The Tropical Fruit Forum

In the past, I have tried airlayering in a 1/2 arsed way and not surprisingly, failed. So this year, I decided to learn how to airlayer. It is actually not that hard, just takes a little technique. I tried two methods, one where you remove a layer of cambium from around the branch, i used this for larger branches. I also tried cutting underneath the leaf buds, without completely separating, them and placing a wedge (wooden toothpick) between the bud and branch. From there, it is the same for both, paint with hormone, wrap in damp peat, wrap in plastic, tie ends, wrap in foil and write the date on it  Then the hardest part, waiting. . . . Some take a couple weeks, others, 30, 60, 90+ days to form roots.

2019 is going to be year of the chip/T budding. 

My yellow fruited muntingia calabura tree, I wanted to propagate but had zero luck with seeds and very little luck with cuttings. I was able to make a bunch of airlayers with a high % of takes.







Macadamia nut



White guava



Olosapo  (Couepia Polyandra)



Uvaria Rufa



Akee (Blighia Sapida)



I'll try a few things next year that looked like they might have worked this year if I'd had more patience.

Soncoya seeds soaking in 150ppm GA3 for 24hrs. to hopefully help speed up germination. I'll post when the seeds sprout.

How can they justify lumping randia in with artocarpus? Do they base these decisions on flowers, fruits, leaves or some kind of magic? I like randia and don't want to update my plant list, so I'm sticking with it!

I have an in ground seedling Dang Rasimi tree.  Since jacks fruit on the trunk, I approach grafted 2 different cultivars (so far) onto the trunk. The first picture is from a grafted 'Dang Saria' that I did last year. The second picture is from a seedling 'Mr. Berry' that was grafted this year. Since last year, the 'Dang Saria' looks like it has grown in diameter. I have a few more varieties to graft onto the trunk, then I'll attempt lakoocha, Chama and maybe a few other artocarpus that fruit on their branches.

Dang Saria



Mr. Berry

I acquired a "nutmeg" tree a few years ago only to discover later it was actually a "Jamaican nutmeg".  At first I was disappointed but after learning about monodoras, looking at pics of the blooms and seeing it grow, I think I like it even better!  It overwintered in the GH and probably received low 40F temps (if not lower on a couple nights) and looks like it has not stopped growing.  I'm going to have to try grafting a piece of it onto cherimoya and see what happens.

This past Saturday, Dec 21 I was lucky enough to attend an annona tasting at the incredible home of a gentleman named Ashok and his beautiful family.  There was 20+ people there and everyone was very excited about the upcoming feast!  There were atemoyas and cherimoyas brought from San Diego and in the Orange County area.  There were all sort of varieties, lots of old favorites and some very new cvs. too.  Thank you to JF, Ashok, his family and anyone else that had a hand in the planning of this event, it was really a nice time.  I met lots of new friends and lots of old ones were there too, in fact from the TF forum there were at least 6 active members.  The event started with boxes of fruit being sorted and the fruit laid out on the tables, labeling was attached, judges score sheets passed out and we were just about ready to go.























Our host, JF and few dignitaires, Mrs. Elixir (Eunice Messner), Mr. El bumpo (Rudy Haluza) and Mr. Big Sister (Jim Neitzel)



Time to get down to business, the names of the fruits were drawn at random for the order in which they were tried.  Cherimoyas and atemoyas were tried side by side.



Our kind host Ashok, holding some of his cherimoyas up for people to judge the size and appearance of the fruit.



Seed count was taken in consideration along with taste and texture.



Lisa



Big Sister



Santa Rosa




Some of the discerning judges





And the winner of the day!





Our very own forum member Behl's cherimoya, damn good fruit!




Another interesting note, most of the atemoyas fell to the bottom of the score sheet when compared to cherimoyas, except AP which did OK.  A few of the cherimoya growers were concerned about recent rains and this fruit was not perfectly ripe or you should have tasted this other fruit last week or in another month.  Like any tasting, it is impossible to get a bunch of fruit picked perfectly ripe and have them all ripen at the same time, with that said, we had some amazing fruits.

The last part of the day I neglected to take photos of, I was too busy stuffing my face.  Ashok and his family were kind enough to bring in some absolutely incredible Indian food and one Cubano brought a pretty tasty guava pastry to top it all off.

Just to show you it was not all annona, there were a few dragon fruits for color.



Here are some pics of Ashoks trees, cherimoyas





One of his mangoes



Guava tree with giant guavas (name escapes me)



Trunk of the guava tree



No wonder the trees are so happy, they've got quite a view.



Thank you again to Ashok and his family for there kind hospitality, JF for all the work helping to put it together, his son for all the hard work he did and anyone else that made that day so much fun.  Hopefully I'll get invited back next year!

A kind friend shared scions with me of Petch Pakchong and Nuathong but unfortunately the labeling was lost.  Can you guys help me put a name to these plants?

The first one grows with more of a bushy habit the leaves are thinner and more pointed. (I added the fly for size comparison)



The other has large rounded leaves and is growing upright like a tree.



Here are the two side by side.



Thank you!

A very kind friend brought me a 15lb. jack fruit from Orange County that I believe was grown in Mexico.  I've had fresh jack before but have always been lucky to have most the dirty work done for me, not this time and I was kind of excited about it. 



The smell that filled my house was incredible, it smelled so good I almost wanted to keep it as an air freshener. 



After laying down some protective cardboard and grabbing my knife, I was on my way.  I chose not to oil the knife or my hands as I wanted the full experience, plus I wasn't cutting through the core so I hoped I'd be OK.  Using a small knife I made a shallow incision into the skin and proceeded to cut the skin into wedge shapes and peel it back.  Being as this was an imported, store bought fruit, it was most likely picked a little young for shipping so in a few spots I had to cut the rag from the peel. 



Then proceeded to pull out the lobes, pop out the seed and peel away the tough part with the seed sheath attached.  After stuffing my face for a bit, I realized I should probably save a few pieces.  When the first side was done, I flipped it over and proceeded with the second half. 



By the end I had some beautiful jack ready for the freezer,  some seeds ready for cooking and surprisingly not a giant sticky mess.



I think because the fruit may have been off the tree for days (week?) there was not a lot of latex left, I even cut through the core when I was done and didn't notice any major latex.  The texture of the jack was crunchy and the flavor sweet with hints of pineapple, banana and cantaloupe with a finish that reminded me a bit of durian? 



I think frozen jack has become a must during the hot summer, I find myself grabbing two or three frozen pieces and gnawing on them to enjoy the great flavor and cool down a bit.  This is a fruit I need to grow here.....my 'Cochen' has already had male blooms!

BTW, I learned next time to wash the fruit off before cutting into it.  After peeling back the skin, I'd have to wash all the bits of dirt and debris from my hands before I wanted to touch the edible parts.

I wanted to double check the  ID of this fig, it was purchased as 'Vietnamese fig' from Mimosa LA.  I'm curious if Ficus auriculata is the proper name and when do you harvest the fruit?





Thank you.

I have a small lot seed permit but I dont think it covers anything but unsprouted seeds.  There was talk about durian scions and the best way would be to cut and carry home on a plane rather than mailing to assure the freshest scion.  Well, how do you go about doing this legally?

I really need to repot my pitomba and cabelluda plants and plan to in the near future.  My question is, how delicate do I need to be?  I've been doing dormant figs lately like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies but since the Eugenias are still awake, I should be more subdued?  Any tips?

thanks!

I did some grafting recently onto cherimoya rootstocks and wondered what annonas would work.  So far I've had success with cherimoya, atemoya, custard apple (A. reticulata), soncoya (A. purpurea) and wild custard apple (A. senegalensis).  Still on the list to try as soon as the rootstock is big enough:  sugar apple (A. squamosa), poshte (A. scerloderma), illama (A. diversifolia), soursop (A. muricata), pond apple (A. glabra), A. cornifolia, A. emarginata, rollinia deliciosa, triple crosses (cherimoya, sugar apple, custard apple) and even uvaria rufa.

Here are a few pics:
cherimoya with Selma on one side Incan red on the other



Lisa 48-26 atemoya



Sateneja custard apple



blooms



Soncoya



pretty new growth



Senegalensis



up close



Hopefully the rest will take, then we'll have to see how they all last long term.

-Ethan

A few weeks ago I tasted the first fruits from my myrcianthes pungens (guabiju) and I'm happy to say they were quite good.  The tree was covered in blooms and only set 2 fruits but considering it was the first time and the tree is only about 3.5' tall, I was happy.  The fruits had a tough dark purple skin and golden flesh that separated easily from the skin and moderately well from the seed.  There was not a ton of flesh but the flesh was juicy and sweet with a touch of spice, maybe slight nutmeg in the finish? (my taste buds aren't the most delicate)  Hopefully as the tree gets bigger the fruits will get a little larger and a lot more of them.

Here is the fruit, sorry for the blur but beautiful DARK purple color.



inside



I have my fingers crossed for next year.
-Ethan