The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: agroventuresperu on August 07, 2022, 06:07:15 PM

Quote from: johnb51 on August 07, 2022, 04:43:43 PM

Are there any seed vendors you can totally endorse?

If they still exist, Silverhill Seeds. They were great. The owners were killed by terrorists a few years back, so I'm not sure they're still around. But when the original owners ran the business I had so many good purchases from them. They were one of the few I recall that were honest about the viability of their seeds. Once I inquired for a certain species of Tabernaemontana and they told me that the seeds they had were already too old, and they would have to take another botanical excursion to collect more. They explained they would need to be express shipped, since they were recalcitrant seeds. I ordered a ton Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra seeds from them once, and the huge box of seeds made it to California without any hiccups. Excellent germination rates. Lots of other things from them that I ordered seemed to always have good germination rates.

Oh God, killed by terrorists??  Where did this happen?

They were killed by an ISIS terrorist gang during a plant hunting expedition in KwaZulu-Natal in 2018. Silverhill Seeds is still in business and is owned by one of their long-time employees: https://silverhillseeds.co.za/.

I never had the slightest bit of yellowing with my rambutan seedlings, and they grew about eight inches in three months. There must have been something about my compost that they loved. Perhaps the key was oak leaves, which probably (given my yard and what I put in my compost) were a major component of that batch of compost.

Updated.

Rather than divide it into Sub tropical or Tropical, I would vote to add regional forums so we could better share local tips and importantly, develop better links locally. Nothing better than getting people to come visit or visiting someone else's property! I would love to link up more with growers in CA. Brad is doing great stuff with this local Fruit Parties in SD.

I could not disagree more. The masthead of Tropical Fruit Forum says "Uniting Growers Worldwide!" I cannot see anything that regional sections would do other than to divide growers and make the site harder to use. Someone from Florida might miss out on avocado growing tips because the thread was created in the California regional section and vice versa. Fruit parties and other get togethers are able to be posted on the site already, for everyone to read and to attend if they are close enough and have the desire to do so.

There was a thread a while back on tropicals vs. ultra-tropicals and whether there should be a separate section for each of those. Separating subtropicals and tropicals would run into the same issues pointed out back then. Creating a subtropical section would just be a mess, adding needless confusion to the site. The sections we have work well, though they would work better if people used the citrus and temperate sections properly instead of just posting everything in the tropical section. The only new section that would make any sense to add would be one on mangos, given that fruit's enormous popularity and the number of threads created about it. But, it would be an incredible headache for the moderators to move all the pre-existing mango threads into a new mango section, a huge undertaking that would be even more difficult to accomplish if one was to split tropicals and subtropicals.

With my own plants, my only goal over the winter is to keep them alive - they get weak light from a window with indirect exposure, and that's all.  They don't grow, but they don't develop deficiency problems either.

That is my goal with my citrus. I never expect them to grow; I just apparently give them the environment and nutrients where they will put on some growth indoors. It is much more important to me that I do not lose any citrus over the winter.

I grow mine under fluorescent lights in the winter, and they put out nice, new, green foliage in the winter, usually in February or March, about a month or so before they are put outside for the growing season. They do not have any signs of deficiencies in their new growth like yours show.

Updated.

PM sent.

Congratulations are in order for you successfully fruiting a jaboticaba farther north than anyone has (probably) ever done before. At least, I have never heard of any other Canadian growers fruiting a jaboticaba before. It is rare enough for someone to do so in a greenhouse or other protected space in the temperate areas of the US.

In all seriousness, I agree with Francis_Eric. It is quite difficult for a home grower to root muscadines and basically impossible without the right set up. You have to keep the soil moist but not waterlogged. The leaves have to have enough humidity in the air around them so that they do not transpire too much but not too much humidity that they get fungus or powdery mildew. I have tried on a couple of occasions to root muscadines. I simply ended up with dead sticks in potting soil after a couple of weeks. Unless you have the right set up for them, you will not have any success rooting muscadines. Besides, considering the effort required for a home grower to root muscadines, unless you want to propagate a unique vine unavailable from any source, than it is worth it just to buy the variety you want from a commercial nursery. I was trying to propagate a unique wild muscadine, but for most other growers, Ison's has thirty-plus varieties of muscadines and scuppernongs, which is plenty.

I've been selling plants for 35$ that sell for 300$ on Bellamys ebay auctions...haha. I think it's all about visibility or something.

It is. I remember when Jonathan first started selling plants on eBay; he got very few bids and people (including myself) were able to get plants at incredible deals. But, once the word got around on his auctions, by the third or fourth round he was getting prices commensurate with their rarity and value. It happens with all rare fruit plant sellers who sell on eBay. It happened with me when I did auctions last summer. I sold plants for next to nothing the first two or three weeks. By the time my fourth or fifth round of auctions concluded, the prices were more than high enough to counter the low prices I had received for the first ones.

I probably need to do some eBay auctions myself to clear out my remaining extra plants. It is just that eBay auctions take more time than a sale page on the Forum, and eBay customers can occasionally be a pain to deal with. Also, eBay is taking an ever increasing percentage of the sale amount in fees.

Yes, your jaboticaba can be revived if, as other growers have stated, its cambium layer is still alive. You will be able to see if you scratch through the surface of the bark and see green beneath. Check an area on the stem a little above the soil line. Do not scratch too much or scratch completely around the tree, you do not want to girdle or otherwise damage it any further. If it is still alive, keep it well watered and do not allow it to dry out. Keep your jaboticaba in a shaded, warm, humid area away from strong sun, high heat, cold, or any other extreme conditions.

Most jaboticabas, or at least the species or varieties most commonly grown by collectors, really like to be wet. They can get root diseases if left standing in water too long, which causes their soil to become anaerobic. But, that condition comes after months of continually standing in water without ever drying out even slightly. Allowing a jaboticaba to completely dry out and stay dry for even a few days leads to a quick death sentence. Jaboticabas seem to be one plant that it is better to over-water than under-water, the opposite of most container plants.

Here is a photograph of a Plinia phitrantha in my collection. Through a bit of neglect coupled with dry conditions in my area, I allowed it to get too dry this spring, about three months ago. It completely defoliated and did not have any leaves for over a month. I kept it watered and placed it in a location where it was shaded from the sun, particularly harsh afternoon sun. It has come back, though not to the level of growth it previously had, at least not yet. It will need a bit of pruning to re-shape it once it is back to full strength. It also has probably been set back a year as to when it will fruit, since all the growth it has done this spring and summer is simply to recover to where it was before I let it get too dry.