a foliar spray. However, he has sprinkled it lightly around under the drip line and let the irrigation/rain water it in.

The last half dozen Nam Doc Mai from the tree I planted at 13 are ripening on the shelf. Most have dropped by now, but the ones that hang this long are amazing.

Do you guys think those grapes would do well in the far south homestead area? I’m really interested in growing grapes but I have exactly zero experience

I don't know how muscadines do that far south. They do fine here in central Florida. The Calusa grape in my picture is a wild grape native to the peninsular part of the state including your area. So, yes it would do well down there. Its big, but its not really a fresh eating grape. Most of them are pretty tart. So, I use it for juice. I think the juice is good, but it has a wild grape flavor that not everyone will appreciate. In the past, people have posted pics of Tari's Burgundy growing well down there. Its a hybrid grape that has Calusa grape in its genetics. Its origin is not known for sure, but I believe it's one of Joseph Fennell's hybrids from 100 years ago that survived and got renamed. The trouble with Teri's Burgundy is that its hard to find a source to purchase the vine. I finally found someone here that has one in their back yard. But, they have not respinded to the note I left on their door. 

Hey D, I came accross an article that might interest you and thought I would give this thread a bump. It looks like University of Arkansas researchers have been growing muscadines from hardwood cuttings. Success rate depends on cultivar, cutting size (bigger is better), and time of year (November being the best moth to take the cuttings).

https://smallfruits.org/2021/10/optimization-of-a-rooting-protocol-for-hardwood-cuttings-of-muscadine-grapes/

On another note, did you ever get a chance to identify your pink grape vine? Here is a pic of some Calusa grapes I picked back in June--they ripen pretty early in the season. You can compare to the two store bought green grapes at the top of the picture. Also, there are some leaves that got flipped over so you can see the felty underside.

A little more rambling on the native muscadines before I move on to something else. One thing I have noticed is that the Florida Muscadines (V. munsoniana) that grow in low lying areas tend to ripen earlier than the ones in the scrub. The other interesting thing I've noticed is that the ones on high ground tend to be sweeter. Neither of these is a hard and fast rule, but it does seem to apply generally.

So, what uses can this awesome vine be put to (other than a trail side snack)? Its my opinion that cultivated muscadines would benefit from being grafted to our Florida native muscadines. The historic Florida grape pioneer Dr. Charled Demko observed that cultivated muscadines fruited better and earlier when grafted to vines with native genetics. This makes sense when you consider that most of the genetics for cultivated muscadines come from the northern end of the range where the soils are less drought and flood prone. The native vines can grow everywhere from bayhead (swamp) that is flooded for 3 months of the year to dry "beach sand." In fact, few plants have a wider adaptability.

If it works so much better why don't we see grafted muscadines? I think that answer comes down to propagation. Muscadines are easy to layer (bury a vine in damp sand and it grows roots) and comparatively difficult to graft. I don't know if they really are hard to graft because I have yet to try, but Demko did not seem to have trouble grafting them. However, he was grafting 2 year old seedlings. So, I think the best method to try is green grafting. We'll see if my theory pans out after I get a chance to try some grafting.

Finally, grafting probably becomes more imperative the further we get from wild material. So, something like Nobel probably doesn't need grafting. But a higher quality low vigor vine like Supreme would probably benefit greatly from a vigorous rootstock. On the far end of the spectrum, I am guessing that some of theses new seedless muscadines like Razzmatazz or OhMy! Will absolutely need to be grafted if we are going to grow them here in Florida easily. Do any of you have experience grafting muscadines?