Pouteria lucuma

[elcerritotom]

How was the taste of Pecan Pie? I'm going to be grafting Inca Gold from one of the original trees here.

.....Do they require hand pollination?

If you're asking me about the taste of Pecan Pie, I can't say.  I've got Pecan Pie fruitset after topworking, but none has ripened.  I have eaten Inca Gold in the past, and I was not particularly impressed with it, especially given its reputation.  I'd guess I've only eaten a dozen or so clonally different selections total, so I'm not going to be as good a judge as others with more experience.  But people I trust have told me that Pecan Pie is significantly better in fruit quality than other clones in California. 
As to hand pollination, two trees I have that I grafted and are probably close to 30 years old, which have flowered for decades, never fruited for me, despite hand squeezing individual flowers (which some have found is a good hand pollination for this family).  But they were fruitful without hand pollination in southern California, and my hand pollination did nothing in my climate.  My climate is quite cool year round, with fog moderated temps.  Very little total heat accumulation although also temps below freezing are becoming increasingly rare over time.  I have always assumed that my lack of lucuma productivity has been a climate-related thing.  As I was grafting green sapote scions onto one of the lucumas last night, I saw that the non-Pecan Pie actually has a fruit set for the first time in 30 years.  This happened after grafting Pecan Pie onto the tree.  Anyway, I don't think I can answer either of your questions, but that's my experience.

[elcerritotom]

Hey Tom, good to see you posting here! I've wondered about same question Lucuma onto Green Sapote except my green sapote grows much slower than my Lucuma's. I should try G.S. on Lucuma because that is possible for me!
[/quote]

Hi Scott
hope all is well with you.  Definitely try green sapote onto lucuma.  Seems like there's no downside to trying it.  There is one report I found of that working for someone in New Zealand, although I couldn't get an answer for whether it was compatible in the long run.  Sounds to me like the green sapote selections to try are Makawao and Poahomo.  I just have done that, so may have an answer in the future how that works out.

As a sidenote, I can conclusively say now that L4 macadamia is vastly more productive in my climate than Beaumont.  Can't yet say about Old Lady Babcock or Nipomo Select or others from Jack, but fruitset on L4 is amazing compared to the paucity of set on Beaumont.  Come visit when you're up this way. Cheers!

[ScottR]

Tom, did you experience some sap/latex flow when grafting green sapote onto lucuma? How did you deal with it? I have used water in spray bottle to wash away latex before wrapping scions on lucuma with measured success. Thanks for tip on G.S. varieties! Glad to hear you've got a fruit set on Lucuma, it's a thing that I have witnessed before on macadamia seedling and persimmon trees after grafting them the mother tree starts bearing fruit the new grafts must induce flowering in mother tree some how?
Glad to here L-4 is being itself for you it's my best variety by far!

[elcerritotom]

Tom, did you experience some sap/latex flow when grafting green sapote onto lucuma? How did you deal with it? I have used water in spray bottle to wash away latex before wrapping scions on lucuma with measured success.

Hi Scott
For grafting Sapotaceae or Moraceae, or anything with milky latex, I make a series of upright cuts  below the graft site.  I do that prior to cutting the stock and scion.  Envision a series of upward slanting cuts arranged all around the rootstock stem, which will bleed sap and thus stop it from gumming up the graft union site.  Stagger the cuts vertically, so you don't have a weakened area of the stock stem.  Standard tricks to prep the scionwood in advance (like girdling, or pre-plumping buds by snipping leaves off) are always helpful, especially for things that are harder.  Try it... you'll like the results.  Cheers
 

[Jack, Nipomo]

Tom, glad to see you appreciate the L-4 macadamia, so do the tree rats around here.  Beaumont is a pretty tree here, but not very productive.  As to Lucuma, my Silber lucuma (Dave Silber) is a beast producing plenty of fruit.  Kinda between wet and dry.  Nice color and flavor. Jack

[nattyfroootz]

I just grafted up 26 Pecan Pie Lucuma, Some of the Hawaii Research Station genetics as well as a moist type from Kaz.  I just clipped and cleft grafted on everything and got really pretty good take rates. maybe 26/33 pecan pie have taken, I lost all the HRS ones (maybe too old?) and waiting to see results from the Kaz scion.  Seems pretty not-finicky in terms of grafting, had a friend help out who had never done it and she had really good take rates. I was pleasanatly surprised

[ScottR]

Tom, did you experience some sap/latex flow when grafting green sapote onto lucuma? How did you deal with it? I have used water in spray bottle to wash away latex before wrapping scions on lucuma with measured success.

Hi Scott
For grafting Sapotaceae or Moraceae, or anything with milky latex, I make a series of upright cuts  below the graft site.  I do that prior to cutting the stock and scion.  Envision a series of upward slanting cuts arranged all around the rootstock stem, which will bleed sap and thus stop it from gumming up the graft union site.  Stagger the cuts vertically, so you don't have a weakened area of the stock stem.  Standard tricks to prep the scionwood in advance (like girdling, or pre-plumping buds by snipping leaves off) are always helpful, especially for things that are harder.  Try it... you'll like the results.  Cheers

Thanks for tip Tom, I have done that technique on Walnut grafts but not on any pouteria grafts. The preping I had Jack, do last year on his Lucuma and have good maybe 75% takes on those grafts it really helps.

[ScottR]

I just grafted up 26 Pecan Pie Lucuma, Some of the Hawaii Research Station genetics as well as a moist type from Kaz.  I just clipped and cleft grafted on everything and got really pretty good take rates. maybe 26/33 pecan pie have taken, I lost all the HRS ones (maybe too old?) and waiting to see results from the Kaz scion.  Seems pretty not-finicky in terms of grafting, had a friend help out who had never done it and she had really good take rates. I was pleasanatly surprised

Glad to hear you getting Lucuma grafts down Nate, sounds like you building up nice collection of Lucuma, I'm still waiting on another fruit to ripen on seedling moist type that I gave Kevin, first fruit but was off !

[sc4001992]

Robert, where did you find your Inca Gold variety? Is it from Alfredo?

[ScottR]

I bought it many years ago at a CRFG conference in Orange County or Pomona or Riverside? I assume that but can't confirm it!

[K-Rimes]

Checking back in on the SB lucuma duo. Both trees are flowering, one is loaded. The other had a big spring crop. It may be that there is an early bearing and late bearing one. They said they’d give me a call in November when they are ripe

[CA Hockey]

For grafting, you can milk the latex by cutting above where you plan to graft, wait 1 or 2 minutes for it to seep, then make the actual cut you want below that area. That way you haven't made any interrupting cuts in areas of viable wood between your graft and the roots, the cut you did make was removed above your graft or is out of the way, and you allowed the latex to drain. Just be aware that it can ooze down and around the place where you plan to graft so if the branch is horizontal it may just drip onto the ground, but if the branch is upright then the ooze muddy your planned graft site (you can still clean it up).


I have a pecan pie but it seems to be struggling. I have another type from Isabel in OC. Her mother tree is large and very productive and tasty and sets fruit easily. I think it is intermediate between moist and dry. I did a few side grafts from cuttings I got from kaz and the did well.

[sc4001992]

Kevin, those fruits look good, much larger than the ones I see at the arboretum tree (old 30yr tree in CSUF). But the arboretum tree is one of the few in CA that I heard is the "lucuma de seda"

[ScottR]

Checking back in on the SB lucuma duo. Both trees are flowering, one is loaded. The other had a big spring crop. It may be that there is an early bearing and late bearing one. They said they’d give me a call in November when they are ripe

Nice looking fruit Kevin, await taste results!

[K-Rimes]

I've had fruit off the other tree already, reasonable flavor and sweetness, just dry. I would struggle to eat these out of hand. The family says they process into ice cream and smoothies mostly. I will report back when they are ready. I may offer some scion material in the Spring if folks are interested.

[plecosword]

Where is SB are these roughly? I would love to see them in person!

Visited the two large lucuma trees in SB and one was fruiting heavy, with good development. The other tree of the two, which is about 50% bigger than the other, is just about to flower.





Other tree about to flower

[sc4001992]

Update on Dan's large lucuma tree for those of you that purchased some scions earlier from me. His tree is very large, over 20ft tall, had some fruits this year but too high to pick so he waited for a fruit to fall down.

He gave me a fruit last week before my iHeart Radio concert (pretty good) and when I got back on Sunday the fruit was starting to feel soft so I cut it open and tasted it. Dan's fruit is the lucuma de seda similar to the one at the Arboretum I posted about before. But the flesh color on his fruit seemed to be lighter color than the arboretum fruits. I'll try to find my old photos I took and compare them side by side with the photos I took the other night.

Overall the fruit from Dan's tree was larger than the one at CSUF/arboretum. You can go to the arboretum to see the large tree, its about 30yrs old I'm told.

The taste of the fruit was very close, but Dan's had a thicker flesh, like the sweet potato but denser, very good tasting, and a little smokey taste. It is very good so either of the two lucuma is good. I will just graft my seedlings with Dan's since I can get scions from his tree.

I will be going over to Dan's place this week to get some scions to sell for him. I'll update my post when I have the scions for sale.

But when I compare the taste of these lucuma fruits to Mike's canistel (Roger's PR) or to Brian's Bruce canistel, the taste of canistel is better to me and there is more flesh to eat. So the canistel seems to have better fruit production, more consistent fruit production, and it doesn't take 5-7 years after you graft it or plant a new tree air layered tree to get fruits. My suggestion is to graft canistel of either these delicious canistels since it will give you many more fruits to eat and sooner.

After saying canistel is better to eat, since I purchased many seedling lucuma's and an air layered lucumas ($250), I will still graft one of each type on my trees just to have it. Also Mr. Edgar Valdivia has a very large hybrid lucuma tree that is a cross of canistel and lucuma, so I'll probably graft that as well.

[mygc]

Hi, I'm after lucuma seeds or plants from Australia (I am located in Australia) (I'm also after seeds from elsewhere in the world if they can be supplied with a phytosanitary certificate). Please PM me if you have any for sale.