The Tropical Fruit Forum

I gave up on mamey a while back (actually, it gave up on me). Mine got about 6' tall and then just kept dying back from the winter and re-sprouting. It kept getting a few inches shorter every year until it just didn't make it. Maybe someone else has a more hopeful outlook.

We also have a bunch of Bradford pears over here too. I've been curious if I can graft a European pear to one of those that are already established. I'm still doing research so I haven't came to a conclusion yet. I know they're invasive but theres quite a few or here. I've even killed a few too.

Bradford is a selection of callery pear. Yes, they make excellent rootstock. That is why they were originally imported from China. It is possible that some varieties of pear might be more compatible, but I think most pear varieties work. You will find lots of information about grafting to callery and even info about hybrids with cultivated pears.

We made some drinks yesterday with the Jamaica stripe.  This one seems to oxidize a lot less than others.  It doesn't really brown at all. Makes the best margaritas.  I had a couple bottles of fortaleza put away from back when the stuff was cheap.

My machine holds a half gallon Mason jar nicely and fills it in just a few seconds.

Very nice! Thanks for posting the picture. I just got this variety for myself as a Christmas present. Its starting to grow strongly now.

One of the things I enjoy about gardening and growing fruit is the opportunity to learn new things from other people who do things differently. For years I only grew tomatoes in full sun, but due to the influence of an older gentleman in my community, I decided to try growing some in part shade. The original plan was to grow 1/2 a row of indeterminate cherry, grape, and Campari tomatoes in part shade. The other half of the row in full shade would be planted with peppers. Apparently, an armadillo had other plans. Somehow he managed to destroy all the pepper plants but left the tomatoes almost untouched. Since I had great germination on the tomatoes, I filled in the now vacted pepper spots with transplanted tomatoes. To my great surprise the half in full dapled shade produced just fine. I would estimate about a 20% reduction in yield compared with full sun, but with all the tomatoes that were produced I did not miss them. The canopy also helped protect the plants from frost. Below is a picture of an unidentified "black" (really mahogany) grape tomato growing on the shaded end of the row. To the right is an Everglades tomato that I threw in to finish off the row. You can see the oak trees in the background and the trusses loaded with fruit and blooms (20-40 fruits per truss). My last observation is that full sun plants start fruiting sooner but the shaded plants fruit longer. What has your experience been?

Quote from: agroventuresperu on March 22, 2024, 09:50:09 PM

Wow! Sounds like business as usual in latin america. Just out of curiosity, do you know what soil classifications are common in your area?

Never checked. I know that our soil is porous red clay or clay sand, it's very unusual and i've never seen soil like this anywhere else. It has all the properties of sand when dry, it breaks into small tiny particles and flows like sand, but when it's wet it becomes totally like clay to a degree you can make dishes out of it. Very porous and light, plants love it. No need to amend as it's very rich in minerals, we just add compost but I don't think even that is needed since the pasture has been amending it with rotting matter, it's also full of worms so no need for vermicompost.

What you are describing sounds like clay loam. It is typically regarded as the most fertile soil world wide. Congrats for finding such a gem.

Well, I definitely learned about a new pest. I'd never heard of that russet mite before. Although now that I see the pictures of the damage, I've probably had it and though it was a symptom of fungal infection. That could very well be what it is.

I have seen tomatoes grown very successfully in pots here in Florida (where nematodes can be a limiting factor for in-ground plants). I have also grown cherry, grape, and Campari tomatoes in shade (in the ground). I don't see any signs of a leaf disease like septoria, or early/late blight. I would be looking at a soil borne disease like fusarium or verticulum. If the plant dies, cut into the stem and look for brown dead streaks in the stem. I would also think that one of those is more likely if you have been growing the plant in the same medium as a diseased plant from before. Fresh plants in fresh soil would likely help for next year (we've passed the time to plant here in Florida now).

Any idea what's below the Spodic layer?

In this case it is sand that stays wet almost 100% of the time.

How many different types or variations of the Florida wild native muscadine is there?
I found a new found interest in some of the Florida hybrids. Finding a source is more difficult than I've anticipated but as far as rootstock I do not have to look far. Is grafting grapevines more difficult than mangoes or avocado?

I think officially there are 3. Vitis rotundifolia in northern Florida, Vitis munsoniana throughout the state, and a subspecise of V. munsoniana with tiny leaves that grows in the scrub of central Florida called vitis munsoniana var pygmaea. However, careful observation will show more variants than that, for example I know of one sub population in my county with dark red new growth (indicating a much higher anthocyanin content).

Muscadines are suposedly more difficult to graft. However, Florida grape pioneer Charles Demko did not seem to have any trouble with it and recommended grafting even muscadines to adapted rootstock (I think he was using hybrid vines of V. rotifolia x V. munsoniana for that purpose). He said that these grafted vines produced earlier and better than the own root vines. I'll try to find the paper in my files. So far, the bunch grape side of the family has been super easy to graft.

I'm super excited to try pitangatuba also. My plants have been flowering for their second year so I'm hoping for a few fruits to try. It probably improves all eugenia species fruit flavor. Cranberry hibiscus sounds really interesting and will be trying that today.
Lots of good plants to try improving with the miracle fruits, thanks for all the replies and ideas for us all to experiment with. Keep em coming.

I imagine that you have tried it by now, but to me miracle fruit makes cranberry hibiscus taste like salad with cranberry vinegret dressing. The leaves are shockingly sweet once the acid is masked.

Thanks for sharing the soil details! I hadn't looked this up before and didn't realize the diversity of soil types. According to FL soil survey map, https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?layers=3995a23b3e4541deb336bc1bf9b076d1, I've got the ridge "Tavares sand" which is considered "farmland of unique importance" and a small section of "Arents" soil. No irrigation here but I've always mulched and tried to increase organic matter.

Tavares is one of the best soils in the center part of the state. It is one of the few we have that falls in Category 3. Category 1 is basically perfect soil, followed by, Category 2 which has some limiting factor. Category 3 has significant limitations (sandy in this case). Most central Florida soils are Category 4 or below. Arents are soils out of place (aka fill dirt).

I like a lot of things after miracle fruit, grapefruit, blackberries, passionfruit, cranberry hibiscus leaves, and roselle are some of my favorites. For "most improved, I vote for Pond apple. It tastes shockingly good after miracle fruit. I actually went back for more. The biggest problem was that there were a lot of seeds to spit out.

I attached the descriptions for the two grapes. There are a few similarities because Tampa has labrusca parentage as well. However, the berries are "small and unmarketable" compared to 2.5 gram berries for Conquistador that were rated among the best in UF tasting panels. For reference 2.5 grams is about the size of a large blueberry. The grapes produced by my suposed "Conquistador" vine never got bigger than about .5 gram (pea size). I bet that other fellow will have a light come on if he reads the description below.

Tampa grape description

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.growables.org/information/LowChillFruit/documents/BunchTampa.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwis36uzgqqFAxWORDABHbLvC54QFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw296gRRus06Ys-Xs-A-ouqy

Conquistador Description with picture

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.growables.org/information/LowChillFruit/documents/Conquistador.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiF7MaBhKqFAxXsSjABHZOVAyYQFnoECCwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2hNI5v0QgGFQJ9JbDnC6k2

The other interesting thing is that Tampa is susceptible to Isariopsis leaf blight and there has been some research which suggests that scions grafted to it are more susceptible to that disease. I think that some of Conquistador's disease problems are magnified by the fact that it is typically grafted to a rootstock with the same susceptibility. Thus, my plan to graft to native vines that might pass on some resistance as talked about in this article. We'll see how it works.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://journals.flvc.org/fshs/article/download/86429/83345/0&ved=2ahUKEwjUgr_TiaqFAxVHfjABHVS5CnYQFnoECBQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw35xKfyUQKddmClLQdtcMvl