The Tropical Fruit Forum

I live in a forest and have too many trees being affected by some sorts of rust disease, the kind that forms those ugly galls. Gymnosporangium, on my quince, and very very rare stern's medlars (hawthorn/medlar hybrid).  It also infected by newly planted tejocote/Craetaegus mexicana. Obviously, spraying early in the year weekly is going to be necessary.  There are too many juniper trees around, even though I never see any of the fungus on them.

My quince (Karp's Sweet, specifically) I had to completely just remove all the new growth as it was just massively infected all over. Everything was just nasty. The year I was going to get fruit and I have to butcher the tree.

My question is, what happens if you do not treat the trees and let the galls form and don't remove them?  Was I right to prune the infected tissue off my quince so aggressively?

In the fall I picked up two Tejocote (Craeteagus mexicana) from Wanderlust Nursery; among other things, I intend to try to cross this with medlar to see what kind of result I would get.  (Thank you SO much wanderlust, you released these right when I was really wanting them and asking about them on this forum! But no one else was selling!) Does anyone have experience with these?  What is their cold tolerance?  I would assume, based on the family it's in and its genus/being a hawthorn, it would be at least cold hardy to 6b; sources online are inconsistent and Wanderlust Nursery states 7b, which is normally fine except for the freak winter storms we get that seem to be more common yearly.  I assume my location in Arkansas, 7b, should suffice, but I'd like some more thoughts before I plant one as I could leave both in pots.

How does the fruit compare/contrast with other hawthorns?

In my non-expert opinion, the Rosaceae family has a lot of unexplored potential for crossbreeding, I am probably the only person on this forum to have a Stern's medlar (mysterious hawthorn/medlar hybrid discovered in Arkansas with unclear parentage and origin, probably sterile; not obtainable online and only from one nursery in the middle of nowhere that no longer ships... unless a botanical garden with one helps you out) which is so rare and uncommon that there's no published comparison of its taste to regular medlar. This plant apparently produces a red pome instead of the bark-brown of the standard. Ergo, I think there's fun to be had with crossbreeding these and see what I get.

I've seen the seeds for this on a few of the seeds sellers' website.

Does anyone have any additional information on this one?

Hello,

I was planning on buying some seeds from Raul (Olosapo) but he advised to see if I could receive them in vermiculite.  I'm having difficulty determining if this is allowed.  He said some branches are okay with it.  I could call some of the inspection stations to find out, but I know what people tell you over the phone is not always congruent with practice so I'm hoping one of the gurus on here could help me. Also, I live in Arkansas, so while I have my permit I am unsure of which label I should provide for which inspection station.  Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction or give me some advice?

Thanks!

My miracle berry's leaves seem to get burnt and crispy whenever I water.

Am I watering too often? About once a week and a half. I am using rainwater or distilled water. Soil was amended with some sulfuric powder after the first time. Does this need to be reported? In the pot I received it a few months ago .

Hi,

I'm trying to start a fruit tree breeding experiment of sorts and I'm in search of a yellow hawthorn. I can't find any for sale, there's one on ebay but shipping from Turkey and customs would likely destroy it. Does anyone here have a decent tree for sale, either grafted or otherwise, or know where I can obtain one? I have the seeds, but they're a pain to germinate.