The Tropical Fruit Forum

Pioneering tests drymifolia! I saw someone overwintered a campo ramon jaboticaba  in Seattle as well, was that you as well?

Even my CAS guava which I suspected would be the least cold hardy is coming back pretty nicely. My winter temps are not that far off Seattle, but clearly those few more degrees (and duration thereof) are a differentiator.

I get big bags of native wildflowers and Johnny Appleseed style my yard, throwing them anywhere there is space. Now, I don't have any grass to maintain or anything so there's that...

I let them get big, flower, and then cut them down to the roots to fix soil. They come roaring back annually now. TONS of bee and wild pollinator action now after only 2 years. They really get kind of unruly and shade out my smaller bushes like eugenia seedlings but it appears that they help the plant, not harm it. They are healthier than ever.

There are a ton of benefits for me who has empty soil. It seems they hold water in the soil better, they are a source of organic material to fix the soil, and they take the brunt of the insect pressure. Sometimes an entire golden rod becomes an aphid factory... But they never go to my fruit trees. It has taught me to lean into IPM and allow for sacrificial plants that take the hit and get so out of control that predators arrive en masse. I have never had so many ladybugs, assassins, praying mantises etc!

I was treated to some FAT paulista scions and had no choice but to graft my Sabara again. Paying it forward with another round of free fruiting Sabara scions, just paying shipping.

How big / tall is your greenhouse? White sapote can get really, really big. I don't think it's a good candidate for being in ground in a small greenhouse. This said, I used to not be a fan but having now had some selected varieties, white sapote is slept on and a very good fruit. If you can get wooly sapote (yellow), you can dwarf the tree.

Loquat also gets really big, and though I do love it, I wouldn't devote greenhouse space to it.

Personally I would take out the guava, it's kind of a bigger tree and the fruit is just ok in my opinion.

You could have 5-6 eugenias that take up the space of any of those 3 and that would be way higher up the list for me.

 

I was thinking today after contemplating whether to dig up my pink guava or not...can I graft longipetiolatum and eugeniafolia onto regular guava?
Has anyone tried this?

My eugeniafolia has fruits, hopefully will update this thread when they are ripe!

I'd give it a shot. I put psidium guineense on guajava and it's taking off fine. Tried also to put striatulum on, but that didn't work. The whole branch on the guajava died back so I don't think it was a compatibility issue, probably just winter blues.

Got try sartre on the weekend and quite liked it, really bright zippy flavor with some underlying kinda coconut? I'll be planting this one out for sure.

My guess is beach cambuca, strigipes

Oven is pre heating for tomorrow.

Warning: I do have bees on the property, but they’re nice. Just to be aware.

Though a donut fan, I'd take a FL mango over one any day.

Mango Stein: your footer is so great, I have many Brazilian friends who know of talisia as pitomba and have no idea what I'm talking about when I say pitomba, speaking of no relevance. Thanks for letting me know it's Curuiri!

Regardless of what or who "caused" climate change, I've been seeing its effects play out in real time over the decade I've lived where I do in California, and at home in BC, Canada. My place in CA is in a very unusual location right where two climate zones meet (inland valley meeting coastal shore at 2200'). For the first few years (2014-2018) it was pretty nice overall, relatively comfortable temperatures, didn't need the AC much but a brutal drought where our well level plummeted. Then, things started to get kind of wonky and the frequency of these events seems to be accelerating and worsening.

My landlord who moved up there in 1958 (RIP 2019) said that the climate had completely changed from when she moved in. It used to rain once a week, even in summer she recalled - we'd go almost the whole year without rain for some of the years I was there. It used to never crack 100f - it was cracking 100f for a week at a time. The well was always plentifully refilled annually - those brutal drought years didn't recharge it. The plants she had installed before died of heat, or died of deep cold. It never hailed - then it started to be an annual multiple time experience. Then, the heat turned up and we had 117f one year, 118f the next for 3 different days. Even the native oaks and native plants burnt to a crisp. Then the INSANE rains arrived this year and we had 300%+ of annual rainfall, including one 24 hour with 18.3". It was like the sound of chicken frying in a pot of oil pouring out of the gutters. These extremes are exactly what climate change scientists forecasted. It's not that everyday is always hotter (although there is some truth to that), it's that the highs are higher and the lows are lower, and you'll get 100 year storms every 10 years if things change. I admit, it's kind of spooky to think of what it'll be like in 50 or 100 years if this trend continues.

I'm a lifelong petrolhead and drive sports cars, motorcycles, and drive a diesel truck to tow all the gear... But I'd still buy an electric car when it comes time to get a new one. At a recent autocross event, the damn Tesla smoked everyone by 3 seconds on a 1 min course - even the $250k Porsche. They're just flat out more efficient, and once charging infrastructure improves and so does charging speeds - heck yeah man, let me take 15-20 minutes to stretch my legs, drink and eat every 300 miles. I do that anyways when I'm haulin'. Solar panels? Sheeesh! Sign me up! I get to blast my AC on all those blitzing hot sunny days for free?! I don't need to breathe exhaust fumes from my massive leaf blower cause the battery tech has enough minutes for my yard full of oak leaves? Again, sign me up.

I dunno man, what if all we got was cleaner air, more efficient vehicles and engines, and it didn't change the future prospect of climate change? Doesn't seem that bad to me. I don't think it's an agenda by big government - I think it's capitalism at work. Building better cooler stuff that makes consumers want to buy it.

The well is full, the plants are kicking ass after 84" of rain, I had some zone pushing losses with the once in 30 year snows and frosts... But it's cool. I'm still growing. Sorry about all your flooding FL folks, bet you'll be begging for rain in a few years when you see the other side of the extremes.

 

Kaz has offered to send us a loquat tasting selection which is awesome of him. I'll try to grab some from what I consider the best loquat in town, but I am not sure if they'll be overripe by now. This cool weather is frustrating because it's slowing down ripening of a lot of stuff. My white mulberry is absolutely loaded with fruit but it's not quite as good as it can be. The pakistani has mottled green and purple half ripe due to this as well.

Still think we'll get a good feed. Don't forget to bring dough and toppings! Got tons of sauce though.

Instead, I doubled up on Dr. Earth Bud and bloom since it contains a bit of nitrogen.

I kind of go wacko with fertilizer for DF as they're pretty much impossible to burn. Last year there was so much slow release in some pots you couldn't see soil anymore. The chicken manure seems to do really positive things overall so I start the season with that and then move onto synthetics. Once it's warm, I'll switch to KoolBloom which is 2-45-28 and I'll use about 1tbsp per gallon and water that in from watering cans. There's not much point in throwing P at them till it's consistently hot, but they seem to grow vegetatively nicely when cooler and have lots of food.

essentially killing about 40% of the vines

Was this due to our cold and rainy winter? Or you just hacked them back for space / weight concerns?

I have a Cosmic Charlie that must be nearing 1000lb on the trellis and I know it's going to break it one day.