The Tropical Fruit Forum

So, I grew two kinds of Physalis this year: New Hannover Ground Cherry (Physalis pruinosa) from Baker Creek and Ayacucho Giant Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) from Trade Winds. The ground cherry I planted in November and the Cape Gooseberry I planted in January. I can see why they are different species because the plants are totally different. The ground cherry grows low to the ground (~12") and likes cool but not freezing temps. The Cape Gooseberry has leaves that are almost 10 times the size of the ground cherry and makes a bush 4-5' tall! Both were less trouble to grow than most tomatoes (Everglades being the exception) with the Cape Gooseberry being the easier of the two in Florida conditions. Berries on the New Hannover run from 1/4" - 5/8" with the average being slightly less than 1/2". Berries on the Cape Gooseberry run from 5/8" to over an 1". I have not picked as many yet, but the average seems to be between 3/4" and 7/8." This may not sound like much but it makes a huge difference in how long it takes to fill a bucket. For flavor I like the Cape Gooseberry better. They have a fruity, perfumy, sweet and sour taste that is hard to describe. The New Hanover (a taste test winner apparently) had more of a 1 dimensional flavor to me. It was good, but you had to eat half a dozen to get the full flavor because of the small size. Plus, it had the bad habbit of dropping fruit before it was fully ripe and unlike a tomato they will not ripen off the bush unless they have already started the color break on the plant--very frustrating. Based on this one season I think the Cape Gooseberry (called Poha) in Hawaii is a better choice for most Florida gardens--bigger fruit, stonger flavor, and tougher plant. The ground cherry excells in two areas, though. It is much easier to cover in the frost (just throw a blanket over the top) and it is not smashed by high winds (staking or caging may have helped with that on the Cape Gooseberry). I think I will continue to grow both--at least for a couple seasons.

Please let me know your thoughts on this or experiences with other Physalis.

I was reading Baker Creek's seed catalogue and it says that the ripe aril on their Jyunpaku bitter melon from Okinowa is sweet and tastes like cherry candy. Can anyone verify if this is true and if there is enough flesh to bother with? If it is, I may have to grow some just to try it. Note: for anyone who does not know, the aril is edible but the seeds are poisonous.

A recent thread got me thinking that we need a place to exchange constructive advice about how to best ship/recieve the rare planting material or products that we value as a part of this group. Hopefully, those of you who have lots of experience with this will comment so that others can learn from your experience.

Texas Mark posted a while back about how his Sugar Dragon survived some pretty extreme cold when his green house lost power. That got me thinking that there might be some clones with more cold tollerence than most people realize. I was hoping everyone could chime in on what varieties they are growing and what temperature they have survived without getting damaged. My Delight got toasted pretty good in the mid 20s here. I am especially interested in information on any of the forms of Paul Thimpson's S8 (Sugar Dragon/Voodoo Child) and Houghton (its parent) if you have them. Thanks for your help!

So, I was out in the yard today and noticed that an okrung mango seedling has some bloom just starting. I pruned it back hard around the beginning of April because of cold damage (I didn't have time to freeze protect the tree because of everything else I had going on). I have always thought that somewhere around the middle of April was the latest opportunity for mango bloom here, but I guess I was wrong. 

Looking for budwood of any low chill plums that might do well in central Florida (250 chill hours or less). I am especially interested in the Gulf series plums (Gulf Gold, Gulf Ruby, Gulf Blaze, and Gulf Beauty) since I have grown them in the past successfully but would be interested in others as well. Already have Scarlet Beauty, a chickisaw plum with decent sized fruit that had been a rootstock (Sharpe?), and am trying Guthrie.

I was doing some reading and came accross this article from an Isreli study. To sumarize, Sugar Apple scions grafted to Cherimoya rootstock in this study were almost twice as productive as those grafted to Sugar Apple roots and far more productive than Cherimoya grafted to Cherimoya roots. In addition, the cross grafted trees had larger trunk diameters, heavier fruits, and a higher proportion of edible pulp.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333247923_Effect_of_grafting_of_sugar_apple_A_squamosa_scion_on_the_cherimoya_A_cherimola_rootstock_on_annona_fruit_production_under_the_climatic_conditions_of_South_Lebanon&ved=2ahUKEwjrhtzgqMbzAhVKQjABHTGBDN0QFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0PEzfg3OVPVNN3N8PP2rXL&cshid=1634092662493

We discovered by accident the other day that if you eat Cranberry Hibiscus (Hibiscus Acetocella) leaf after a miracle fruit it tastes amazing! It is almost like eating a sald with a sweet/sour vinaigrette dressing built into the leaves. I did not realize that the leaves had a sweet component to them until eating them after miracle fruit!

This post is about grafting Dragonfruit onto other cactus species and the benefits that this may provide. Even though Cacti have remarkable variation in appearence, they tend to have a high degree of graft compatibility within the family. I am wondering how we as fruit growers can use this to our advantage.

For example, maybe crest grafting to sturdy columnar cacti could create a permanent/inexpensive trellis that grew with the vine and never rotted? Or possibly some of the more drought tollerent species can be used as rootstocks in arid locations (such as Stenocerus pruinosus)? We might even find rootstocks that improve fruit size or quality.

I have successfully grafted dragonfruit to peruvian apple cactus (what species that is I will leave to the experts). I also have another graft on an unidentified semi-columnar cactus that is doing well. Opuntia (as suggested elsewhere on this forum) did not work for me, but that may just have been poor technique.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Merry Christmas to all of you! It is nice to have a reason to celebrate after such a crazy year. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!