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Messages - BloomAndSprout

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26
Interesting... And what a coincidence, I just PMed you over your posts on another plant...

Information on this plant seems limited.. can you describe the taste of the leaves a bit more? I have trouble believing the leaves could taste like loquat, very fascinating, are they actually sweet or is it just the level of tartness? I'm a fan of plants like rungia klossii and katuk, this intrigues me. How cold hardy is it?

27
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Plinia longiacuminata
« on: September 16, 2024, 05:44:23 PM »
Because these are at least 2 year old saplings and not seeds. I don't sell seeds anymore and soon once I am sold out will not sell seedling anymore. I know what I want to grow now so not traveling as much and back to teaching and just collecting. As for this species, these were germinated seeds we found under the mother tree and I imported them from my Bahia trip two years ago. I had an extra one to sell but I'll probably just keep it now. Don't really need the money and would rather have an extra ultra rare already grown tree.

If people think $500 is rare for a plant like this, they should look at how much some philodendrons and such cost that are, number-wise for number of plants in existence, much more expensive.  Whoever is selling yangmei on ebay for >$500 (a user here, I'm pretty sure) IMO is still charging a reasonable price for a healthy well-rooted tree. After all, isn't part of the fun of this very hobby growing something unusual and somewhat obscure?  And unlike the super-expensive houseplants, these plants produce unique fruits.

28
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pineapple Guava (Feijoa)
« on: September 15, 2024, 11:51:03 AM »
I bought a number of seedlings of the most cold-tolerant feijoas from Fruitwood Nursery last fall, and put them in the ground.  They all survived the winter; only half of them survived my summer heat and drought.  But the half that survived still look fine, so I'm very pleased with them!

I hope they continue to do well for me, and eventually fruit.  ;D

Good to hear from someone in 7b. What was the coldest it got for you?

29
Per Anderson Tropicals,

https://andersontropicals.com/products/pouteria-sp-boneshell?srsltid=AfmBOooDjQexFzEspsHKx5lhsP85dsMQm6pZsIswwJbfjq-XFjPb44F9

Quote
Pouteria sp. Boneshell is a new, unidentified species from Southeastern Brazil  Atlantic Rainforest

30
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pineapple Guava (Feijoa)
« on: September 14, 2024, 06:58:27 PM »
Does the flower really taste that good or is it an exaggeration?

31
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Olosapo ( Coupeia Polyandra)
« on: September 14, 2024, 12:36:50 AM »
Glad I snagged some before they sold out.

32
They probably are, I planted lychee seeds from the refrigerated section of Sam's Club and nearly all, if not all, germinated.

33
hey those yangmei aren't cheap

Needs a poll on how much money we've lost killing trees

honestly this is one hell of a hobby and I don't know more people partake.  Let's do our parts to correct this.

34
I've made a tiny bit of money reselling some... plant products, some time in the past, does that count?

35
I think figs are hard to beat, and I love the common raspberry.

36
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Kwai muk time to fruit
« on: September 11, 2024, 06:16:05 PM »
 I wonder if I can get this thing to fruit in a container when it must live inside during the colder months?

37
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Going away to college sale!
« on: September 11, 2024, 06:11:39 PM »
Nice collection!
Also just started college too.
It's cool you're going into plant science! I've considered doing a career in plants, but for now am majoring in biology and then I can decide what I want to do after.
Good luck regarding your college journey!

Word of advice to you college-aged people:

1) don't get a bullshit degree like I did with no practical applications in real life, get something you can apply somehow, unless it's a very employable field
2) academia is largely made up of people looking to establish a career, not to add to the human body of knowledge

and the most important, something I wish people told me:
3) networking is more important than being smart - don't look down on partying a bit, even if you're an introvert; all the knowledge in the world won't open doors that other people gatekeep. People prefer to collaborate with people they like and have a rapport with

Biology is what I wish I majored in, though.  Big mistake on my part so I feel compelled to warn people, though it looks like Gen Z has figured it out where as Millennials naively believed that a degree was the be-all, end-all.

38
I did get a reply now, he said he will postpone this order until next March to do it.

Well, I hope he comes back with more information, especially on who he is, what he's selling, etc.  He'd have a lot more interest clarifying any doubts, a new poster making an offer like this is going to invite more doubt than belief.

39
Mature Kwai muk probably handle brief temps around 28f. It's more hardy than Jackfruit.

My plants are the center of my life (every man needs a hobby) and I have no problem bringing them indoors; what I'm wondering is whether it will fruit in a container without having to get too big for my garage.  Of all artocarpus, kwai muk seemed like the only potentially realistic option (with the slightly higher cold tolerance to boot).

40
I think it's just an idea everyone gets when they start growing tropical fruits...
I used to have 10 different artocarpus sp.
And even with a greenhouse, I don't even mess with those anymore.
No durains or mangosteens or langsats or pulasans or coconuts.
Unfortunately cant be done. Also a lot of them get super big before fruiting so just cause you can grow it does not equate to fruit.
That's a lesson I had to learn. Even in SFL, you can't grow most ultra tropicals due to climate.

I'd focus on psidiums, plinias, eugenias, a few annonas, and some interesting berries like miracle fruit and maybe gin berry etc.
Mangos and others are possible to grow and fruit, but it's a big push to do indoors.
I'd also try to grow some cool fruits outside like loquat, yangmei, persimmon, etc.
Those are very tasty fruits.

Hope it helps!

Even the guy in Cali (hapajoe I think is his name) thinks he will be able to fruit durian in a greenhouse in California. At one point Steve Murray , who is very knowledgeable on tropical fruits said he was going to devote a greenhouse to durian in Bakersfield, CA. But eventually pretty sure he came back to earth and reality kicked in lol

So how foolish am I trying to grow kwai muk that must be brought in during the winter?

41
Do you have a list of your entire current stock? You have some interesting seeds.

42
Other than the most well-known ones like Biqi and Dongkui, do you have more information on these varieties? Between the Chinese names and the translated ones that go around it's hard to keep track of what is what.  I'm very interested.

43
I just sent in payment for this and some other seeds.  Permit thing was emailed to you.

44
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: The mysterious Yara Yara
« on: September 04, 2024, 05:12:46 PM »
double posting in error

45
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: The mysterious Yara Yara
« on: September 04, 2024, 05:10:15 PM »
I have seen some other tutorials for germinating Duguetia. I have seen them say to soak them until they sink, so I think it is normal for them to initially float. I would also imagine that if the germination time is so long, the seeds viability is quite long too. Thank you again to Dada and Kumar.

Mine floated but after a soak all sunk. Between the yara yara and borojo, I did not think anything was amiss with the seeds, and the borojo looked much fuller than the borojo I got from tradewinds that never germinated. I do not think the float test is particularly reliable for many seeds, especially since seeds "want" to be dispersed and floating (for a time) along bodies of water is a way many plants propagate themselves over distance.   Annonacae tend to want a dormancy period, as is my understanding.  Quick research shows it grows in gallery forests, which are forests along wetlands or river banks, which would be evidence the seeds  would be "meant" to naturally float for some time to aid in dispersal.

I was Kenneth in the group buy; I paid to Dada and confirmed details when he messaged me again so I hope I am not counted among the four that did not send payment. 

46
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Small seed lot permit and vermculite
« on: September 02, 2024, 10:46:43 PM »
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!

47
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: seeds
« on: September 01, 2024, 05:22:06 PM »
Great seller! Prices are, overall, very reasonable. Seeds appear to be fresh and viable. He got my vote. 👍
Mine were very fresh and viable!

48
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: New Video Drop - Plinia Costaricensis!
« on: September 01, 2024, 03:42:49 PM »
Oh trust me, I know, I am a millennial and got to watch the decay first happen in real-time. The burden is real, you want to talk about these fascinating plants or other hobbies and everyone rolls their eyes and goes back to talking about overproduced Marvel movies, they are entirely disconnected from the natural world.  They will be bored by plants but gush over cheap plastic idols of pop culture characters (funko pops).

Maybe some younger guys, but it feels like gardening has never been so popular among women my age. Earthy simulation games like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley or Minecraft and major trends like cottagecore culminated in a lot of interest in plants and nature among their fans, and honestly that generation of women and girls, younger millennials and gen z, are (just speaking anecdotally) probably the driving force behind the booming interest in plants. The interest is there for many, outreach to younger women especially could net a lot of passionate new rare fruit growers.

I agree, and I think cottagecore especially has helped, but thankfully many of these plants can be container-grown and that is what I've been focusing on... I can't really grow many of my plants in the soil here anyway.

I've been posting in houseplant FB groups (what is a houseplant anyway? any plant inside of a house, I say) where the majority of participants are women, particularly younger women, but my rare fruiting plants just do not drum up much interest, and if I get a reply it's usually a male. Referring back to my post to Ryan, it's a monkey-see, monkey do world and I think we need more women to make engaging videos as well to attract more female attention to this hobby.  I think it will be necessary to go to plant group meetups with fruit to sample, maybe bring in the plant itself to show off what it looks like especially while flowering and/or fruiting, people are less likely to spend their hard earned (and increasingly devalued) money on a plant that is completely foreign to them they don't yet understand the benefits of, that may just end up being hype.

Most people seem to prefer the tried-and-true path and to popularize this hobby a bit more will require inspiring people, and showing them how accessible and ""easy"" it is (depending on the plant).  Me, I enjoy this because there often seem to be more unknowns than knowns, and I enjoy the thrill of discovery.

With the combination of both gardening and the booming houseplant craze, we have the conditions in our society/culture to make this a much more popular thing.  Our detriment is that people don't see or know of these plants and they are not sold much in stores except for tropical nurseries in the warmer climes, but that is also our benefit, as it's potentially much more rewarding (and a fun challenge).

49
Annona monticola, maybe. I live in 7b/8a (really, the USDA zones are only a guideline, minimum winter temperatures are what you really want to look at) and I keep both in containers; they're presently pretty small. I'm trying to see how these work kept in a container perpetually.  I've found my jahnii is actually doing pretty well in its container.  I keep them in tall pots for their tap roots, they do better that way.

50
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: New Video Drop - Plinia Costaricensis!
« on: September 01, 2024, 02:51:09 PM »
Looking forward to future videos. We need more millennial and gen z participation and social media content about this hobby to keep it going... and to bring rare plants into larger demand. With the collectathon mentality behind some younger folks (see SplorKeLZ's pokemon-inspired text, "gotta catch 'em all") and increasing houseplant hobbyism since COVID I can see this becoming a much bigger thing.
Appreciate the kind words!
Yeah for sure, it's always good to have young people in this hobby!
But it's tough when everybody is an Ipad kid now.

Oh trust me, I know, I am a millennial and got to watch the decay first happen in real-time. The burden is real, you want to talk about these fascinating plants or other hobbies and everyone rolls their eyes and goes back to talking about overproduced Marvel movies, they are entirely disconnected from the natural world.  They will be bored by plants but gush over cheap plastic idols of pop culture characters (funko pops).

This is a very small hobby (I still don't understand why--it's so fascinating and rewarding, and adjacent to gardening, which is still a thing) to the point where you see the same people pop up in different places. I see you and others here pop up in the same facebook groups, for example. This hobby attracts a lot of introverts (plant people usually are) and they don't really like to market themselves, their plants, or do so very well. A lot of the people here are older men, wise old sages with knowledge that often even no academics possess, this forum is the most valuable repository of information for these plants on the Internet, but there is not so much engagement with the masses that have never even heard of a jaboticaba or a eugenia before, let alone something like miracle berry.  This all seems like an avenue of opportunity to me though.

Some suggestions for success, as you continue to do this and make videos--as you have more time available to you and get comfortable with editing and uploading videos, post more videos regularly on a schedule--the algorithm rewards that.  Most importantly, people watch these videos not just for the content, necessary, but the personalities. Of all the TV programs about nature and wildlife, the one person everyone still knows even after his death over a decade and a half later is Steve Irwin, because he had an outrageously authentic and vibrant personality. All the best travel channels on youtube tend to succeed not just because of the locations they visit, but because of the personalities. That's the secret sauce a lot of these plant youtubers miss, because they make very informative content but it is not always inspiring. Young people, especially, want to be entertained, and the path to inspiring them is through entertaining them with novelty.  Live by Rule of Acquisition #194. I'm not saying go full "skibidi toilet" but content as entertaining as it is informative and interesting will inspire people to jump into this. An idea I have for the future, which may eventually benefit you, is to let people sample fruits publicly and record their reactions; it's a monkey-see-monkey-do world, and people seeing other people react with joy and fascination by something they've never tried before will intrigue people as well... this may also work well for annoying but unfortunately popular short-form content like tiktok videos.  As far as my internet lurking within this space has seen, you're probably one of the youngest people in the hobby with the most interesting collection and the space and greenhouse, and given that this is hobby of time and patience, you're very well positioned for success.

And one more thing, I would invest in a clip-on mic in the future as any muffled or hard-to-hear speaking will cause people to click out.

End rant!

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