The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: pagnr on May 05, 2023, 04:18:46 PM

There is also a strong link in the mind of the Japanese to the health benefits of Okinawan fruit and vegetables.
The Okinawan population has long life expectancies and numbers of people living to 100. That is / was even higher than mainland Japan, which is also high up on the list.

Don't put too much stock in this.

Nations play games with life expectancy (there is a fair amount of social security fraud in Japan, where many centenarians died long before, but their death went unreported in order to keep government checks coming; this skews life expectancy stats), and the entanglement between socio-economic status and life expectancy is pretty profound. As a for instance, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians in the US live longer than the average back home, in part because the ones who move to the US are wealthier than average. For awhile, the longest-lived demographic on Earth was Japanese women living in the US. As always, the secret to living a long time is mostly about not dying young.

I think it is recognised that Japan has an ageing population, that is being skewed in that direction by high life expectancy, but also low birth rates and family sizes.
The trend could have major impacts, such as population decline, reduced workforce, etc.
Robotics may be needed to replace workers in various roles.
Interesting that Okinawa has both high life expectancies and higher birthrates than the rest of Japan.

As you say, these are interesting facts, but the actual truth is probably far more complex than stats can reveal.
Anyway, "67% of statistics are made up on the spot".

This story is leading the news on my radio station in Australia, not much detail yet as you can expect, but many people here are thinking of you over there.

You don't need to make a greenhouse. It can be way more temporary than that. Go to the dollar store and get brooms for the Fram. Shower curtains for the plastic. 😉

Many bed stores here in Australia sell large plastic mattress cover bags for $2, the kind the mattress is delivered / shipped in.
King and Queen are pretty big and can be cut to twice the size if one edge left.
Not UV stable but will get thru quite a few months.
I also use this as grafting tents, to keep areas dry from spring rain.

Fruits are vehicles for seed, for dispersal and protection. The seed probably don't die at minus 1 inside a fruit. Maybe the shrivelling reduces moisture and increases the % of other pulp components / anti freeze protection for the seed ??

Also the Fortunella have been around a long time, so maybe the cold tolerance evolved as things changed, but the fruit was still effective in its function.
There might be competing influences or directions on how the plants foliage and fruit adapts or reacts to the environment.

There is also a strong link in the mind of the Japanese to the health benefits of Okinawan fruit and vegetables.
The Okinawan population has long life expectancies and numbers of people living to 100. That is / was even higher than mainland Japan, which is also high up on the list.
That is based on diet and activity / lifestyle.
Some particular vegetables have been shown to have high health benefits, like the Okinawan sweet potato variety and Goya aka bitter melon.
Shiikuwasha has also been found to contain various health enhancing compounds, ie antioxidants, fat metabolisers, anti inflammatory, anti cancer.

A tropical plant is usually bombarded with heavy sun, rain, and warm temperatures year round. They don't need to be such strong growers when the climate around them is steady. A deciduous tree really needs to pump hard in the growth season to maximize its size and production.

A tropical plant in a variable climate or one that is much colder than it's used to will be suffering most of the year.

Makes sense to me.

I would like to add a different take on that.
The tropics is a tough environment. Under rainforest canopy it is a bit more pleasant, if not fungal balmy.
The trees in the open and the exposed canopy foliage is getting hammered. Just like us if we spend all day in the open on the tropical beach or working in a garden.
Many tropical plant species have red pigmented growth tips, UV filters / sunscreen.
Roots are often subject to water logging and fungal attack.
Seedlings and all plants are subject to intense competition from other plants, and also foraging from insects and animals.
Many plants carry toxins to ward this foraging off, leading to our use of tropical plant medicines, drugs, insecticides.
Many tropical plants adapt readily to different environments, subtropics, temperate, indoor.
Having collected and grown many Nth Qld tropical plant seeds, I was often surprised how tough some from the true "Wet Tropics" are when grown from seed in temperate Victoria under cold pot soil winter conditions.

The direction of a hybridisation cross affects seed and embryo size.
Finger Limes have small seeds the size of a match head.
Pummelos have large seeds the size of a kidney bean.
The seedlings that emerge from either are correspondingly sized.
The direction of the hybridisation cross,
ie which is the pollen donor and which is the recipient should affect the initial size of the hybrid embryo and seedling.
Also other cell organelle system DNA comes from the female recipient side not from the pollen donor.
I believe that is Chloroplast and Mitochondrial DNA.
The cells of the hybrids will have somewhat different cell engines, depending on the direction of the cross, and more so the more distant the ancestry of the cross.
The ancestry of Citrus can be traced by following these types of DNA, and the direction of past hybridisations, ( which pollinated the other ) can be shown.

Overall hybrids are going to be 50 / 50 combo of each parent. What actually results will vary each time as the pollen and egg DNA are variable from each parent.
Any Triploids and Tetraploids will make this more complex, as fewer sets of whole sets of genes are sent to the haploid pollen.
ie if a Triploid Lime is ABC, it could make haploid pollen of A or B or C.
A spontaneous diploid Lime seedling AB, or hybrid seedling AD would be missing many of the original Lime genes.
It may look more like an ancestor type, or a reshuffle of ancestor types.

The direction of a cross may need to be determined by the likelihood of success.
Highly nucellar types that rarely produce zygotic embryos may automatically need to be the pollen parent. ie Makrut / Kaffir Lime
Similar for closed flower self pollinating Citrons.
Mandarin types that only produce seed via pollination are a good choice for the seed parent.
The timing of flowering may also be a factor. Pollen can be stored from early flowering types , to pollinate later flowers  on other types.

I'm surprised how little discussion there is for capsium pepper plants on this forum as they are surely tropical fruit, right?

I agree, although they could be well placed in the Tropical vegetable section. Also they do have many other homes on other forums.
The low heat / no heat types of C .chinense and C . baccatum are pretty interesting tropical alternatives to capsicum.

kitty litter that is made from baked Danish clay.

That product looks good, it has a range of particle sizes and also shapes and edges to give structure to the pot mix.
Perfectly round Hydroponic clay balls are larger and all the same size and shape, so don't perform as well in my opinion.
I assume the Danish clay Cat Litter clay is fired enough in the kiln so it doesn't dissolve like other non fired clay cat litter.
Looking at the pics of your finished mix, I would say it doesn't look integrated enough.
ie the clay particles are floating in coir /pot soil more than structurally separating it.
You may need another inert smaller particle component in there for structure and drainage channels.
Anyway, that is just my opinion from looking, not on using the mix under your conditions, which are different mine.
You could possibly up the clay particles % in the lower 1/3 section of the pot to slightly increase drainage and lower the water holding/ sponge of he coir.
We don't have that type of Kitty Litter in Australia, but it seems like an ideal choice compared to perlite that floats and crumbles.

Can you post a link to it.

are loquats self fertile.

Now that you mention it, one of my Loquat seedlings is under a shadehouse , not affected by fruitfly, so probably not visited by bees either.
Also quite a way from another Loquat tree.
It does throw variable leafed seedlings.
I guess it is self fertile but variable from seed.

Do you notice any difference in the Loquat seedlings leaf shape ? Some are longer, some are rounder. If you have multiple varieties they be more likely cross pollinated seedlings.

Personally I found Rough Seville, Smooth Seville and Yuzu completely edible as fruit.
Smooth Seville is possibly the most acidic, and being a large fruit, one is more than enough.
Chinotto is another "sour orange type", with more of the same distinct flavour. This translates into Cola type drinks, that matches well with Pizza.
Another Marmalade candidate ??
Nansho Dai Dai, Citrus taiwanica was far too sour acidic for me to enjoy as a fruit, so far so that I didn't bother to collect budwood from it at the first opportunity, but did so later. And since the Taiwan connection, a Manchurian candidate ??
On the other hand, I find the bitterness of Trifoliata a bridge too far to edibility.