The Tropical Fruit Forum

My friend's yard has a lemon tree, a bear's lime tree, and an orange tree (unknown variety) next to each other in the ground in los angeles california area.  All three have produced normal looking fruit over the years, however, this year the orange tree produced lumpy, and uneven coloring affecting most of the fruits, some of the color was very orange other parts were less orange.  When peeling, some of the pulp sticks to the rind which also seems a little thinner than previous years, fruit tastes normal and good.  Most of the fruit was this way, but not all.  The lemon and lime are fine, no issues.

Any ideas what causes this?  I've searched a bit but didn't really find anything concrete other than typical "stress" "watering habits" and "nutrient" issues, oddly I cannot find some that look like these.

I would like a little if there will be any left   Thank you!

Gelson's seems to carry them.  Their selection looked a little rough, even the honeyglows which are usually a lot peppier looking.  It looks like the Coladas may have been picked a bit under ripe.  They were all on the smaller side, and all were covered in scale.  Off-white cream flesh and core is thin, easy to chew/eat.  Flavor was mildly sweet, well balanced tartness but not sour, and did have an almost suntan-lotion coconut flavor, mostly at the core if you breath in as you take a bite, but not sure that was placebo.  So many seeds, too!  I think it was about $10 - I was buying other over-priced groceries there and didn't get a receipt, just eyeballing my credit card.

I am not sure I am going to grow the top, I'm worried about the scale getting into my plants.  Maybe I'll drown the top in water/soap for a few hours... ?  I'll try seeds but those take a very long time in my locale.

My paun (puan?) pineapple went full yellow three days ago.  No slips or pups.  Sadly the fruit did not grow large, it's about the size of a fist and the rind/eyes didn't smooth out.  I think I have figured out for future to grow healthier plants. 

I waited to harvest until today, so really pushed the "ripe" part.  Aroma wasn't really noticeable until cut from the plant.  It was sweet, mild tartness, and slightly salty.  I found the last part interesting... did not know fruit could be salty?
Not sure if this was a paun.  It has no slips or pups or ratoons, and was so tiny.  Ah well, it was fun.  On to the next one

Blackberry jam fruit?

Congrats!  How's it taste?
The premier chocolate refiner (a tricked out wet grinder) isn't too pricey.  I've had mine for ~10 years, it's a lot of fun to whip out a couple times a year and makes for some seriously amazing silky textures, but omg what a pain to clean.

H-Mart in Irvine (westpark location) had some.  I took the largest, weighed in about 3lbs, the other two were very small.  Cost ~$20, I've never had this and unfortunately I won't be anywhere near ripe cacao fruit anytime in the next couple years.  "Cacao on the Cob", from "Sweet Seasons", produced by Hacienda Laia Margarita in Ecuador.

The flesh covering the seeds was very minimal, slimy, had a mild aroma of floral perfume similar to lychee, rose, etc.  Flavor was new to me, though reminded me of cherimoya first, then very mildly of fruits similar to lychee and rombutan and maybe mangosteen (been a while). 

Since I roast and make chocolate from cacao beans as an occasional hobby, I tried some of the seeds raw.  Super bitter, more so than their roasted counterparts.  Kind of a raisin/fig/dried-brown fruit flavor.

I also tasted the rind part.. it had no flavor, and as I chopped it up for the compost, it reminded me of a gourd so I tried roasting it.  After ~7 minutes, it changed to a dark grey color and softened up.  The taste reminded me of taro or generic tuber.  It was okay with salt I suppose.  No aroma.

I did eat all the "pulp" best I could, but couldn't get it all off, so peeled half the seeds and left the other half in the slimy coating.  Soaked overnight, all have little nubbies not sticking out.  I peeled the rest this morning.  Took about 45 minutes and my fingers are cramped up.  Total 45 seeds.  I read they have a tendency to mold quick, so I gave a 5-min soak in physan 20. 

Should I try growing these?  I don't have a greenhouse.  Coastal so cal Zone 10a.  I've read most people don't have luck.  As a houseplant it sounds interesting, however, though I used to have high humidity in my house that changed a couple years ago when I began using central air.  So.. hmmm.  Alternate is to roast and make chocolate, but now that they have a little root sticking out, no sure that is good idea.

Brian: several years ago the local Trader Joe's and Aldi stores carried seedlings for a few $, but they were random, unknown types, and I was super busy so I passed at the time.  Today I am hoping to find specific varietals, as my goal is more than just fruit, I'd like to experience the whole "make my own coffee" thing others have pursued and tired of
Daintree, cool!  I'll reach out to you by PM.
Seanny: yeah, I figured that's the best way, meantime I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to get the processed seeds to get past the root-nubby stage without rotting.

Hi!  Late October 2023 my Cheese Pine variety began blooming.  Its eyes did not smooth out like other pineapples as it developed.

I picked it today, very aromatic.  Softball sized.  Mildly sweet, slightly dry for a pineapple, and no sourness at all.  I'm not sure if this is the variety or that it grew outside here in coastal so cal over the winter with nothing but marine layer and cool temps.  I did enjoy the pineapple. 

All that said, I think I'm going to stop growing pineapples until I have a larger property and room for a green house.  The plants look terrible coming out of winter.

Hi all, does this look like a persian mulberry?  Photos from last april/may, and the fruit was very delicious, great combination of sweet and tart.

There's another tree in the yard that has an even smaller fruit, and the little bobbles on it are larger and have little fronds sticking out from them, but they were rather sour.  There were a number of what I think are pakistani mulberries, 3-6" long fruit, pretty sweet but virtually no tartness.

Thank you for looking.

We're right on six months and my costco or whole foods pineapple has begun to change color from green to yellow-green this week   I don't smell anything yet, taking a whiff daily, so, almost ripe, right? 

This small one's now five months.  It looks almost ready, I'm sniffing it daily waiting for the aromatic fragrance, but, likely needs one more month, right?  I'm rotating the pot every few days to even out exposure to sun (or actual lack thereof).  I'm pretty sure this is one of the MD2 types from costa rica, likely costco purchase.  I don't think they turn the same, full yellow color like the Maui gold ones?