The Tropical Fruit Forum

I think the issues with euphorbias is the caustic sap. I grow marginata in my native wildlife garden and the birds eat all the berries of the surrounding shrubs without ill effects. It is one plant that never gets deer/rabbit damage.  My concern would be that if I’m hunting around for fruits I may not be aware that the euphorbias could be damaged and I may come in contact with the sap and not know it until much later.

Here's a video of my current plants : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=504zY-3YU2Y
Any comments are welcome !

By the way by greenhouse I meant cold-greenhouse. It's not heated during winter, but it's along the house so it's getting some heat from the house. Does that still sound reasonable plan @Brian ? Or were you thinking about a heated greenhouse?

For the strawberry guava lankiness it may help to partially girdle the trunk to stimulate new growth. I had a similar problem on a longan. I was nervous the first time and only did one cut. That didn’t work so I did 4 cuts, 3/4 the way around. That gave 3 new shoots within 3 months. The liquid isn’t sap it’s ant killer that I just put on.

Spaugh,
I used analog controllers for the vent and heaters. They are designed for hog barns and are very reliable, cause if they fail the whole barn dies. I use the inkbirds for lights and humidity, if they fail no big deal as my gh is naturally very dry and the supplemental light isn’t that essential. How long do your inkbirds last? Have you ever tried another product?

I have a 10yo Myrciaria cauliflora which is about to flower for the second time. The first time it flowered a little bit and I only got one grape. At the time my greenhouse was full of insects (both good and bad) as I was in my hippie phase of gardening and my trying to create a “sustainable ecosystem”.

It is now about to flower quite profusely, but I have basically eliminated all insects in my greenhouse (organic contact pesticides) during the winter there is only air movement from a central ceiling fan. Does anyone know if it will set fruit in a pollinator free state? Has anyone ever hand pollinated Jabos, if so let me know if there are superior techniques. Right now figs, banana, pineapple, white sapote, citrus and yellow dragon fruit (and maybe Barbados cherry) appear to be the only things that self pollinate. Loquats, feijoias, passionfruit, mango, starfruit all require a helping hand.

Just an update in case people had similar problems. I ended up using the Scott’s dial and spray and switched to using synthetics for about 3/5 of my feeds. I use the holland secret blue/green/red mix that I think was designed for weed. The blue is 5-0-2 (with micros) and the green is 2-1-7 and they see to have worked well for vegetative growth and fruiting. I can dial in the ppm depending on the plants (citrus 500ppm mangos 250)

I think they could get more but I think from a maintenance and harvesting efficiency standpoint or a commercial trellis that was the goal. Similar to grapes I guess.

Send me a message and I can FaceTime you tomorrow evening after work if that works for u. I can show you my settings and setup.

The plan is to cut a barrel in half like these for each tree. I’ve been using palm/cactus mix and mulching with shredded bark. Didn’t know about gypsum and iron. I use Jacks Citrus feed occasionally with varying degrees of success. Is once a month correct?

Hey CC,
Just curious, how do you manage your dragonfruit after a couple years regarding the roots? I have a spiny yellow one in small pot (15gallon half full) that can’t seem support more than 7 fruit at a time. Do you just keep on mulching on top? I was worried about causing rot at the bases.

I grow mine in large pots in my greenhouse and have to hand pollinate because I have no bees. Are there a lack of insects where you are?

If you have to hand pollinate I think there are a couple of tricks which have worked for me. First I think training them on a horizontal wire and then pruning the new side shoots so that there are spaced out vertical hanging side shoots allows for easiest visualization of the flowers. I know it seems impossible to miss those large purple flowers but you’d be surprised. Second, I think the flowers have to be fully open to release pollen. I’m not sure when the stigma are receptive, but a lot more pollen comes of the underside of the anthers when it open.Third, I switch to no nitrogen fertigation as soon as I see the first hint of a flower bud. I also will heavily mulch (mine are in a 36” wide pot) with a high potassium compost at this time. Some years I can actually get a second winter crop. I’m not sure what is needed for that to happen. It’s happened 2x in 7 years.

A couple of other things that I picked up from reading about purple passionfruit.
1) They apparently produce the best fruit at ph as low as 4.5. This is helpful from a fertilizer standpoint because if you bokashi compost fruit and veg waste the leachate which will be high in potassium is very acidic, but the passionfruit has no problem with the low ph (but it does still have to be diluted). It saves you a bunch of money if you don’t pay for fertillizer.
2) vine productivity drops off commercially after 3 years and they usually die by 7, so they are replanted frequently. I’ve actually had my most productive vines die right after they’ve had a great crop. I always have 2 main vines going, and a cutting growing in a 2 gallon pot on standby.
3) Commercial plantings seem to produce between 40-50 fruits per plant per crop.



 think you need to wait until the flower is fully open for it to release pollen.

I had the standard purple from PIN.
It fruited a ton by itself for a few years.
I now have a hipolito too.

I think that is where mine is from. I assume you have it in the ground? Do you remember how tall it was when it set fruit. Was the fruit any good? Trying to decide if I should keep it with my limited gh space.

I only had one look good in a pot and it was in a tall ceramic pot 50% Perilite, 25% peat potting mix and 25% fir bark. Looked great for 2 years, but I watered it all the time (2x week) using distilled water and low dose fertillizer. Then I missed a watering and it dried out and died. Not worth the work.

I grew mine from a yellow dragon fruit I found in an Asian market way up north here. The fruit was massive. My fruits are standard size. I used to hand pollinate but if found I don’t have to. I only have one dragon fruit in my gh and no insects. I though the yellow was supposed to be self fertile.