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Messages - Solko

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1
Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: Zone Pushing - What to grow in unheated greenhouse in 8a
« on: July 20, 2024, 03:54:05 PM »
In my experience an unheated greenhouse helps a lot. But the way it helps is not easily translated in a few extra degrees. For example,I have two big trees of a type of Strawberry Guava (Psidium Longipetiolatum) here in Rotterdam. I had one inside my unheated greenhouse, and one outside the last winter with a full week of night temperatures of -6, -7 C in December. The minimum temperature at night was almost the same inside the greenhouse as outside. Maybe it was 1 or two degrees warmer inside the greenhouse. But that little extra protection against wind, against radiation and the fact that the air heats up in the daytime as soon as the sun comes out made all the difference. One tree is completely undamaged (the one inside the unheated greenhouse) and the other tree is completely defoliated and died back to the main trunk. It will take 3 to 4 years to grow that one back. So the protection inside the unheated greenhouse in the winter makes a lot of difference, but is difficult to translate in degrees.
Over the last ten years I have tried to grow a lot of subtropical fruits from the Myrtle family like strawberry guava, Uvaia, Ubajay, Pitanga, Cerella, and also citrus and avocado in my small unheated greenhouse and I even made some selections from the most successful experiments that I think are hardy enough to grow in an unheated greenhouse in zone 8 in Western Europe. You can check them out on www.bontegout.com/seeds-shop
Good luck!
Solko

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Online seed stores
« on: July 11, 2024, 06:08:31 PM »
I have seeds of a couple of local Eugenia and Psidium selections I have made in an unheated greenhouse in the Netherlands. They are available only when in season and always fresh. Now I have seeds of five varieties of Pitanga and three varieties of Cereja (E Involucrata). In the coming weeks I will have some seeds of Ubajay (E. Myrcianthes).
You can see what I have in season on: https://www.bontegout.com/seeds-shop
I only ship within the EU.

3
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Plants for sale (Eugenias and Syzygium) - only EU
« on: June 02, 2024, 04:19:11 AM »
Hi Ondrej,

The plants arrived yesterday in perfect condition and very well packed and protected. Thanks a lot, I’m very happy to grow these species!

Kind regards,
Solko

4
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: For sale - Giant pitanga seeds
« on: November 06, 2023, 09:37:19 AM »
Hi Jorge,

I received the seeds today inperfect order, thank you!

Solko

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Hunt for the best Surinam Cherry
« on: May 24, 2021, 02:42:24 PM »
Here are some pictures of my best pitanga, the one I mentioned above here, seeds came from Brazil. It is small but super productive and has no turpentine flavor










And these next pictures are of the 'orange' pitanga that turns out to just turn red as well. It is bigger and more meaty, but it has the turpentine flavor. It has a very different tree habit and is not so productive. It also flowers and fruits a month later than the other one. Not my favorite and very different from the other one.








Next month I'll post some pictures of the plants that fruit for the first time this year, if they are any good.


6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Hunt for the best Surinam Cherry
« on: May 23, 2021, 03:35:19 PM »
Nice thread!

I have a couple of Pitanga's here in Europe that have fruited last year and are all flowering right now. I'll have varieties of five different seed sources to taste test in a month or so. I am in Northern Europe, so I grow these in an unheated greenhouse, where a selection of plants has no trouble handling the -5 Celsius in winter nights.

My best variety is from seeds I bought it from Vitor, a seed collector from Brazil that posted on this forum in 2015 and 2016
The first and second Pitanga I fruited were from these seeds and it was a new fruit to me. After having read everywhere about that strange Diesel or Turpentine flavor I was curious to try, but I couldn't figure out what everyone meant. The first year only one fruited and the cherries were small but delicious. They tasted a bit like Bell peppers to me, but then wiht a more fruity and sweet flavor. The second year the other fruited and it also had that same delicious flavor. Everyone I gave them too loved them, so I was a bit mystified about that aftertaste story.

The last year the first plant from a batch of seed of a supposed orange Pitanga started fruiting, so I tasted one and bingo! -a ll of a sudden I realized what everone meant by Diesel taste.

The plants that are flowering now and I still have to try this year:
 a seedling from Miguel's Regina variety, that he selected in Portugal
 a seedling from a 'mini' Pitanga, also from Vitor from Brazil
 a seedling from Cassio's Black Pitanga, also from Brazil
 a seedling from Casio's Big Red Pitanga, also from Brazil
(I have many pictures but it seems i'm unable to post them here.)

I'll take Brix measurements and measure the fruits as well. My best variety has very small fruits, but they have absolutely not even a hint of turpentine taste - they are rather the size of blueberries then cherries, and any bowl you put on the table finishes quickly. It is super productive, though.

That big leaf variety looks impressive!

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: hybridizing eugenia ????
« on: May 18, 2020, 06:06:24 PM »
I haven’t seen any articles, or know of any attempts. I plan to try a couple of crosses when my plants are mature enough to flower and fruit. I only know if the ‘sweet Uvaia’ a cross between E Pyriformis and E lutescens. I also know that there are over 50 different varieties of Uvaia. And more even of E Uniflora. In any case I wonder how well different species of Eugenia will be able to cross pollinate each other. But I sure am going to give it a try!

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Can anyone Identify this Eugenia ?
« on: March 21, 2020, 03:09:44 AM »
E Candolleana?

9
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Looking to buy Ugni Molinae 'Flambeau' cuttings.
« on: December 07, 2019, 05:33:21 PM »
https://deaflora.de/Shop/Ugni/Ugni-Flambeau--Pflanze-.html?language=de

This is the best seller I know in Europe.

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: winter protection for Feijoas
« on: November 13, 2019, 04:10:29 PM »
Only a few of them are partially self fertile. All benefit from having a second plant as pollinator to get a bigger fruit set - or any fruit set at all. Hukvaldy and Unique are partly self fertile.

11
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Looking for chilean guava plants- EU only
« on: October 03, 2019, 10:10:28 AM »
I have Ugni seeds available now. Both U Molinae and U Myricoides

12
Temperate Fruit Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: Seeeds of Wild Growing Ussurian Peach
« on: October 03, 2019, 10:08:32 AM »
PM sent  :)

13
Temperate Fruit Buy, Sell, & Trade / Re: Camellia sinensis (tea plant wanted)
« on: October 03, 2019, 10:02:23 AM »
Best place I know of: https://camforest.com/collections/tea-camellias (in the US)

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is this Eugenia pyriformis?
« on: September 12, 2019, 02:13:07 AM »
Yes, it looks like Uvaia. They can have a very varied appearance and leaf size, even on the same plant, depending on growing conditions and age.

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best places for fruit hunting in S France
« on: August 25, 2019, 05:28:18 AM »
And if you are going all the way to the most western part of Bretagne, you can try to find the most northern avocado tree of France, in the center of the small town of Plouider.

https://www.letelegramme.fr/local/finistere-nord/brest/lesneven/plouider/culture-francoise-deniaux-regarde-pousser-ses-avocats-14-07-2011-1370099.php

(Link thanks to Benoit - from his blog)

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best places for fruit hunting in S France
« on: August 25, 2019, 05:17:51 AM »
I am just on my way back from a ‘tour de France’ and here I have some leads that I had noted down. I myself haven’t been able to visit any of them due to lack of time on this family holiday.

I did find Avocado trees on the Mediterranean coast, Feijoa and loquat all through France, and large collections of citrus and apples in all the different chateaus....

Here are my notes:

An older website with partially accurate information (some nurseries don’t exist anymore)
http://www.fruitiers-rares.info/articles-A123a128/article124-pepinieres-fruitiers-rares-France.html

And this nursery looks pretty interesting, but they are on holiday til September.
https://www.sebtan.fr/

The INRA has a large apple collection near Angers and near Bordeaux, but I can’t seem to find the info on how to visit them.
https://www.pommiers.com/verger-conservatoire/conservatoire-

Hope that helps!

Bon voyage!

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: aguaricará, sete capotes, campomanesia guazumifolia
« on: July 11, 2019, 06:04:48 PM »
I’ve kept the small pots with the seeds inside this winter - it gets to -4 Celsius in my I heated greenhouse. And then I moved them to the greenhouse in April to get still some cold nights and to warm up with the other plants. Kept them watered and never let them dry out entirely. But no movement yet. Nothing more than the three seedlings that germinated last summer so far. If some new ones sprout I’ll let you know.
Maybe I should have kept them in the fridge for two months this winter?
Who knows. Still very happy to grow this plant!

Solko

18
Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: My small fruit tree orchard
« on: June 15, 2019, 05:00:37 PM »
Beautiful, Luis! It looks like you are going to have plenty of fruits this year. Any special ones that you are excited about and that you haven’t tasted before?
It looks like your garden is going to be a place of plenty in the coming years! Beautiful!

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Strawberry guava first flower
« on: May 20, 2019, 01:53:22 PM »
You can dust it lightly with a brush with it’s own pollen. They are usually self fertile. The pistil is quite fragile though, so some caution and a delicate touch is adviced.

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: New Zealand Feijoa varieties (pineapple guava)
« on: May 18, 2019, 02:36:56 PM »
That is pretty impressive. I’ll send you a pm with some seeds I can exchange with you. I’d love to try growing out some seeds of these new varieties in our climate.

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lemon Guava Leaf Spot
« on: May 18, 2019, 02:34:34 PM »
I’m no expert, but to me that looks a bit more like cold damage or a fertilizing imbalance. My strawberry guava’s get leaf spots in cold weather and seem to have problems taking up nutrients and nitrogen in the cold ground, no matter what I feed them. The moment the weather warms up and with some rainwater they usually turn healthy green again.

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: New Zealand Feijoa varieties (pineapple guava)
« on: May 12, 2019, 05:14:01 AM »
These new selections look very interesting, Nick. How large is the ripening window between early and late varieties in your experience? The earliest variety we have here in Europe is Nikita and since I am quite far north in Europe and we have a short summer season, I am always on the lookout for new really early varieties that might be able to ripen well in our climate. Is it also difficult to receive and send seeds abroad? Otherwise I would be interested in trading seeds.
Thanks for posting and good growing!

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interesting Story about these two cold hardy avocados.
« on: May 10, 2019, 05:42:27 PM »
Very nice work indeed! I'm trying to do the same thing inside a greenhouse in Europe. They are hard to come by, but the Mexican cold hardy varieties are so much more tolerant of our cold and wet winters here, that anyhting else dies, while the Mexicola seeds don't even have one single leaf that burns in some years. I know anyone can think of such a thing, but in practice it takes a lot of planning and searching for specific seeds and cultivars to get a tree going like yours. That is pretty amazing. The seeds of your avocadoes will probably give some interesting new trees as well. Good luck!

24
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Selling: sete capotes, rare Psidiums, E. repanda, Chañar,Guabiju, Jaboticaba
« on: March 15, 2019, 01:01:24 PM »
Same for me regarding E Candolleana. I had around eight seedlings, all but one died over the years in autumn and in very mild frosts, before I moved the rest of my Eugenia’s into a more protected place for the winter. In my experience they are not frost hardy. The last plant I have I now take inside for the winter long before it even gets close to frost.

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: psidium to ID
« on: February 20, 2019, 04:36:46 AM »
Mine flowered this fall, just before I had to bring it in for winter. So in the end it didn’t set any fruit with the winter coming. Maybe next year... The plant is doing very well and has the characteristics of P Salutare - a big fleshy root in which it stores water and thin floppy branches with big guava like leaves that crawl around rather than grow upward. It is pretty easy, takes full sun and can handle drought pretty well. I only had a couple of seeds germinate out of 40 seeds. I think the seeds may need cold stratification or have some other mechanism that prevents quick germination. You may want to make two batches and put one in the fridge for two months. Since I have just one plant left I haven’t tested it’s cold hardiness. I want it to fruit first.
Good luck!

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