The Tropical Fruit Forum

I've yet to get fruit off my very young seedlings but I can't see how a tree that makes abundant fruit that tastes like cotton candy, that grows fast, propagates fast, and fruits fast, can be overrated when few outclass it in how fast it grows. I think most people that don't like it are looking for the "best" eating experiences; people that like it seem to be looking for exotic flavors or odd things. I think this thing is underated: nobody really knows about it, it will fruit in a pot and anyone can pretty much grow it if they have the space, and if it tastes like cotton candy the fruit should have near-universal appeal. Contrast that to Surinam cherry, most of which will taste off-putting to most people yet we trade a million different varieties of them here.

The university cultivars are typically lower in acetogenins but should absolutely be considered.

Study of people with a link to neuroological issues from *frequent* consumption https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18816693/

Study in cultured neurons https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17634376/

Fruit pulp containing 0.1mg/g https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22130466/

This is a more recent study about annonacin and squamocin content but I dont have access to this paper https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32761515/

Most people are not consuming Annonaceae as a main or primary part of their diet, and overwhelmingly that particular culture uses the leaves and twigs as a part of traditional medicine, which absolutely exposes them to substantially higher amounts than in the fruit.

Certainly something to think about but if you want to eat a few pawpaws in your life it’s not going to destroy your nervous system. I’m getting ready to plant a bunch.

fyi, enter the DOI on https://sci-hub.ru/ to help find articles

I've been in Thailand for 3 years now.  I've tried to collect varieties not normally found growing in Thailand.  I'm sure there may be a few others with backyard specimens, but I just don't hear about it very often.  More and more rare stuff are becoming available here and that's really good news for collectors.  Most stuff that is available range from seeds to very tiny seedlings and rarer still...a grafted specimen.  The still more rare, bucket-list type of trees are unfortunately only found in Malaysia/Indonesia.  So you need to take a chance in ordering or going there yourself.  If that were my only obstacle, it would be no big deal.  The biggest hurdle I have here in my area is freaking low humidity most of the year.  Yeah...Bangkok is not the tropical paradise I hoped it would be.  Low humidity is a killer of most of everything I want to grow.  I've learned that while there is no substitute for good, butt crack dripping humidity, daily watering will at least keep things alive and going in the right direction...mostly.  It's been a struggle.  It's been frustrating.  But it keeps me busy and engaged.

I've heard just one night in Bangkok can make the hard man humble, but three years? When it comes to gardening, there's not much between despair and ecstasy.  Can't be too careful with low humidity. I can see durian is next-to frustrating.

I would guess not carbonation, but an enzyme like actinidin.  Does your tongue get a little sore if you eat a lot?

I was just remembering you told me you were getting back as I still need to send you a justicia pectoralis when I have time to mail one out.  I know it's probably not a big deal to you but I hate telling people I'll do something then disappearing...

Lulo/naranjilla is weird and your post here touches upon something I've really been wondering about with it.  I see people describe the fruit in a way that has no relation to the one I sampled. I often see people describe it like citrus like you do, and you claim pineapple flavor as well, but I didn't really taste that. The first fruit I had from my plants was more of the connective tissue than 'meat', not very good at all, slight tomato tinge of flavor, not ripened in ideal circumstances and it showed. I believe the same plant (I had two but I don't think one ever got to making fruit before I let it die) then later made a much larger and substantial fruit which tasted very, very much like kiwi, but a little superior if not much so.  No tomatoey overtone. It was very good, it would have made a good drink but I preferred eating it out of hand unlike pseudolulo, which seems more for salsa or juice. I was going to let my lulo die but that one fruit saved it.  The plant has only made vegetation so far this year, stunted earlier on from root rot in a too-wet pot, so I'll keep it around at least one more year to see what it gives me. I have to say though, that one fruit was very impressive.

So does lulo have a lot of variation to it?  I have read here and there on the forum about lulo, and it seems like people seem to acknowledge there's variations in the fruit, but  I don't recall ever seeing a dive into varieties.  I wonder if it's because lulo is part of a species complex like many of these eugenias are, probably to a much larger degree. I've read speculation that some lulo may be for drink, or that 'lulo' is for the drink and "naranjilla" is for eating.  Anyone have any insights?  On this forum, we just treat naranjilla as a monolithic plant but it kind of seems to me there's a lot more complexity than to it than we acknowledged.  Sometimes I think we pay too much attention to Eugenias while the Solanaceae go a little ignored.  I may not know what I'm talking about

 I'd suggest trying to grow lulo yourself--just start it indoors early, the earlier the better, it can fruit the same year it germinates. 

My seed was either from brian laufer/raindance or tradewinds, I don't remember the origination of that seed. I'm leading to tradewinds.

I kind of hate reading other people requesting this when I want it, too, and it's in such short supply.  I think this is the inga container growers all want...

Haha, I have this growing in a pot and couldn't remember what exactly it was as my labeling leaves a lot to be desired, but I definitely have this as well. Absolutely a slow grower.

I've been trying to locate information on these trees in Atlanta UoG but I cannot find anything, I want to reach out to whomever oversees it to ask them about its growth conditions.  Being on the edge of whether or not we can grow it means the right microclimate may be all the advantage it takes.

The fact that these are also nitrogen fixers would make them fantastic garden and yard additions.

Quote from: Jaboticaba45 on September 05, 2025, 06:15:12 PM

I think a deer ate it

The deer munched my successful yangmei grafts to cerifera. Devastated would be an understatement. They can't resist it. I have set up deer enforcer sprinklers now and really hoping the grafts make a come back!

If a deer munched on my yangmei plants, I would reclaim its nutrition in the form of venison.

Well I don't know how I'm going to have room for all of these but I'm in for two! Yangmei trees will be in demand for quite awhile.

Quote from: K-Rimes on September 02, 2025, 02:17:47 PM

Post a photo of example if you can.

I don't have any on hand but they look identical to these from Google Images:





Is that what you see too, @BloomAndSprout?

Those look like the ones. 

https://www.samsclub.com/ip/baby-guava-1-lb/

Quote from: gardenGnostic on September 02, 2025, 01:55:53 PM

Quote from: K-Rimes on September 02, 2025, 01:27:29 PM

The small yellow guavas are probably lemon guava, which is an offshot of strawberry guava - both psidium cattelianum.

If you find "tropical guava" aka psidium guajava with white flesh inside, with a real sweet flavor you might have Mexican Cream, but it is kind of unlikely.

The small yellow guavas you can get from grocery stores where I live are always white flesh tropical guavas that are very sweet. Chewy and crunchy varieties show up sometimes but usually the little yellow ones are the only kind you can get?
I've never seen lemon guavas available before.

We have the same in stores here, especially Wal Mart and Tropicana.

I grow lemon guava, and the ones at the store are not lemon guava. They have the typical "guava" flavor, are fairly sweet with little to no tartness, some astringency, very hard seeds, and a soft, somewhat mealy texture like a European pear, not at all the succulent, juicy texture and moderately soft, small seeds of lemon guava.

Hmm, I wonder what the ones at the grocery store are then?  They sound underwhelming compared to these other varieties/species.

So I have multiple psidium seedlings now.

So what variety is the yellow small guavas from the grocery store?  Mexican cream?

What are other psidiums like compared to the standard guava? Is the flesh different?

Yeah good suggestion, Parfianka pomegranate is usually the most recommended one

Jujubes can be considered such too.

Quote from: seng on August 24, 2025, 02:29:12 PM

Quote from: RevivalR00ts on August 23, 2025, 06:39:27 PM

Quote from: seng on August 23, 2025, 01:05:24 PM

Quote from: K-Rimes on August 20, 2025, 05:18:44 PM

Quote from: seng on August 20, 2025, 04:03:14 PM

I'm not sure if yangmei has tab root.  If it does, then that is one way to tell.

I have not noticed a tap root. They seem to produce more fluffy white roots somewhere between papaya and citrus.

Also, TC plants have tendency to produce suckers.  This can be a good thing though, since we want more plants at this fake low supply period.

Note: I'm just stating the fact about TC plants.  I'm not against this seller.  In fact, if the plants turn out to be TC, it is good, since some other propagators are really taking advantage of the situation.  That is, there are plenty of supplies that are being controlled tightly.

There may be a lot of seeds going around and many people growing seedlings but I highly doubt there is a large supply of grafted trees. I can speak for myself here, I have lost the majority of my grafted trees that I was hoping to have available.

There are farms here in the USA.  Each year, they prune the branches and trash them, instead of grafting or selling scions.  Selling fruits $50/ lbs .  Isn't this to control the supply?

You were the one recently complaining about the yangmei growers here. First off, do you know of commercial orchards, for example, the ones growing cotton candy grapes, that prune their trees and offer cuttings to the public? C’mon now, none of them do that. The yangmei grower, Harvey, is under contract with Calmei. He legally couldn’t offer even if he wanted to.

CalMei has the market cornered, the last thing they would do is make plant material available to the public and future competitors. The early bird is gonna get its worm, in this case.

I'd kill for Cotton Candy grapevine cuttings, that's one of my garden holy grails  :'(