The Tropical Fruit Forum

If you are going to Puerto Viego de Talamanca on the Caribbean coast, be sure to see member Peter Krings tropical fruit forest at www.costaricaorganicsfarm.com  He has an informative tour and fruit tasting.

There is also the agricultural station at Turrialba which you can find with google.

Erica

I have curry leaf seeds available now, posted in buy, sell, trade. Erica

Googling reveals this to be an interesting ginger relative used frequently in Thai cooking. Articles mention it can be found fresh in Thai grocery stores. I would guess that you could grow it from store bought rhizomes. The flower is quite a beautiful pinkish lavender.
Erica

I had no idea the flowers were edible. Thank you for posting. For those who have not planted them yet, you might consider getting the old-fashioned kind, if you want to draw pollinators into your yard. Apparently the insects don't like the newer varieties.

I love Carrie mangoes the most. It is my favorite. I do not think it is strong tasting at all, so clearly there are taste differences. I do not like resin flavor in mangoes. You have to pick it off the tree when it is green, but a gentle squeeze is yielding. Eat it when it is fragrant, but not mushy. It is barely firm and totally fiberless. It melts in  your mouth.

I also have and Angie and it is a good tasting mango also. I have had no disease problems at all with either the Carrie or the Angie and that would be west of Lake O in 9b. The "highlands" of Florida.

Erica

southern end of 9b in south Florida:

Is anyone growing garlic or walking onions successfully in 9b or warmer? I have tried a couple of times, but had very little success. I am wondering if I should keep trying or give up. I see Territorial Seeds has two garlic varieties from Viet Nam and wonder if those might be more tropical. When I grew the walking onions, they all died in the summer.

If anyone is growing these successfully, please share your story.

Erica

Not exactly tropical, but subtropical, I grow feherozon sweet peppers. They are not very productive, but produce 6-7 medium sized sweet peppers reliably and grow only about 12 inches tall. It turns pale yellow and then red. It is supposed to be a hungarian paprika type pepper. The plant will continue to live -  perennially - after it's main crop, but the subsequent peppers are smaller and irregular. They grow and produce their 6-7 peppers well in spring in south/central Florida.
Erica

I got some seeds many years ago and have two trees. I am in Florida and they seem to be growing actively. I have not done anything particular. Back when we had those really tough freezes, one froze to the ground, but came back up. Another time my dear spouse weed wacked it down and it came back just fine. I have terrible soil and have never fertilized.

I had heard the fruit were poisonous??? The birds don't even eat them. I did a quick google check that says the berry is edible but the seeds are poisonous.

Nothing is fruiting now, but when it does, I have lots of seeds. If I remember, I will post in the buy, sell, trade section when seeds are available.

Erica

greenbriar, Smilax, tender growing tips are great. There seems to be many uses for the root, check wikipedia. It grows wild all over the woods in south florida.
Erica

I agree with the first two posts here.
Erica

Driftwood Nursery in Naples used to have quite a selection of mango varieties, but I haven't lived in Naples in years now. They are more likely to be open on the weekend. Pricey.
Erica

I apologize if this information is to be found elsewhere in the forum. I did do a search and did not come up with an answer.

I have six trees: Angie, Maha, Jean Ellen, Keitt, Pickering and a Carrie seedling (now grown.)

My trees are mature, but not stately mature, more like young adult mature, but flowering and fruiting well. Fruit are about 3/4 final size. Should I fertilize the trees now to keep the trees strong while putting on the final fruiting effort? Or perhaps just with K? (My soils are extremely poor, sandy, alkaline and empty of nutrients. In the color test kits, there is no color in any category.)

Thanks,
Erica

I was lucky enough to be in Costa Rica with some free days to do some botanizing and at least three of the locations would be of some interest to the tropical fruit growers and so here goes:

Forum member Peter of Finca la Isla has a phenomenal grove of tropical fruits and is a proponent of permaculture which also interests me. I took a tour with his son, Kiawe, who looks to be assuming the mantle of the next generation of tropical fruit growers. Hurray! If I remember  correctly, Peter bought this property, which was an old cacao plantation, about 25 years ago. The land has a large ridge, a steep slope of secondary forest and a flatter area near the bottom. By leaving the slope with its native vegetation, all the rain that passes through it drips down onto the bottom, bringing with it all the nutrients of the slope. As a result, no fertilizer is needed for the trees at the base of the slope. In comparison, a neighbor spends $8000/year on fertilizer and gets about the same results in terms of production. Although there are cacao trees at the bottom, they are subject to molds. The main cacao orchard is at the top of the ridge, where the breezes keep the fungal infections down, so they do not have to be sprayed. The ground level of the bottom area is left wild and tree falls are left to rot in place. It does not look like an orchard. They have lots of mangosteens which are sold locally. Jakfruit, breadfruit, maracuya…take a look at the website for a complete list. After the tour, I sampled some of the fruit and visited with Peter who was busy making chocolate.


Tasting Table at Finca la Isla


Peter Kling

I went to CATIE which is a tropical fruit research station in Turrialba. Due to a mixup, I ended up at the wrong end of the gardens and walked in from the back. I missed a formal tour, but I walked for hours in the misty rain through acres and acres of cacao trees. They have hundreds of different varieties/species of cacao. Some of them have spectacular flowers.


Cacao flowers


Also cacao flowers of a different species

Pueblo Yorkin is a settlement of indigenous BriBri that is reached by dugout canoe or a two hour walk through the forest. A generation ago, realizing that their men were dying young, poisoned by the pesticides in the banana groves, one woman put her mind to developing another way for her people to work and survive. They now give chocolate tours of their village, culture and chocolate making. I will post information on the chocolate making in the off-topic section, if I can find it.


Grinding dried cacao beans in Yorkin

The overarching theme here is sustainability. Peter has put more than 25 years into developing a sustainable commercial orchards and products. CATIE maintains a living data bank of genetic material. Yorkin BriBri are carving out a sustainable lifestyle for their people, with their three goals: Protect the forest, Protect the people, Protect our culture.

Erica
Venus
9b