The Tropical Fruit Forum

This topic has been moved to Citrus General Discussion.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=49944.0

Found them (and more I wasn't planning on buying) thanks to Alex @ Tropical Acres Farm!
They've really increased their avocado varieties in the last few years, I ended up buying three other varieties besides Dupuis.
Their website shop shows the varieties (https://www.tropicalacresfarms.com/avocados), but you can't order the scions through the shop. This is the form for making budwood requests: https://www.tropicalacresfarms.com/budwood-checklist-request

On the topic of disease, I was noticing just the other day PP has a predisposition to having sooty mold all over the branches. The only other variety in my yard that does that is Lemon Zest. If/when I see PP flowers, I'll be giving them extra attention to lessen the powdery mildew damage. My LZ gets hammered by PM; I was spraying diligently last year for the first time, but I went out of town for a week. We had a big rain storm followed by ideal PM conditions while I was gone; Lost >80% of my LZ flowers/fruit.

I did get several from Brown's stand; they were all the same variety, unfortunately they couldn't tell me what that variety was. All were pale, light yellow in color, some were as big as my head, big fruit segments with a few big seeds in most segments, and the flesh color varied from pale pink to something close to washed-out burgundy. With all the descriptions I've read, I'm 99% sure they were all Hirado Buntan.


I bought them in varying degrees of softness and tried them over several days. The one I ate immediately (which was the softest) was not terrible, but decidedly meh. I had to force myself to eat the whole thing, it was something close to the worst pummelos I've had from Trader Joe's. The next one, which was much larger & uglier, was more pleasant to eat. Most the fruit had firm, white areas along the narrow edge of each segment that tasted bland, but if I avoided that rest had a pleasant grapefruit flavor.


Still sitting on one more I'll try today.

Wow, I haven't heard of Brown's, thanks RS. Looks like they are selling at a local farmers market today, gonna give them a try.

It's been one terrible experience after another trying to buy local citrus for (at least) the last decade. Growing up here, my family ate probably a bushel a week of the tastiest navel oranges from local groves during citrus season. I've given up on trying local citrus; tired of dropping $$$ on a big bag of oranges, only to get home and find them insipid, at best. I think we are too close to the coast anymore, doesn't get cold enough.

This thread is like fly paper for spammers

This topic has been moved to Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles - Buy, Sell, & Trade.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=49506.0

A gallon a day is far too much water, stop watering it. It's been a month and you don't have any new growth that I can see at the internodes, that's not a good sign. It looks like you *might* have green bark at some of those lower internodes, but that's the only positive I can see. Top branches definitely look dead. You could start removing branches/wood at the top and work your way down until you find live wood on each branch, but I would probably just take all the top off just above or below that trunk scar.


Maybe all the watering is further stressing it, stalling it attempting a new growth push, but it could (likely) be a goner.

This topic has been moved to Tropical Fruit Discussion.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=49346.0

This topic has been moved to Tropical Fruit Discussion.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=49200.0

I've ordered from Seeds Del Mundo before, with no problems.

Ordering seeds and plants internationally is complicated, with many factors outside of the seller's and buyer's power.

The complaint appears related to international shipping delay, with SDM taking the blame.

This thread makes me never want to sell anything to anyone ever again.

That's why I personally think it's important to play these situations out fully in one thread, there are key learnings for both buyers & sellers of seeds/plants here. Future buyers & sellers can benefit from seeing the pitfalls play out before they start their forays. I also think it can be helpful to detach the actual players in these situations and see it from a generic standpoint.


Generally, a seller in this space risks their plant/seed matter, growing matter/materials, cost of chemicals/fertilizers and planting/shipping containers. Larger sellers have additional operational costs & some also take on the (not insignificant) cost of legal certifications and other substantial hurdles that come with legitimate selling/shipping internationally. Seed sellers can ramp-up with nothing more than proper envelopes and plastic baggies, but selling live plants on anything above a hobby-scale can take significant initial investment.


Buyers generally risk nothing *but* their money, in that they are taking on the majority of the financial risk in any individual transaction. Buyers aren't making a profit, they can't offset financial loss against profits made on other transactions. Wise buyers cover their financial risks using proper payment methods and shipping insurances, but those options are not always known to new/novice buyers or necessarily available in all transactions. Sometimes a buyer (no matter how wise) has to take an uncovered risk, some seeds/plants are only available from smalltime, suspect sellers.


In this case, SDM is not a smalltime, suspect seller. They are a known seller with a well-designed storefront and numerous positive reports from past transactions. Agreendream had reasons to be confident in the risk he was taking, but it also seems he was a new buyer and not (fully) aware of the realities of ordering live plants. SDM could have definitely communicated better, but agreendream could also have been more patient and not taken to attacking their reputation online while SDM was still communicating with them and seemingly working towards some resolution.


The current financial toll in this transaction is being paid by agreendream. Not attempting to do the actual accounting, but it appears agreendream spent ~$217 on the transaction and SDM has (so far) refunded only the cost of shipping, ~$78. That means SDM is keeping ~$130 from the failed transaction (again, I'm not trying to call exact figures). Now, I don't know what financial hurdles SDM had to clear to acquire the plants & seeds, maybe their break-even cost is a large part of that $130. I don't know nor care to learn what that cost is, what I do know is agreendream is (currently) out a lot of money with nothing to show for it.


The long-term financial toll will be paid by SDM. No business needs this type of attention and, going by other accounts, SDM does a good job fulfilling buyers needs and makes things right when they fall short. It's obviously a legitimate family operation, not a bad actor who sets out to defraud buyers. From what I've learned of them during all of this back & forth, I would still purchase from SDM it they had something I needed and couldn't find locally. One bad apple spoils the bunch, but one horrible transaction shouldn't automatically outweigh many numerous successful ones.


Sad situation to see unfold, but hopefully some wisdom can be taken from it.

If a refund has been made by SDM, the amount refunded and proof of the refund posted here would be an appropriate end to this unfortunate saga.

SDM, the situation with agreendream needs to be (somehow) put to bed. The goods were bad and he's out the shipping cost. Since this has become a public spat, best course would be to post (in the other thread he started please) what you are offering exactly. It doesn't need to be a long post recapping the situation; keep it simple, just plainly say what you are willing to do to make it right.


Agreendream, as I asked previously, please confine your current issue to the thread you started regarding it. You've said your piece here and Forester's reason for starting this thread has been resolved to his satisfaction. If you just want to flame SDM, you've well done it. If you still want your money back, work towards that end.