Just tasted my first pitangatubas . . .

[Epicatt2]

My oldest pitangatuba, obtained from Adam S. three years ago, has finally set some fruit.  Here in Tampa this past week we had some windy weather and several ripe fruit blew off the bush.

I found them on the ground next to the bush late the next day; there were three.  One was small with no seed and fairly fibrous.  The middlesized one was yellow just verging onto orange and was probably on the overripe side.  The third one was large, about 1-in. in diameter.  These were round and not the elongated fruits sometimes seen.

They were not particularly sour, but had enough sweetness to balance the sourness, and a nice aromatic flavor and aftertaste which only vaguely suggested the flavor of pitangas.  I will have to try a few more to have a better idea for how to describe the flavor, but I found it to be pleasant.  It seems like allowing the fruits to ripen for a day after picking them (or having had them fall of into your hand when you touch them) lets them get a little sweeter.

Now I have two big seeds to plant.  Can anyone please advise me how long pitangatuba seeds are viable after being removed from the fruit?  Do they need to be kept damp?

Cheers!

Paul M.
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[achetadomestica]

damp vermiculite and they will germinate in a couple weeks

[brian]

The fresh seeds seem to sprout readily.  I throw them in the pot of the tree it came from and always find them sprouting. 

The pitangatubas I've eaten so far had a taste that reminds me of sweet&sour soup.  If the texture was more like pitanga/surinam it could be a really good fruit.  It feels like the flesh is a bag around the seed rather than a solid fruit.  There might be some seedlings that are less fibrous and more fleshy that could be propagated. 

Mine often fall off the tree before they are fully orange, also.  Not sure how common this is.

[JCorte]

Brian, first fruits I had are similar to the texture you describe.  I like sour fruits but the texture, fibers, and the sticky latex feeling left on my lips aren't really appealing to me.  These were just the first couple of fruits on a small plant and I have a few different plants so hopefully they will improve and one will have better texture and less latex.

Janet

[roblack]

Thanks for reporting your experience. Have been waiting and anticipating trying pitangatuba, and have a similarly aged plant or 2 that have been growing but not doing much else. Until now, several small fruits have developed. Will report here upon trying them.

How long from flower to edible fruit?

[brian]

How long from flower to edible fruit?

A month or less I think, they mature pretty quickly

[roblack]

How long from flower to edible fruit?

A month or less I think, they mature pretty quickly

 

That's one of the things I love about jabos too; quick fruit to eat after flowering. Have been waiting over 6 months for some fruit. Mamey would drive me nuts.

[brian]

The solution is to have so many plants you forget what is fruiting or what even exists, and then randomly stumbling across ripe fruit onr plants you forgot you had

[palologrower]

Brian, first fruits I had are similar to the texture you describe.  I like sour fruits but the texture, fibers, and the sticky latex feeling left on my lips aren't really appealing to me.  These were just the first couple of fruits on a small plant and I have a few different plants so hopefully they will improve and one will have better texture and less latex.

Janet

There is great variability in the latex content.  Some pitangatubas are hard to eat.  I used them for rootstock for my sweeter, less latex  seedlings. 

[Epicatt2]

Thanx All for the comments.

The smallest fruit was seedless and underdeveloped (1st of 3) and had some juice and a fibrous center instead of a seed; it was small, about 5/8th of an inch in dia.

The two medium sized ones (1-in +) were juicy with a medium-sized to large seed and had no latex aspect to them.  Flavor was about equally sweet to tart and not-at-all unpleasant.  But with only these three initial fruit I couldn't really ID a flavor comparable to either mango-apricot or passiflora-apricot.

There are about five more fruits on the large bush and another five or six on one of my 3 yo seedlings which hopefully will hold and ripen so I get to taste some unrelated genetics!

My big plant is out in full sun and some of the leaves are showing a slightly reddish cast to them, but that may have resulted from the cold weather of DEC-JAN.  This plant might benefit, however, from being relocated to a position with afternoon shade, which is suggested by all the cultural comments I could find online.

FYI, my five 3 yo seedlings are in morning and afternoon shade with full midday sun and they are all green and robust.  They are in 2gal pots and get watered twice a week.

Cheers!

Paul M.
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