The Tropical Fruit Forum

When you eat cacau you grab a few seeds and suck the pulp. There’s no chewing involved. You don’t eat the seeds because they’re bitter. Fermentation is done to improve the taste along with roasting. The pulp is incredible and makes great juice both when pulp through an extractor or when it runs off the seeds from a press or even just sack of nylon (cacao nectar).

I second you all have probably had old pods. Cacao and other theobromas are definitely in the top 10 fruits of the world. The problem is that when ripe they begin to ferment and get off pretty quickly. After 2-3 days most of the pulp has dried and you’ve lost flavor and within a week it’ll be bad. For that reason a fresh tasty pod is hard to find outside the tropics.

California implemented a program to avoid it and it appears to have worked. It’s slammed Brazil and seems that citrus is dead here so they’re moving to new areas where it will probably take hold again. Tough disease

Not sure about 5 months but a dry season is obligatory for mango and India has long ones. The problem for a Mediterranean climate is more that you have a cold humid winter and a dry summer which is the inverse.

That’s interesting. My 3 haven’t budget much either in 1.5 years but I also barely fertilized them. You all have alkaline soils right? Might help or hurt as most plinias are adapted to acidic soils for better or worse. Being a forest species I wonder if it’s a similar dynamic where they grow slow but better in shade ala garcinias, hardwoods, theobromas etc. we have a wild collected jabuticaba do sertão which looks similar to Grimal and they only get to 2 meters or so after 20 years so very slow but also just stature. It grew maybe a few centimeters in 2 years.

This family of plants are known to be plagues. They’re extremely hard to eradicate and the thorns are uniquely horrible. I have to do minor surgery if I accidentally touch one because they break into fragments and get infected. Farmers here use chemicals or have to dig out every single little piece of root to stop them from spreading via sprouted roots. I’m not familiar with this species but be forewarned. It’s entertaining though with people planting Jua and crecopia, it would be like Brazilians planting a garden of dandelions, wisteria and kudzu.

Quote from: Jaboticaba45 on March 05, 2025, 11:33:19 PM

John, durian does grow in pr, several farms there that have it.

To like or dislike durian you should try it 3 times. That’s what people tell me and was my experience. Need to try multiple times from good quality sources

That's good to know.  I'll have to put "eating durian" on my bucket list.  (I'm already 73.  The personal "doomsday clock" is ticking.)  I finally got to taste mangosteen in Colombia last year.  When I asked about durian, no one seemed to know what I was talking about.  I think cherimoya is my favorite, but it's been years since I've eaten any.  My L A days were so long ago.

If you’re in Deerfield there’s a big Asian supermarket in the west side of hallandale I want to say? They have cherimoya, durian and even mangosteen sometimes. Pretty much any Thai or Vietnamese market in the US will have that stuff. In miami you’ll find various annonas all over the place at farmers markets, Robert is here among others. If you’re into paying out the nose there’s miami fruit which mails things to you but the prices are ridiculous.

In the tropics there’s a lot of trees that only grow in the shade of a mature forest canopy where the forest transpires moisture, temperatures are stable because of the equator, and they develop slowly until they reach the canopy or other trees fall over and open light wherein they start fruiting and continue the cycle. This is true of mangosteen but nearly all garcinias, nutmeg, clove, many noble tropical woods, theobromas etc. it’s hard from a perspective of horticulture from flat full sun dry agriculture of the northern hemisphere, but if you recreate the forest environment of the plants they do well. Grow them in shade in a humid area with no dry season and after 2-3 years you don’t do anything. In fact we plan to plant a lot of these types of trees just because they’re so easy to care for with labor shortages and they maintain the value of the farm because once they start producing it’s priceless.

We must be doing it wrong! We’re using whole pods

Have a plan for citrus greening

While Bothrops is very common here, what makes me nervous at the start of any bushwacking session on our property is the overwhelming diversity of wasp species, some with nests as big as laundry baskets...I've been stung more times than I can count.

Now that’s super true! Harvesting and pruning guaraná means being hit and stung by countless species of ants and wasps ugh. We’ve run into bothrops which is present but it’s rare because I think they hide. I go off trail in thick duff and still don’t see them.

I love Licuri nuts! Do you know if they can be shipped to Peru? I didn't realize you were in the Caatinga biome. I'm not too familiar with Brazilian geography.

Not sure but can’t see why not. If they’re not roasted they go bad fast and sometimes they have worms. It’s rare to find them in Brazil outside of the caatinga though. We don’t live there but Bahia is enormous and complex. Within hours of driving you can cross pluvial forest, caatinga and cerrado. We’re only a few hours from caatinga but Salvador has it virtually in its backyard.

Various pulasans and the other rare Nepheliums. I’m after some of the rare Amazonian cashews (a. Spruceanum and a. Amapaense), and a whole mess of the rare theobromas (t. Bernouilli, t. Glaucum, gileri and sylvestre). Then some rare spices but they’re not fruits.