The Tropical Fruit Forum

The jackfruit is grafted, all the rest are seedlings.  The kwai muk is only a few years old, it grew extremely fast once I planted it in the ground!  Its trunk diameter is catching up with the jackfruit that is more than twice its age.

I had been discussing these trees in this thread https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=41086.0 over the past year or two but I figured I would create a fresh post. 

I am just about to pack all my container trees into the greenhouse so it seemed like a good opportunity to take a few pictures before it gets crowded in there. 

Marang (artocarpus odoratissimus)
Just over 6ft tall.  This one looked haggard coming out of winter but replaced all of its leaves and is looking better than ever.  Some leaves are nearly 2ft long.  It has nice branching and is bushy enough I will keep telling myself I can keep it under control, even though I suspect it will become unmanageable with a year or two. 



Jackfruit (artocarpus heterophyllus) 'Golden Nugget'
10+ft tall.  It flowered the prior year but not this year, not sure why.  It remains extremely healthy, I expect it will pick back up in spring.  I just pruned it heavily for the second or third time this year.


Kwai Muk (artocarpus hypargyreus)
10+ft tall.  No flowers yet, not sure when it will start but it looks great.  It was looking sparse in its lower branches on one side where it got a lot of shade but has filled in a bit.  I have to keep pruning the very top as it wants to grow top-heavy.


Cempedak (artocarpus integer)
14in tall.  This thing is more than two years old but incredibly slow growing, though it always looks healthy. 


Keledang (artocarpus lanceifolius)
1inch tall  .  I started a bunch of seeds, of the six or so that put out leaves this is the only remaining one.  They seem prone to damping off, hoping this one survives. 


I had a nice pedalai (artocarpus sericicarpus), too, but I abandoned it when I realized how big they get and how long to fruit.

All these trees are in-ground except the keledang.  The greenhouse ceiling allows trees in the center row to reach about 12ft before they start hitting the fans

Nowhere in the description does it actually claim it tastes good 

A stunning discovery from the Myrtaceae family! This remarkable species boasts enormous fruits that barely fit in your palm, filled with abundant, juicy flesh. With aelightful aroma and a unique flavor profile reminiscent of peaches, complemented by hints of mango, it’s truly a treat for the senses.

This post came in very useful again for me now that lows are dropping to around 45F.  Just hauled everything in listed here and anything questionable that has tender new growth.

I got this tree as a small seedling about two years ago from a forum member.  It set one fruit this summer and still has a ton of flowers so it might make more.  I just picked it this morning, I believe it was fully ripe as the fruit separated from the tree with very little effort.  Nice color, decent flesh to seed ratio, seed easily separates from the fruit though it has a slight web around it (easy to peel off).  Unfortunately it didn't taste very good - bland, little sweetness, and a slight bitter taste.  Hopefully this one isn't representative, I know early fruits can be deceptive.  The tree is nice looking, and the fruit shape seems to match the pictures on BellamyTrees where I assume it was sourced from though I'm not positive.  My fruit is a darker purple than those photos.

Here's the BellamyTrees link and description:
https://www.bellamytrees.com/sold-out-species/p/eugenia-aff-arvensis-hyper-rare
Seeds were imported from Argentina. This is a very rare Eugenia discovered this year. The tree gets around 1.8 meters in height, making it great for container growers. The fruit is reported to taste AMAZING! It is said to taste like a mix of E. uniflora and E. involucrata. These were sourced from Marcos, he calls them hyper rare. Seeds will be shipped in humid vermiculite.

I kept losing green sapotes grafted onto mamey with similar symptoms.  I agree too dry is safer than too wet on these, but unfortunately mine never recovered once I noticed similar leaf wilt... they died.  I hope you have better luck

When I discover container trees whose soil is too heavy I remove the tree from the container and blast the roots with a hose to free as much soil as I feel is necessary and then replace with new soil.  This can be moderately to significantly shocking to roots so I try to balance how much soil is removed to how severe the problem is.

If you really want to eliminate any root disturbance you could try planting a rapid growing, weedy plant in the same soil to absorb water.  I have found errant turfgrass or tomato plants growing in containers and I leave them there when they are with plants that are overly wet, it really works to soak up the extra moisture and you can simply kill the weed without digging it up when you are done with it

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, I will keep an eye out for color change.  I really don't want to ignore them spreading.

I am using a plastic clip-on macro lens for my smartphone camera, $20 on amazon, works great!

I have branches on my cotrg randomly die back sometimes when the rest of the tree is okay, and similar issue with other eugenias though once they reach 2ft tall they seem to be much more likely to survive it.  Still, I would check the roots if this is a container tree.  Yellowing all over is often a symptom of lack of root oxygen/overwatering/drainage issues.

Mine Had about 15cm diameter stem 1m from soil before it produced a fruit to maturity.

That is a significant tree!  How soon did it start flowering, and possibly producing failed fruits?

I didn't watch the video but I am assuming it is this style?


After doing a bunch of research myself about northern greenhouse I basically came to the same conclusion that a roll-up insulation cover for night time was the best way to conserve energy, and then found out that Chinese growers had already been doing this for a long time! 

The biggest limitation is that it requires human effort to be roll it up and down ever night.  Also, if the cover is made out of straw it may not work nearly as well when wet and needs regular maintenance and replacement.  I had thought about alternative materials, such as urethane but it is heavy and you would need a bunch of individual rolls or a very stiff structure that spans the entire greenhouse length.  You also have to worry about scratching the surface of the plastic glazing if you aren't careful with the cover movement. 

I had mocked up this design years ago but now I think trying to keep fiberglass batt insulation dry isn't realistic, and closed-cell foam is better