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Messages - tropic_tester

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1
I'm in a cool coastal area and dont get too much heat but I have some young plants i've started from seed and are doing alright. I'd like to graft over them but unsure which would be most suitable. Which varieties are decent tasting and have the earliest and/or shortest ripening times. I'm hoping this will increase my odds of eventually getting fruit.

2
I purchased the plant from OneGreenWorld. I've taken cuttings of it and it seems to root pretty easily. The only issue is that I've tried the fruit and maybe wasn't watered enough but they were sort of small and dry. But they are abundant along the stems of the bush.

3
I have an established suhosine mulberry that seems to be doing quite well. Its the first year producing fruit and I'm wondering what kinds of ways people use it. After reading up on the plant, it seems that although the fruits are decent, people mainly use it as an ornamental and sometimes use the leaves. For people who have it, what are the best ways they've found to make use of the plant?

4
It's great to see varieties of fruits I've not seen before. What's the process for shipping internationally to the US or other places?

5
Do people have any tips for grafting avocadoes in temperate climates? I'm in bay area where itchas mold climate with not too many extremes but quite high moisture. I would like help or tips in things like regarding to timing or technique. Also are there any issues with graft incompatibility?

I recently tried to grafted mexicola and hass onto a rootstock and started from seed last year and it started leafing out this year so I thought I had succeeded, but after examining the graft union it looks like it didn't actually connect. I used a whip and tongue graft on side branches and wrapped the union and whole graft in parafilm and tied it with an elastic. I removed the elastic after a several month so last autumn. I have another rootstock grown from seed as well with the same issue where the grafts don't take. I've tried both whip and tongue as well as topping it with bark grafts on this rootstock. So essentially I can't seem to get any avocado grafts to work on these rootstocks I've had for the last ~6 years. I try a small set of scions every year thinking it'll be different but it seems I'm just wasting my purchases. Any help would be appreciated.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Oh happy day!
« on: May 15, 2023, 05:54:55 PM »
That's awesome!

Are you going to document as you go? I'd love to see the process and results.

7
Citrus Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: WTB Sudachi seeds and related
« on: April 09, 2023, 03:28:12 AM »
I'm not sure if there is other documentation prohibiting seeds, but If I'm reading this document right, it seems CA carves out a specific exception for citrus seeds which leads me to think it is fine.

http://pi.cdfa.ca.gov/pqm/manual/pdf/301.pdf

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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Shipping Scionwood to California
« on: April 08, 2023, 09:47:31 PM »
Thanks, I'll look into it! I hadn't thought if other states had similar programs but that would make sense for major citrus producing states.

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Citrus Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: WTB Sudachi seeds and related
« on: April 08, 2023, 09:14:11 PM »
Does CA restrict citrus seeds too? I know scionwood and plants are restricted, but I was reading on this forum that seeds generally are safe (from HLB) so i thought it might be alright. I'll have to look into it further.

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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Shipping Scionwood to California
« on: April 08, 2023, 09:11:15 PM »
As a beginner at citrus grafting I didn't want to put too much money in yet. I'm part of local gardening groups on fb and i can do small trades for other kinds of plants and scionwood so i normally can keep costs low. citrus is the only one where I'm super cautious about exchanging cuttings so I wasn't sure any alternatives, but i figured as much. im not against having to do that though if that will help keep the disease from spreading

11
Citrus Buy, Sell, & Trade / WTB Sudachi seeds and related
« on: April 07, 2023, 06:46:41 PM »
My sister is getting into starting seeds from citrus and after starting some yuzu seeds, she wants to try other varieties. I'm hoping to keep her interested so i have someone I can talk to in person about citrus and gardening hahaha. I'm seeking Asian citrus in the same vein as yuzu like sudachi, mikan, and stuff like that.

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Citrus General Discussion / Shipping Scionwood to California
« on: April 07, 2023, 06:31:13 PM »
My preliminary searches indicate probably no, but curious if it is possible ship cuttings from non-HLB states to California, or if the only honest legal way is through the CCPP. CCPP is sort of expensive and as a beginner with not a large budget I'm trying to figure out alternative methods of getting scion wood. Also as a beginner at grafting, I've failed quite a bit on citrus so need a little support from having extra.

13
Tagging onto this convo, I'm wondering if people have prunus mume scionwood. I'd love to add some varieties onto my kanko bai.

14
I really like the Chinese. Crunchy and slightly sour when half ripe, soft when ripe, tough when dried, nice and sweet. Most varieties of mauritiana i have tried taste of puke, not so nice

okay cool, i guess i can put assembling an edible variety of z.mauritiana lower on my to-do lists. I'm trying a lot of experiments so if it's not worth the effort i'll re-prioritize hahaha. I'll revisit once the seedling is more established maybe haha

15
Z. Jujuba is the Chinese Jujube. It needs some chill to bloom and fruit. Z. Mauritania is the Indian Jujube. It is still deciduois in my experience, but will fruit with little to no chill. It is not as high a quality fruit from what i have been told.

Interesting, maybe my understanding was incorrect. My understanding from my local fb gardening groups has been that Thai jujube is a variety of Indian jujube and that it's quite good and juicy. I was also under the impression that Indian jujube is not graft compatible with a normal jujube since the rootstock would go dormant and the scion would die. The seedling that sprouted is quite young so it's a little too early probably for me to determine growth habits. I guess I'll wait a bit before I make a decision on what to do with it.

16
I bought some ziziphus mauritiana from TradeWinds a while back and I was able to able to get one seed to germinate. I am hoping to grow it as a rootstock to graft a known variety of indian/thai jujube in the future. But, I realize I don't even know the characteristic differences between ziziphus mauritiana and jujuba. I've tried to find info online but I couldn't really get any key differences. I was only able to find that jujuba is deciduous and mauritiana is more a tropical evergreen. I guess I'm just not sure if what TradeWinds gave me was jujuba or if it is in fact mauritiana.

17
I was just doing some searches to find varieties since I'm just beginning to get into bonsai. I've read that many mume are more ornamental, and don't give good fruit. That said, I grafted a 'kanko bai' scion from fruitwood onto a plum rootstock. Fruitwood only stocks 'kanko bai' though. I've been searching online for other variety scionwood as well. Trees are expensive after all. But, not much luck.

https://fruitwoodnursery.com/fruit-tree-scion-and-cuttings-wood/japanese-plum-scionwood/kanko-bai-japanese-flowering-plum-detail

18
Hello, I tried to send a PM but im not sure if it was received as I don't see it in my 'sent' messages.

19
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 18, 2022, 02:50:57 AM »
if I have checked the discussion completely, no one is recomending satsumas ?
So I would recommend you satsumas. I' m in zone 7 and I have severeal satsumas in pots. Since 3 years I have a satsuma miagawa and she is bearing though on not a very big plant the second time about 16 fruits. The fruits get ripe in autumn and they have excelent taste, for my opinion one if the best of the citrus varieties very good balanca sweetness and very little sourness. Only smal disadvantage of my miagawa is alternate bearing, last year no fruits, perhaps a problem of the young plant age.

Florian recommended satsumas, but I was a little overwhelmed by the options through CCPP. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll start from there and see if I can find similar ones to miagawa.

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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 16, 2022, 01:52:56 PM »
How mild is your weather?  Our location is like this:


Gold Nugget, Kishu, and Shiranui taste great for us. Cara Cara and Moro remained overly sour, so those are being topworked.

Very mild. Here is some info regarding averages for the San Francisco area. The bay area has many many micro climates, and where I'm located is more on the coastal side so the highs are lower compared to where measurements were taken (downtown SF).  https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/san-francisco/california/united-states/usca0987



21
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 14, 2022, 03:25:06 PM »
Meiwa sweetens up nicely in cooler weather.  It grows really good in ground but is a real pain to grow in a pot.  My New Zealand lemonade ripen in the winter and does well without heat but it is not very sweet or acid.  It is my favorite

Thanks for the confirmation on the meiwa, I'm definitely going to get some budwood or full plant for that.

I was curious about the NZ lemonade but CCPP UCR info page mentioned that lemonade would sometime have unknown legions on the bark. Has that been an issue for you at all?

22
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 14, 2022, 12:45:51 PM »
I am wondering if New Zealand Citrus varieties might be suitable for your climate ?
Wheeny Grapefruit, Poorman Orange, NZ Lemonade.
Tahitian Pummelo is somewhat savoury flavoured, bit like mild grapefruit with a dash of lime. Nice but not overly sweet.

That's a good point. I hadn't thought about looking at variety origin as an indicator.  I couldn't find the Poorman orange on CCPP, does it go by a different name? Do you also have any other recommendations for NZ citrus?

I'm limited in space and so would probably have to graft it onto rootstock portion of my Oro Blanco. I'm thinking of grafting similar varieties onto the same rootstock to hopefully keep the vigor balanced around the tree.

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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 14, 2022, 12:29:57 PM »
What about the different varieties of Satsuma?
Also, I have an Oronules clementine that matures early and tastes excellent in my climate (unless it is a year like this one, we don't usually have long periods of very hot weather).

I didnt pick up any satsumas initially because some articles said that they need on average warmer days. I'm probably going to have to get them from the CCPP since I'm in California, so I went through a couple in their list but i couldnt figure out which would be suitable. Do you have any recommendations for satsumas?

Also, I really appreciate that tip regarding that clementine. CCPP doesn't have Oronules, but I looked up some clementine varieties, and it says they need lower heat requirements so I will try a clementine for sure.

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Citrus General Discussion / Sweetest citrus for mild climate
« on: September 14, 2022, 01:57:16 AM »
Hello,

I'm hoping to grow sweeter kinds of citrus but I'm in San Francisco bay area along the coast. I know that since my summer is somewhat short and very mild, this will be difficult. I've heard that the longer the citrus can hang on the tree, the best chance it has of gaining some sweetness. I'm trying to identify any citrus that could potentially fulfill these criteria. I know I won't get anything near a fully sweet orange but, anything that could get at least partway there would be great. These below were pretty much all I could find, and a lot of it was based on just comments by people or articles online.

Oro Blanco pummelo (trying now) - have read that it can hang on tree and doesn't need as much heat to get sweet
Tahitian pummelo - read it tastes great and can potentially do alright in cooler/milder climates
Valentine pummelo - low acidity and can potentially do alright in cooler/milder climates
Murcott mandarin - read somewhere it could potentially do alright in cooler/milder climate
Meiwa kumquat - sweet rind and flesh, less acidic and holds well on trees

Honestly it has been difficult to find any info but I wasn't expecting it to be that easy or extensive. If people had suggestions for other kinds of citrus that could work, I'd love to hear your opinions.

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is this pandan plant ??
« on: October 09, 2021, 02:02:51 AM »
Pandan that people use for flavoring is Pandan amaryllifolius. Its a sterile plant that has been propagated primarily by suckers. I dont think it produces viable seeds. Its possible that the plant in the image could be in the same genus Pandanus, but there shouldn't be a variegated version of "pandan" as far as I know. A quick search for variegated pandan gave me some of these results below. Results seem to indicate that the version being sold is not edible.

https://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/screw-pine.html
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/pandan

I have a small plant and when crushed, the leaves don't smell too strongly, but for me the scent is a mild cross between coconut and vanilla (without the caramel notes) with a strong grassy overtone. maybe because I keep as an indoor houseplant so it doesn't have the heat needed to develop that strong of a fragrance. I live in a mild cool climate so it can't live outdoors.

If you're looking for anything in the pandanus genus regardless of edibility, then I think that might actually be related. However, since it's probably not edible, for me it might as well be just some kind of a decorative grass.

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