Jaboticaba - Wet Feet Myth?

[The Herb Swamp]

So I’ve noticed that Jabos don’t like wet feet as much as I thought or heard. Especially the Yellow, Grimal and Campo Ramon. The Sabara, Red and Scarlett do very well but maybe someone can shed more light on this. My Grimal looks so bad from the recent rains so I’m super confused.

[Aiptasia904]

I think it depends on where they were found in nature in Brazil. So far I have Sabara and a few varieties of red (Esalq, etc.). They seem to like part sun and moderate watering every two to three days. I've been studying a few different techniques for propagation by cuttings and the two or three successful techniques I've seen so far involves very moist acidic soil, warm conditions and a lot of patience.

[Jaboticaba45]

This has been tested by others here
And sabara took 3 months in standing water fine before it declined
But it’s best to have frequent watering but we’ll drained soils

[The Herb Swamp]

Hmm. Definitely noticed that with Sabara, they take it like a champ. My yellow Jabo is particularly sensitive to overwatering or excessive rain though. I lost one already and the other is looking pretty rough. I’ll have to scout out a dryer spot.

[Aaron]

I planted a sabara on the edge of a retention pond it died.

[Seanny]

I added saucers to 2 trees.
I removed them a week later.
Both trees have salt burn on new leaves.

[The Herb Swamp]

I knew I wasn’t crazy. Wow, this myth has to go.

Sure, they can handle a fair amount of water but the recommendation to keep them in saucers, or heavily wet (especially in peat) doesn’t seem like a good one. They are pretty much like all other fruit trees, which don’t like wet feet. They may be alive a bit longer but they are definitely suffering and eventually deteriorate in my opinion. Even my Sabara slows down in growth after too much rain.

[NateTheGreat]

Most of mine improved with saucers. Yellow in particular seems to love water. I do let the saucers dry out between waterings.

[The Herb Swamp]

Maybe this only applies to humid areas. Not really sure.

How old is your yellow?

[sumognat]

I planted a 3 gallon Sabara in my yard, in a low lying area that regularly floods during summer rains. It’s been in 1-2’ standing water for at least a week during a freak rainfall/flooding event in my town and it thrived. It always looked healthy and beautiful (for years) before my SO accidentally killed it with weed killer. 🤬

I also have a Grimal I planted nearby (been in the ground a few years now, was a 15g tree) that can be underwater during the summer rains, but it sits a little higher so it’s not in as much standing water.  The Grimal is thriving.

I have a thin layer of muck soil over limestone.  They were never watered unless it rained. But that area of my yard is typically damp/wet for most of the year. 🤷‍♀️

[Rex Begonias]

Mine sit inside small pond shells.  Can fit 3 3gal trees per pond shell and I keep them sitting in rain water pretty much the entire year, only allowing them to dry out occasionally. 

They seem to like this as far as I can tell. 

Red, grimal, esalq, & restinga

[W.]

I remember Adam Shafran talking about this in some of his videos. He said that jaboticabas like to be kept wet, especially when fruiting, and especially his Grimals. But, they cannot be kept wet indefinitely, or they will get root rot. I have never heard anyone recommending keeping them waterlogged continuously. The only jaboticaba that might be able to handle that is the blue jaboticaba; I believe there is a grower here on the forum who has some growing just fine next to a canal. Even that may be misleading, though, if those blue jabos are on the bank a few feet above the canal's water level, then the entire root system is not continuously waterlogged; it just has feeder roots going down to access water in the canal.

[The Herb Swamp]

It seems like there is a 50/50 split on this but thanks for the insight everyone. I watch all of Adams videos but I am still confused on this topic because, with my own eyes, I see some of my Jabos looking like trash with wet feet. But, people here and on some of Adams videos, show the opposite. I had to switch my yellow to a cactus mix before it started to perk up a bit. I think there’s more to this.

Can someone get Adam in here lol. He might know exactly what I mean with the Yellow and Grimal. There was one video where I heard him briefly mention it about the Grimal but the interviewer was distracting him with all types of other questions so no additional info.

[pineislander]

In ground established trees during a flood would be very different from in a container especially as they get older with well established root system. There may be no comparison.

[achetadomestica]

I have had many jabos that seem to be thriving dry up and die.
I believe it has to do with the soil becoming anaerobic. So even though the soil
is wet the tree cannot absorb water. I was reading some material and it said
by adding green compost to your soil it will keep the soil in balance.
In one of Adam's videos he mentions repotting jabos yearly and this also
could help keep the soil in balance. By keeping soil wet all the time it
makes the soil become anaerobic. Jabos love water in the right soil.

[The Herb Swamp]

I have had many jabos that seem to be thriving dry up and die.
I believe it has to do with the soil becoming anaerobic. So even though the soil
is wet the tree cannot absorb water. I was reading some material and it said
by adding green compost to your soil it will keep the soil in balance.
In one of Adam's videos he mentions repotting jabos yearly and this also
could help keep the soil in balance. By keeping soil wet all the time it
makes the soil become anaerobic. Jabos love water in the right soil.

I think you nailed it with this one. What are your thoughts on correcting this, short term, with hydrogen peroxide (diluted of course)? In addition to the green compost.

[The Herb Swamp]

In ground established trees during a flood would be very different from in a container especially as they get older with well established root system. There may be no comparison.

I think you have a point here. In ground trees are more balanced and established. Troubleshooting container plants can be so difficult.

[Aiptasia904]

Mine seem to prefer rain water and well draining potting soil with a decent amount of organics in it. During our drought earlier this summer, I had to give them city water because we didn't have enough rain water sequestered in my newly set up IBC tote cistern. They all survived, but since the rains have been a little more consistent the plants have taken off with new growth. We're averaging about twenty minutes of light to moderate rains with the summer steam storms right now. So much so that I'm going to have to re-pot a few of them or figure out how to bonsai them and do some root trimming which I've never done before.

[Bush2Beach]

I give my 15 gallon Vexators less water than any other Jabo, and that is what I have figured out keeps them alive for me , but also growing in the summer months and looking good.

Alot of the confusion in jabo tips and tricks comes from 9b Florida and 9b California being completely different but labeled the same.
One is humid, one generally arid. The low temperatures recovery in Florida is generally much faster.
The daily temperature swing is often much greater in California , it can swing 40-50 degree’s in 24 hours, that can be alot for some subtropicals and tropicals.
I love growing Jabo’s in Airpots because they dry out faster and grow faster.
If I was in FL that technique would not work.
Even inland CA in some of the hotter area’s the airpots dry out too fast and growers I talked to do not like them but for me the results are what they are and I like my Jabo’a to grow as swiftly as possible , pushing growth through as much of the year as I can.
Jabo’s have taught me alot .

I remember Adam Shafran talking about this in some of his videos. He said that jaboticabas like to be kept wet, especially when fruiting, and especially his Grimals. But, they cannot be kept wet indefinitely, or they will get root rot. I have never heard anyone recommending keeping them waterlogged continuously. The only jaboticaba that might be able to handle that is the blue jaboticaba; I believe there is a grower here on the forum who has some growing just fine next to a canal. Even that may be misleading, though, if those blue jabos are on the bank a few feet above the canal's water level, then the entire root system is not continuously waterlogged; it just has feeder roots going down to access water in the canal.

[The Herb Swamp]

I give my 15 gallon Vexators less water than any other Jabo, and that is what I have figured out keeps them alive for me , but also growing in the summer months and looking good.

Alot of the confusion in jabo tips and tricks comes from 9b Florida and 9b California being completely different but labeled the same.
One is humid, one generally arid. The low temperatures recovery in Florida is generally much faster.
The daily temperature swing is often much greater in California , it can swing 40-50 degree’s in 24 hours, that can be alot for some subtropicals and tropicals.
I love growing Jabo’s in Airpots because they dry out faster and grow faster.
If I was in FL that technique would not work.
Even inland CA in some of the hotter area’s the airpots dry out too fast and growers I talked to do not like them but for me the results are what they are and I like my Jabo’a to grow as swiftly as possible , pushing growth through as much of the year as I can.
Jabo’s have taught me alot .

I remember Adam Shafran talking about this in some of his videos. He said that jaboticabas like to be kept wet, especially when fruiting, and especially his Grimals. But, they cannot be kept wet indefinitely, or they will get root rot. I have never heard anyone recommending keeping them waterlogged continuously. The only jaboticaba that might be able to handle that is the blue jaboticaba; I believe there is a grower here on the forum who has some growing just fine next to a canal. Even that may be misleading, though, if those blue jabos are on the bank a few feet above the canal's water level, then the entire root system is not continuously waterlogged; it just has feeder roots going down to access water in the canal.

I’m really finding this to be true. Less moisture is also working out for my Jabos in Florida. The humidity itself is enough so slow down evaporation.

I guess it takes time to get the hang of growing these, especially with the limited availability of info.

[ericalynne]

I have had many jabos that seem to be thriving dry up and die.
I believe it has to do with the soil becoming anaerobic. So even though the soil
is wet the tree cannot absorb water. I was reading some material and it said
by adding green compost to your soil it will keep the soil in balance.
In one of Adam's videos he mentions repotting jabos yearly and this also
could help keep the soil in balance. By keeping soil wet all the time it
makes the soil become anaerobic. Jabos love water in the right soil.

I remember being told by some expert - too long ago to remember who - that Jabos take a lot of water and flooding in the Amazon but it is moving water, ie fully oxygenated. So I think you may be correct about keeping the soil aerobic.

[The Herb Swamp]

Decided to come back with an update since I started a little experiment a few months ago, before this post…

I replanted one of my yellow jabos in a much more aerated soil medium (pretty much sand, a small amount of peat moss and lots of bark with no perlite) while keeping up with watering with distilled and spring water and it had a full recovery. The other was in perlite and peat moss only and it did horribly (I’ve had bad results with excessive perlite/peat in the past as well).

I pulled both of them up to confirm that the one in perlite/peat moss was brown and rotted on a lot of parts while the other was completely white and healthy. Oxygen and drainage is definitely the key, and overwatering doesn’t really seem to be it! Hopefully this helps someone because these trees are not cheap lol

Side note: I gave the yellow jabo in the bark mix a very small amount of organic fertilizer in case all of the extra bark was taking up any nitrogen in that mix, so I decided to give it to the other to keep the experiment even.

[Jaboticaba45]

Decided to come back with an update since I started a little experiment a few months ago, before this post…

I replanted one of my yellow jabos in a much more aerated soil medium (pretty much sand, a small amount of peat moss and lots of bark with no perlite) while keeping up with watering with distilled and spring water and it had a full recovery. The other was in perlite and peat moss only and it did horribly (I’ve had bad results with excessive perlite/peat in the past as well).

I pulled both of them up to confirm that the one in perlite/peat moss was brown and rotted on a lot of parts while the other was completely white and healthy. Oxygen and drainage is definitely the key, and overwatering doesn’t really seem to be it! Hopefully this helps someone because these trees are not cheap lol

Side note: I gave the yellow jabo in the bark mix a very small amount of organic fertilizer in case all of the extra bark was taking up any nitrogen in that mix, so I decided to give it to the other to keep the experiment even.

Nice write up. I do belive that there is a difference between myrciarias and plinas regarding flooding/wet feet. While peat perlite is good and cheap and works well for nurseries, I don't like it for my personal collection.
I tend to like to add other additives like topsoil and sand to keep it well balanced and aerated.

[hammer524]

Hey I just wanted to thank you Bush2Beach for your write up for airpots. After your post I decided to buy some for my jabos and what a huge improvement it has been. For the past couple of summers i always seemed to overwater my plants even my jabos. We had a few highs of 108, 109 here during September so I feel more confident in growing out jabos. Really shocking improvement. I also credit using the media mix of 2 parts Roots Organic Soil 707 formula and 1 part peatmoss. Even though the super-roots air pots are expensive I think it gives me the best shot at growing out these topicals in my environment.

I give my 15 gallon Vexators less water than any other Jabo, and that is what I have figured out keeps them alive for me , but also growing in the summer months and looking good.

Alot of the confusion in jabo tips and tricks comes from 9b Florida and 9b California being completely different but labeled the same.
One is humid, one generally arid. The low temperatures recovery in Florida is generally much faster.
The daily temperature swing is often much greater in California , it can swing 40-50 degree’s in 24 hours, that can be alot for some subtropicals and tropicals.
I love growing Jabo’s in Airpots because they dry out faster and grow faster.
If I was in FL that technique would not work.
Even inland CA in some of the hotter area’s the airpots dry out too fast and growers I talked to do not like them but for me the results are what they are and I like my Jabo’a to grow as swiftly as possible , pushing growth through as much of the year as I can.
Jabo’s have taught me alot .

I remember Adam Shafran talking about this in some of his videos. He said that jaboticabas like to be kept wet, especially when fruiting, and especially his Grimals. But, they cannot be kept wet indefinitely, or they will get root rot. I have never heard anyone recommending keeping them waterlogged continuously. The only jaboticaba that might be able to handle that is the blue jaboticaba; I believe there is a grower here on the forum who has some growing just fine next to a canal. Even that may be misleading, though, if those blue jabos are on the bank a few feet above the canal's water level, then the entire root system is not continuously waterlogged; it just has feeder roots going down to access water in the canal.

[Bush2Beach]

I am glad it helped with your Jabo’s!
That roots organics 707 is the nicest bagged soil I have worked with.
I forgot about the stuff because i get yards from the aggregate store but yes, love that stuff.