The Tropical Fruit Forum

Time will tell but am hearing reports that pond apple as the rootstock for cherilata isn't as good as reticulata rootstock. Flavor and coloring have been affected negatively compared to when grafted onto reticulata.

I think that getting a decent yield requires planting the seed within 2-5 days from removal from the fruit, similar to mangosteen.
 

Quote from: brian on March 16, 2022, 09:39:49 AM

yeah I have been trying to get some cherapu plants or seeds for years but they are never available.  Oscar/Fruitlovers had seeds once but I couldn't get any to germinate.

I will try to source some female scions as a backup plan. With Luc's, I managed to beat the odds and am 5 for 5 female. I am not sure how well any other species will work for a rootstock long term.  I have some seashore mangosteen, madruno, achachairu, and Luc's in 3 gals. I have not had much luck with grafting unless I graft to the central leader and cut back the rootstock. Grafts take but the growth is super slow or non-existent after a push or two and the scion gets overtaken by the rootstock. 

Quote from: dwfl on March 16, 2022, 09:25:37 AM

I could mail you some female flowers and it would probably work. I wonder if you could store/preserve the pollen and for how long it'd be viable. Edit: nevermind, morning brain fog. You'll need female flowers to be pollinated not male to be pollinated

I can eventually get you some female scions from ny tree if you can't find elsewhere. You could just graft the female onto the male tree. Seashore mangosteen should work too. John Painter is experimenting grafting cherapu onto many different garcinia species so should know more about compatibility in the coming years.

Homeowners with just one to a few trees should be able to manage if their trees get infested, trim and spray sulfur at proper intervals. As long as you don't have a nearby property that gets infested your trees should be OK. The mite is still alive and well on Pine island.

Price/lb always goes up during years of low production but the mite issue will only add to the price going forward.

For garcinia species, roblack is right, I've had garcinia intermedia (lemon drop) seedlings fruit after just going into 7gal containers and about 3.5 ft tall. Brasiliensis seedlings more about 4-5ft, 7gal to 15gal size. Charichuelo seedlings more like 7-8ft and 25gal.

You can fruit any species fairly quickly in a container if you have stock to graft on and can source compatible budwood from a fruiting tree.

Another good garcinia for containers is garcinia prainiana (cherapu). But I would not consider them to be a "beginner" species because the seeds need to be fairly fresh, you need to have male and female trees, they're pretty slow going, and you're still looking at 4-8ft tall,  25gal size trees before they're ready to flower and show their sex. They're also cold and sun sensitive. They like warmth, humidity, and semi shade. But the fruit is amazing and compared to purple mangosteen seedlings, which generally need to be about 10-12ft tall and much older to start producing fruit, they're easier.

Is the Lara farms everyone discusses her the one that's 3 miles north of the fruit and spice park?  Stopped by today and besides some beautiful established trees all I saw was a smattering of mango trees all like 20gal.

Yes, they have a separate area for smaller trees like 1/3/7gallon.

You're right on with your analysis. Some people have a pretty sweet side gig / hobby income and it's not worth risking their sales to the other 48 in exchange for a couple CA bucks. If you get tagged by CA for this, there are fines, magnifying glass on your future shipments, etc

Yep. I've shipped to California before. A few shipments made it through without issue. One ended up getting confiscated and I received a stern warning letter from California.

24

How reliable of a seller is this person?

If they're from Jim West in Ecuador as I suspect, he's very reliable. I've ordered giant mulchi in the past from him and they sprouted fine even with the long transit including usda inspection along the way.

Butterscotch is the best I've tasted. Saps don't really have a tartness.

I have a sweet one Richard from Excalibur called "Vietnamese pink" and it is growing pretty fast. Fruited lightly a few times already, about 10ft tall.

There is a giant one in Key West at Mallory Square. The trunk is probably 6ft diameter.

Try a Sunrise if you can

Thanks for sharing, was this in Medellin or Cali or Bogota?