They are grown commercially to a small extent. I see a lot coming from Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic to our markets here in Florida. I'm not sure if anyone in Florida is growing at a commercial scale, haven't heard of anyone doing so. Doesn't seem like most people think it has commercial potential. It's not grown commercially to the extent that lychee is. I however believe genip has the potential, and that there is a market and demand for it.
Among all of the problems in the way, a big one is fruit quality. There's a huge range and variability in the quality of genip. There are completely inedible garbage genips that people will pick from the wild ones and sell to you on the streets where these trees have been introduced or even import here to the united states and put it on our super market shelves for unsuspecting consumers. I think there are too many wild types out there intermingling in the gene pool. Also not a lot of propagation of the superior trees, and although there's been efforts to domesticate and make superior selections, I feel there's a lot more to be done.
I've had supposed Montgomery and jose pabon and they were horrible in my opinion for being a selected variety. Montgomery had a huge seed, was so sour, and had moderate flesh clinging. I threw them all away. The nurseryman assured me they were ripe when I tried them at his farm too. Jose pabon had decent flavor, sweetness and texture, I've seen much better flesh to seed ratio though. Too many twin seeds though, nearly 50% it seemed, they didn't have the same free stone quality and a lot less flesh to seed ratio. I've had much better examples from people's backyard in Florida and the keys, and especially from street vendors during my travels in the Caribbean.
A problem you will find RICBITAR is that the seedlings will most likely not come true to the parent. Maybe if the fruit you got your seeds from came from a plantation with all genetically identical trees you would have a better chance. I think they would have to be hermaphrodite trees too because it's very unlikely you could have a male and female with identical or even similar genes for their fruit. You would need many seedlings to have a hope that one of your trees will grow up to have quality fruit or even production while also being a female. You also have to plant males nearby for maximum pollination and fruit set. This also could take close to 10 years to find out if you have something good or not.
You could take a gamble and wait and see. But I would recommend looking for a nursery who might have a grafted or airlayered variety, unless you are seriously dedicated to doing a larger scale selection of seedlings, I would find another way. Alternatively you could also airlayer a branch from a local tree you know, and approach graft your seedlings to it. You could also just approach graft your seedlings to a branch of a tree known to have good fruit. Unfortunately all other propagation methods are not nearly as successful.
