The Tropical Fruit Forum

I absolutely recommend Exoteninsel. They have a pretty large variety of plants and seeds available. I know them personally and mostly all of my plants I have in my collection are from them. They send seeds world wide and plants within Europe. If I’m not mistaken, they even have airlayered Escarlate Jaboticaba. I got mine this year and it already fruited.

There is a Eugenia species out there that resembles the leitonii in appearance but isn't scientifically described yet. So it's name is Eugenia ssp. leitonii at the moment. This species is supposed to be quite delicious and cold hardy as the Feijoa since it was found in the same part of brasil as Feijoa. I can't tell you about it's taste, since I have a nearly one year old plant. So far it's doing great for me. Really fast grower. In Brasil first flowers appear after 3 years. Maybe another person on this forum knows what I'm talking about and has already tasted this species.

Hello friends,
I'm located in Germany and I am specialized in growing plants of the Sapotaceae, Annonaceae, Myrtaceae.
I'm looking for scions of following plants:
-Star apple, self pollinating variety
-chiko sapote, any good tasting variety
-durian, self pollinating variety
-jackfruit, any good tasting variety
-palora dragon fruit
-baby Cerrado dragon fruit
if you have scions of Achacha, Lucs Garcinia I'd really appreciate that.
Thanks. Regards,
Sven

Hello,
do you have any information on growing the eugenia langsdorffii since it's from the Cerrado region of Brazil? I guess it's not that easy to make it happy in containers. Thanks, Sven

Hello,
since most cocoa plants are auto-incompatible, is it possible to cross pollinate flowers with pollen of another Theobroma species like T. grandiflorum?
Regards, Sven

Hello,
I'm looking for a supply of jackfruit scions this coming spring.
I'm located in germany, so shipping within europe is preferred. If you have scions, please write me which varieties you have and we can discuss prices and shipping.

Kind regards,
Sven

Pm sent

In germany they grow wild near swamps. So soil acidity should be low, 5.5 or even lower. Also they're sensitive to calcareous water and too much fertilizer. If they can't get chill hours during winter, I doubt blueberries will grow well in your climate.
Regards,
Sven

Yes I only can imagine how frustrated he must have felt.
I also understand his decision.

I think that there maybe isn't enough experience made in growing durian out of it's natural environment to tell that it's impossible to make it bloom. Without artificial lighting, constant temperature and humidity it's nearly impossible to grow most of the tropical plants in many parts of Europe. I know that there are many producing cocoa plants for example in greenhouses. So why not Durian if the right conditions where found under greenhouse conditions?
I think in order of exploration and gaining new information it's okay to dream and experiment with that dreams.

To get back to durian, the biggest tree I saw was a Durio zibethinus in the botanical garden of Berlin. It was nearly 3 m (9,8 ft) tall the last time I was there. They also had a giant bread fruit tree that already reached the top of the roof with little fruits on it. So maybe there are more bigger specimens of Durian throughout Europe than one might think. The next time I get there, I will ask if they might know of a durian tree that flowered in other botanical gardens or private collectors they know of. They have a huge greenhouse for tropical fruit plants, I think they are well connected.

I also read that wild jungle durian make the best rootstocks for grafting, since they are well adapted to poor and soggy soil, deseases and stuff. But I guess that counts only for the parts these wild jungle durio are from?

I plan on documenting my growing experience, if they don't make it even through the first winter I save up the money for scions. If they are alive but struggle I have to think about it again. But if they thrive, I will definitely try to get some scions and share all the experiences I made in its own thread.

I also get why you don't want to try growing durian again, all your points are right. Normally I don't grow ultra tropicals, I focus more on dragon fruit, annona, plinia, Eugenia and other smaller shrubs. But I was lucky to try a really good fresh durian a few weeks ago and I fell so in love that I thought that's such nice fruit that I must honor it by growing it as a plant, even if it's just ornamental and not flowering. So I guess I'm becoming that guy that travels just for fresh durian from now on.

I definitely will let you know if my plants survived winter and found a person willing to sell me scions.

And if someone reading this and is willing to support my plan with some D99 or other self compatible durian varieties next year, please feel free to get in contact with me. 

Hello,
I know it's been a while since the last post, but how is your durian tree? I'm trying to do the same as you. I have a few Durio zibethinus seeds sprouting, which I want to graft on some D99 Scions or other self compatible varieties of durian. Did you find over the years a source for durian scions or grafted plants? Also what is your experience in growing durian in moderate european climate?

I have a nearly three year old plant, but so far it didn't grow a lot. So I'm trying to figure out what soil mix is best suited for growing Luc's garcinia in containers. I want to use a deep container since they grow a tap root. As soil mix I plan to use spaghnum moss, perlite, vermiculite and worm cast with a drainage layer of expanded clay. What are your experiences in soil mixes and on how the plants react to different fertilizers?

Hello, thanks for your replies and thoughts on this topic.

Regarding the container size and root conditions I can tell that cherimoya has rather weak root growing. I repoted it last year and cut of one third of its roots and changed the soil nearly completely. My soil mixture consists of hummus, lava rocks, perlite, small amount of sand and akadama soil. I tried to create a very loose and airy mixture that works hopefully ideal for container growing. Any thoughts on that?
Also I try to take the next bigger size of container to make sure the plant can absorb as much water as it needs and the soil isn’t too wet for so long, since I read somewhere that cherimoya doesn’t like too wet soil and handles drought well. That doesn’t mean I don’t water it frequently, it just makes it easier for me to water it when my plant is thirsty.
But that’s a point I will definitely try to improve next year spring when it’s repoting season.

I also read that potassium plays a key element in fertilisation to induce flowering, did anyone heard of it or tried it themselves?
How often do you fertilise your trees?

Thanks so far, regards
Sven