The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: 850FL on February 17, 2022, 09:46:46 AM

Quote from: johnb51 on February 16, 2022, 10:02:05 PM

Florida (and California) forum members, plant more avocado trees!  Everybody should have their own trees.

Hardly been worth my effort. Boring bugs, fungus and freezes take out too many in Fl.

You can't rip one root on transplant.

Sorry to hear that, but I still think everybody should give it a shot.  Even though I've been buying Mexican avocados, they're usually crap and the criminal cartels...not good.

F1 hybrids are usually still quite uniform (if the parents are not already hybrids), F2 are then very broadly spread in their characteristics.

Obtaining sweet fruits I think, is more about "less sour" genetics than "higher sugar level "genetics. It seems sourless is often recessive inherited and needs therefor backcrossing

Quote from: 850FL on July 14, 2021, 03:14:31 PM

Quote from: W. on July 11, 2021, 02:35:42 PM

Quote from: bsbullie on July 10, 2021, 09:44:54 PM

Quote from: W. on July 10, 2021, 08:35:20 PM

It looks like freeze drying jaboticaba pulp would be an arduous, time-consuming process. I think getting $30-40 per jar would probably be the only way it would pay off for the time and effort expended. That being said, Adam's freeze dried Pitangatuba looks like it was relatively easy to make. Freeze dried Pitangatuba could be something that ends up in grocery stores (or at least specialty groceries) in the future.

Pitangatuba, in any format, will not be in any store.  Outside of collectors, its not widely known.  Its not a feasible cash crop and too delicate to transport for selling whole or to a processing plant.

With that being said,  both of Adam's freeze dried fruit look delish and worth the money they are fetching.

I think that is an ignorant, narrow-minded statement. At one time, most of the fruit that we all enjoy on this forum was not widely known in the US, outside of collectors. Go ask someone living in the US (outside of Florida) a century ago, "What is a mango?" Go ask someone living in the US fifty years ago, "What is a kiwi?" Go ask someone twenty years ago, "What is a jackfruit," or "what is a mamey sapote," or "what is a rambutan" or about any number of tropical fruits that can now be found in supermarkets throughout the US today?

Pitangatuba has an interesting flavor. It has an interesting shape. Adam Shafran's name for it, starcherry, has a nice ring to it. It is probably too delicate and perishable for fresh fruit sales, though grapes and most berries are not exactly robust fruits. But, freeze drying and other processing methods could open up new possibilities for making Pitangatuba a viable agricultural crop and a presence in groceries stories across the US. Right now, 99.9% of Americans have never heard of Pitangatuba. In ten or twenty years, that could change with the presence of bags of dried starcherries next to dried cranberries and trail mix in grocery stories from coast to coast.

He's probably actually right but I will say there is still always room for improvement within any species. And there are many other factors involved to whether a fruit makes it commercially or becomes commonplace in any aspect.

And most Americans probably don't eat very much of what should be considered healthy food in the first place. And the price of the product would probably be high, so even less consumers.. and so on..

I agree that most Americans eat quite poorly. However, even if, say 75% of all Americans eat completely unhealthy garbage and nothing else (an exaggeration, to be fair), that would still leave 80 million Americans who do eat healthy foods such as fruit. That is a good-sized customer base with which to try and build an interest in Pitangatubas. Not that one would try and instantly create a national market for Pitangatubas. But, I think local interest could be drummed up in South Florida, Southern California, New York City, and maybe a couple of other places where there are large numbers of people with adventurous palates and disposable income. If those test markets become successful, then after a few years expand to a few more places. If successful, keep expanding. If not, stop. I am not saying Pitangatubas will replace apples in the produce section, but I think they could have potential as a specialty fruit or dried fruit product.