The Tropical Fruit Forum

How many flowers did it create?

That second to last photo is of a Manila/Christmas palm,Adonidia.  Nobody has EVER got one to grow in California,so that just emphasizes the difference between a z10a in Florida and the best most frost free 10b in California.

True, although there are a few large ones inside the South Coast Plaza mall if you want the novelty of seeing ones that are technically in California.

Some kind of worms or caterpillars or something clearly love my wax jambu and most fruits have little trails carved out of them, but no insects actually in them so I eat them. But luckily I do not have rodent problems, aside from a gopher that seems to have disappeared. I can see how mammal bites would be off-putting.

Quote from: CGameProgrammer on July 26, 2016, 03:19:10 PM

Cacao requires humidity and indoors tend to be very dry, particularly if air conditioning is used. It's not the same as a greenhouse.

I thought the same thing, but a SoCal grower had this experience:

That quote says his survived but did not yet flower. I don't think they will fruit without humidity. Even in Miami all of the botanical gardens grew them in greenhouses because Florida winters are dry.

I think Miracle Fruit would work really well as a houseplant. It fruits well in shade and is everbearing if conditions remain warm, which they would indoors. However I am not sure if insects are needed to pollinate it but I don't believe so; I think just shaking the tree once in a while pollinates it. It does prefer sunlight though so you might want it near a window... or experiment.

Interesting. Do you hand-pollinate the fruits?

I'll check them both out. Thanks.

I'd like to get CC and maybe one or two other interesting mango varieties but I don't know of a nursery selling them that ships to CA, except Top Tropicals but they reportedly can't be trusted for mangoes. Is anyone aware of one?

Certainly avocado is drought-tolerant; in fact it basically needs drought. Loquat and macadamia I can also understand. I find it hard to believe you can leave passionfruit dry for a month because mine looks awful if I go one week without watering it. Also it starts fruiting in late spring, continuing through early winter, so not watering it would result in lots of fruit loss if it somehow did survive.

Do you just have wet clay at all times or something?

The tree will die without water, no question.

On a recent vacation to Florida I visited the Fruit & Spice Park in Homestead and they had a small pitangatuba shrub with a bunch of fruit. I did not notice any other one near it so perhaps it is self-pollinating.

I just returned from a vacation to South Florida and got to taste/buy Mamey Apple for the first time. I liked the flavor. It was somewhat apricot like but more complex. It was juicy, sweet, and sour, but fibrous and not easy to separate the flesh from the very large pit, sort of like mangoes in that respect. Good flavor though.

I have had a sweet variety of kei apple that tasted very much like apricots, but mamey apple only somewhat tastes like apricot. I consider that a good thing because why bother growing a tropical fruit that tastes exactly like a much more commonly available fruit?