The Tropical Fruit Forum

Sterilizing seeds using H₂O₂

What concentration of H₂O₂ should be used in water to sterilize tropical fruit seeds before planting them?

Usually we don't need a great amount of water for soaking seeds, so is it drops per cup?  How many?

Is it a different amount (less or more) of peroxide recommended for seeds of different tropical fruits?

And also, how long should/can the seeds stay in the solution?

As a partial example, I have the following seeds that I will be wanting to plant soon: abiu; bael fruit; ilama; sugar apple & a couple other annona species; etc.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA

Paul M.
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. . . . most of the so called cold hardy avocados are not really that good.

CTMIAMI,

You got me to wondering with your remark above.

If, as you say, cold hardy avocados are not the tastiest, which of the cold hardy cultivars would you recommend as being the more tasty selections.

BTW the one I have is a 'Mexicola Grande' and it is about twelve feet tall now after being close to three years in the ground.

It bloomed profusely last year and set one fruit which fell off after it got ripe and we did not notice it 'til it was on the ground too long.  This season it bloomed well again but set no fruit.  I have read that this is a type A avocado and thus self-fertile, so where was the fruit?

Maybe it needs a vecino to encourage it to set more fruit.  Anyway, still curious to know y'all's thoughts on cold hardy avocado cultivars.

TIA

Paul M.
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Anyone on here know who maybe has got this cultivar for sale right now?

Would like to find something maybe 2 to 3 years old.

Would hope for a seller in the west central Florida area, but not limited to there.

TIA

Paul M.
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Hello. 

Sorry for all the QQs but please bear with me; I'm just now starting with a few mangoes.

So... Just got to wondering if it would be unproductive (or not) to start prunng/shaping my 3 mangoes which are all in 7 galllon pots right now.

I have 'Irwin', 'IceCream', and 'Beverly' and the first two are about four to five feet tall in their pots.  The 'Beverly' just arrived (in a 3 gal pot) and was potted up into a 7 gal just this week, but it is about six feet tall without any branching.

The 'Ice Cream' was already pruned when received and had made four or five branches from the top which are now about 10 inches long.  Those side branches could/should prolly be thinned to 3 or 4  and clipped soon to promote further branching.

But how to treat the other two is my question.  Should the 'Beverly' be cut back to three or four feet tall once it has a few weeks to establish in its new 7 gal pot?  Or would cutting it back now help to encourage new root growth?

The 'Irwin' has made one 'branch' from where it had already been pruned when received.  That single branch is about one foot tall now.  Should that be cut back to that previous pruning to try to get the main axis to make more than one branch?

Sorry for all the questions but, as I said, I'm new with mangoes and just learning the ropes with them.  I understand that if they are going to be kept dwarfed (or 'condoed', as it were) then they need to be pruned and shaped to be wider than tall, for the most part.

And how long should they stay in the 7 gal pots?  Would they be better in 10 gals, eventually?

Looking forward to suggestions or advice for how/when to proceed.

TIA!

Paul M.
Tampa, FL
Zone 9b
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I am wondering if there's anyone in this group might be growing and successfully fruiting Feijoa in Zone 9b.

I've now started to hear that the feijoa (pineapple guava) Acca sellowiana actually needs a few chiliing hours to be able to successfully set fruit, but am not sure how many hours would be required nor how cold. 

It also may be possible that there are some particular cultivars of this species which require no chilling hours to fruit.  So, have any of the members in Zone 9b had regular success fruiting this species?  Any particular cultivar(s) of it?

I have wanted to grow this species here in Tampa but if it going to need more chilling hours than we get in Tampa then I will choose something else. 

Fingers X-ed!

Paul M.
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Gentle TFF Members,

Can I prune my 'Mexicola Grande' now, in September?

It has been in the ground for 3-1/2 years and has gone from 3 feet to now about 16 feet tall, maybe a bit taller.  I had intended to keep it pruned it down to about eight to ten feet tall and allow it to spread horizontally for ease of harvesting (a la Dr. Campbell), but it's gotten away from me.

It may be too late in the year now to prune it so far back, but if I don't it will just be that much taller by this coming spring.  Can I do it now or should I wait 'til after the next blooming season?

It bloomed profusely in Spring 2018 but only set one fruit.  This past Spring 2019 it did not bloom at all. It receives citrus fertilizer about every 3 to 4 months.

So what do the avocado mavens on TFF recommend, please?

Comments, suggestions please.

Cheers!

Paul M.
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I've noticed that some photos and texts show two types of fruit on pitangatuba (Eugenia selloi) different plants.  One has spherical fruit and the other has oval shaped fruit. The oval one is purportedly less tart than the spherical one. 

In addition, there seem to be two types of leaves on these two 'races', if indeed that's what they are. One has glossy/shiney leaves with a crinkly surface and the other's leaves have a smooth matte finish, but I don't know which is which since I have plants with both types of leaves but which are all too small to fruit yet.

Does anyone on here have any further information which could corroborate that there may be two distinct races of pitangatuba based upon the descriptions I posted above? This would help in making a decision for which to choose when purchasing this species.

Just curious . . .

Paul M.
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Have seen it discussed on here that mature mangoes don't benefit from fertilizers containing a lot of nitrogen since doing that encourages vegetative/leaf growth instead of fruiting.

And it was also mentioned that when these trees are very small one can get away with giving them some nitrogen to sort of jump-start them.

So . . .  Up 'til how old or how tall can/should you give young mango trees any nitrogen?

Enquiring minds and all that rot . . .

Paul M.
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I bought a Giant Fingerlime from Briteleaf about a year ago and when I asked about it they explained that it is a sport from a regular green fingerlime that was stock which originally came from Gainesville as a green fingerlime.  Gainseville's stock unbeknownst to them had mutated so they had been selling it as the regular green fingerlme without realizing it had sported. None of  their cuttings had fruited yet so they did not know there was a difference.  Gainesville destroyed all the sported stock once they realized it was not the regular fingerlime any longer.

But Briteleaf kept theirs and, at first  thinking that it was probably an unknown hybrid of something crossed with a green fingerlime, marketed it as a 'giant fingerliime'.  Of course we now know that is was a sport.

The fruit on mine looks like little pointy-ended footballs but I haven't learned how to know when the fruit are ripe and ready to pick because they remain quite hard.

So at last my question:
Is anyone here on the TFF growing this (Briteleaf) Giant Fingerlime and has figured out how to know when the fruit is ripe?

TIA

Paul M.
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[Sorry, accidentally posted this to the Discussion group. Deleted and re-posted here. Mea culpa.]

Does anyone on the board here know of a nursery or grower, preferably in central- or west central Florida who has pink-fleshed ilama cultivars for sale in 3- or 5-gallon pots –AND who can ship to the Tampa area? The couple of nurseries in Florida that offer this cultivar indicate that they do not ship, unfortunately.

Would prefer either 'Genova Red' or 'Pajapita'.

TIA

Paul M.
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Are there any Forums members in or near Concord, NC, who are growing cold resistant tropical fruit there?

I have a friend there whom I'm trying to encourage to grow some fruit in their yard but I'm not totally sure what will survive there.  They live in the old section of Concord.

I have suggested to my friend a few things I think would succeed there: Pawpaws, Feijoas, Figs, Maypop (P. incarnata), and for citrus Yuzu and Satsumas.  I also suggested that a short-season banana cultivar might be doable. (BTW, my friend is not interested in grapes.)

Hoping for some input from any Forums member who lives in that area who'll confirm that some of the plants on my short list above are prolly suitable outdoors for 7b and who perhaps may even be able to suggest some other things that they might be having success growing there.

TIA

Paul M.
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Hello All,

My Cinnamomum zeylanicum was recently moved up from a 2-1/2-inch pot into a 4-inch pot and is now about 10-inches tall and seems to like being in the larger pot.  It has been growing more rapidly now plus a small growth has emerged from the potting soil next to it about two inches away.

So, is this species known to send up adventitious growths from its roots?  What's coming up is only about 3-inches tall right now but has the same veination on its leaves as the taller plant.

Also, does this species benefit from removing the apical tip to encourage branching?  If so how tall should it be allowed to get first?  It will be a potted specimen since zone 9b might prove too cold for it from time to time.

So far I havent been able to locate much of anything pro or con about pugging this species.  Any helpful references in print out there about this species?

Comments?  Suggestions?

TIA

Paul M.
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