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Messages - Rob From Sydney

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51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What Fruits do you regret not planting?
« on: January 30, 2025, 04:22:46 AM »
Quote from: Coconut Cream on January 30, 2025, 12:05:36 AM
If you won't have land for 3 - 4 years, I would not worry about growing or getting plants yet. Just wait until you know what you're dealing with and make sure it's a permanent place. Your best bet would be to find a job in South Florida in the nursery / tropical fruit industry that includes room and board. There has to be a farm that needs a helper. Then start saving up and telling everyone you meet that you are looking for land. The networking will help you find something cheap or under the radar, eventually. Then you can plant your dream forest.

I would give the same advice, except for now if you want to grow fruits, get them in pots/grow bags, that way when you do get land, you have trees you can plant that will start fruiting right away. Your trees could essentially get through their juvenile stage before you even get land.

52
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Being safe while growing and eating rare fruits
« on: January 29, 2025, 11:26:23 PM »
Just what I was thinking regarding the ilama.
Even better - is there an indicator of higher annonacin content in annonacae fruits?

53
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Being safe while growing and eating rare fruits
« on: January 29, 2025, 05:43:47 PM »
Quote from: Julie on January 29, 2025, 09:58:44 AM
Galatians read the study and ill attach his post. Basically the amount of annonacin in atemoya is very low compared to paw paw. Custard apple i have not seen a measurement for but the amount is probably similar to atemoya.

Har also pointed out that the people in the study were also consuming the seeds by blending them into smoothies and were drinking the bark and leaves via teas. These parts of the fruit have much more annonacin than the flesh.

The island the people lived on was heavily sprayed with agri chemicals. The annona consumption might not have even been the factor

Finally, all plants have toxins to some extent. Oxalates, phytates, etc. yet plants are the healthiest foods on the planet. This is probably just another case of trying to demonize plants.

I have a san pablo red custard apple tree that currently doesnt set fruit. For a lot of these tropical fruit trees, 2 trees are needed for pollination. Based on what im saying above, i feel comfortable planting a second custard apple tree. I may or may not freeze the fruit, but i will probably eat plenty when its in season..sure, the annonacin is still in the back of my mind, but the hazards produced by humans are a lot more dangerous than what is found in nature, in my opinion



I've bookmarked the topic - It's interesting reading material.
I'd just like to add the table that Galatians is referring to in the image you attached:

54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: First fruits on my Luc's mangosteen
« on: January 29, 2025, 04:48:30 PM »
Quote from: cbss_daviefl on January 29, 2025, 09:06:31 AM
Quote from: Rob From Sydney on January 29, 2025, 04:45:12 AM
Hang on - are Luc's Garcinia dioecious?

From my observations and what I read here, most slant heavily to male or female. There are hermaphrodite trees but I have 8 flowering trees and they are all single sided. I attempted hand pollination using male appearing flowers from my female trees to pollinate other trees to rule out self incompatibility and never produced fruit. The fruit I did get before grafting a male were small and seedless. I am aware of a number of other forum member's trees that are also distinct.  I have not seen a hermaphrodite tree first-hand and I wonder how many fruits such trees produce. Two of my female trees flower heavily and produce heavily with hand pollination from pollen sourced from male trees. One is a light flower-er and others are too small in containers to measure. Hopefully someone with a hermaphrodite tree will share how many fruits they get per flowering. Last year, with about a dozen male flowers to work with I was able to get around 150 fruits between two females.

Thanks!
Good job with the hand pollination. How did you do it?
And also, do you have any idea what the odds of growing a bisexual tree from seed might be?

55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What are your most wanted Fruits, palms or plants?
« on: January 29, 2025, 05:53:20 AM »
I'm relatively new to collecting tropical fruits - my first seedlings (a KP Mango, Jackfruit and White Sapote) are about 1.5 years old. I'm slowly increasing my collection by buying seeds and fruit trees. I have some more common fruits, and some rarer ones, but I still have a long way to go. Lots of gaps to fill.
At the moment I am collecting Garcinias, Pouterias, Annonas, Plinias, Eugenias, and the odd inga.

There are a few fruits, more common and more rare, that I really want to grow. Here are the common ones.
Green Sapote
Luc's Garcinia
Bananas (yes, I still don't have any. The closest I have is a small potted plantain)
Kasturi Mango (Mangifera Kasuri)
Grummichama
Common Ice Cream Bean (Edulis)
Giant Granadilla Passionfruit
Wooly Leaved White Sapote (Casimiroa Tetramera)
MORE Mexican Custard apples. I have one plant, and am trying to get some seeds growing.
Pawpaw
Ilama


And here are some rarer ones:
Pouteria Multiflora 'Supreme'
Poshe-te
Juicy Pearl Star Apple
Australian Native Longan (Dimocarpus Australianus)
Pouteria Ucuqui
MULCHI!!!
Soncoya. I am desperate for this one. I have already killed one seed.
Pouteria Torta (non furry)
Eugenia Beaurepaireana


56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: First fruits on my Luc's mangosteen
« on: January 29, 2025, 04:45:12 AM »
Quote from: cbss_daviefl on January 28, 2025, 09:40:49 AM
Female 1


Female 2


Female 1 with small fruits



OPs flower picture is male. That tree may be fully male which would explain lack of fruits.  Fully male trees do produce a few female flowers. Fully female trees will also result in 5 or less fruits per flowering.  I have one female that flowers lightly. This is a species that should be planted in 3s or more to increase early fruiting chances.

My trees flowered in 5 to 6 years but then I had to source and graft a male and grafted trees grow slowly. Grafting is not worth the effort unless you have very limited space and a long time horizon. Starting from a 7 gallon seedling, my grafted male took over 3 years to produce sufficient quantities of flowers. Luckily with hand pollination, a few male flowers can go far.

Hang on - are Luc's Garcinia dioecious?

57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What are the prettiest fruit plants you own?
« on: January 29, 2025, 04:19:35 AM »
Again, Loquats are pretty beautiful and are very popular in my area. There are so many some ever grow wild!
A Mango tree with good shape looks beautiful. Depending on the variety, the glossy flushes of growth look great, and something about looking at forming fruit just makes you feel great.
Skirt pruned Jaboticaba sure are a feature tree! The edible black orbs surprise everyone. Very tasty too!
Lychees and Longans look good.
Healthy garcinias, especially lemon drop mangosteen are good as well. Beautiful sweet and tangy fruits.

Those are my picks!

58
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Being safe while growing and eating rare fruits
« on: January 29, 2025, 02:40:38 AM »
Quote from: drymifolia on January 27, 2025, 11:56:50 PM
Quote from: SHV on January 27, 2025, 10:46:55 PM
As far as the toxic chemicals are concerned, I'm sure you do more damage eating a fast food hamburger than eating residual annonacin in a ripe cherimoya.

Studies on soursop and pawpaw have shown very wide ranges of annonacin and squamocin in different cultivars or selections, and it's a toxin that only has symptoms after a long period of exposure, so it's a hard one to pin down until more studies have been done. I still love to eat pawpaw or cherimoya from time to time, but it's absolutely possible you could have a serious neurodegenerative disease from eating too many fruit in that family, and I would not suggest that anyone get obsessed with that family and plant tons of them and eat as many as you want year after year, unless you're a risk taker and know that about yourself.

Does anybody know how much annona fruits you can have before you consume too much annonacin? 1 fruit a week? 1 fruit a fortnight? No more than a few kilos a month?
I love annonas and I'm curious how much is safe. I want to plant a ton of annonas, thats all.

59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Germination rate of annona reticulata seeds from Bellamy Trees
« on: January 27, 2025, 06:27:13 PM »
Hello, I've got an update - I've just got some pictures.
1: My rowded heatmat, with annonas, a mango seeds, a random psidium seed, and some Jamaican Cherry seeds.
2: One of my Mexican custard apple seeds.
3: A mexican custard apple seed in a bag.

The next pictures I have questions about:
4: A close of of the filed down seed. I filed until I saw some white specs from the centre of the seed. I might need to trim off some more, but I'm not sure. I would love some advice on if I should do it and how I should do it without killing the seed.
5: My Annona Salzmanii seed with it's coat removed. What should I do, I am concerned about rot and really want to grow this rare annona.

Thanks for your help!
Btw, the brown stuff you see in the pictures in cinnamon powder. It's supposed to be anti-mould.











60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What happened to WikiFruit?
« on: January 27, 2025, 05:58:09 PM »
Just thinking of it, both UsefulTropicalPlants and Wikipedia are both written in a 'monotone' form. Although you can learn a bot from both sites, they are just 'blobs of information', and they aren't very entertaining.

61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What happened to WikiFruit?
« on: January 26, 2025, 11:32:06 PM »
Wikipedia doesn't have too much information on the rarer varieties of fruit a good deal of us forum members love collecting.
And when there is information on the rarer trees, there usually isn't much.
Here is the page on the Machete Ice Cream Bean.

Quote
Inga spectabilis is a species of plant in the family Fabaceae.

It is native to Central America and the Andean states to Bolivia.[1] The blade-like morphology of the fruiting pod has earned it the common name machete ice-cream-bean (Guamo Macheto, Guaba Machete).[2]

There's not much there, and what is there someone actually interested (like me) in Inga Spectabilis already knows.
If Wikifruit got back online, not only could any volunteers give information on the fruit in question, we can also include information how to grow the specific plant. Now that's something wikipedia doesn't have!
People like myself could write about our experiences growing certain fruits. What does the tree in question like? What doesn't it like? How cold tolerant is it? What is the best way to graft in and onto which rootstock? How tall does it grow in cultivation? What is it's shade tolerance? Is it fast growing? What months does it fruit in? How can it pe pruned? etc, etc...

I reckon that's another great reason to get Wikifruit up and running again.

62
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Is Radiance Seeds Good?
« on: January 25, 2025, 08:13:54 PM »
Thanks very much.

Edit: Just going back onto the Radiance Seeds website, some of the same products have been for sale for a long time. I wonder how fresh the seeds are...

63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Looking for Concierge Service to send some seeds
« on: January 25, 2025, 08:04:09 PM »
I can't help with concierge, but I do know some seeds sellers that do ship to Australia.

Trade Winds Fruit have a great selection of seeds. Something for everyone, from backyard growers to collectors.
https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/tropical-fruit/

Anderson Tropicals have lot's of seeds for rarer fruits. Most of their seeds are sourced from South America.
https://andersontropicals.com/

Bellamytrees is great, but I'm pretty sure that he's been told to only ship seed packages with Phyto Certificates, so shipping to Australia is too expensive until he can figure something out.

Fruitlovers is owned by a forum member from Hawaii. Loads of seeds, but shipping to Australia costs a bit. I haven't bought from the yet, but I've heard lots of good things about Fruitlovers.
https://fruitlovers.com/seeds/

There are a bunch of other seeds sites out there, these are just the major ones.
Hope I can help.

64
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Is Radiance Seeds Good?
« on: January 25, 2025, 03:35:06 AM »
I've seen the Radiance Seeds website a few times, and I was wondering if it was any good, and if they sell good, fresh seeds.
Has anyone bought from the in the past? And if so, have you been satisfied with your order?
There is a good selection of seeds, so if the site is good, I might make an order.
Thanks!

Link: https://www.raindanceseeds.com/

65
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: First fruits on my Luc's mangosteen
« on: January 25, 2025, 03:28:40 AM »
Is 8 or 9 years the standard wait time for Luc's Garcinia?

66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What happened to WikiFruit?
« on: January 25, 2025, 03:23:16 AM »
Quote from: murahilin on January 24, 2025, 10:06:08 PM
I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to figuring it out. I also lost interest.

Thats a shame.
I wonder, is there anyway volunteers could help run it, if it's not to code-y? If I could, I'd help a bit.

67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Bacupari ?
« on: January 25, 2025, 03:15:27 AM »
Quote from: Chandramohan on January 24, 2025, 07:19:58 AM
Long time ago I bought seeds from 'Trade Wind Fruits' called as Garcinia madruno. Only when the plants fruited, did I find out that they were G.intermedia!

Damn, that's annoying! Did you have any other Madrunos?

68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Does anybody else share my opinon?
« on: January 24, 2025, 05:44:40 AM »
I recently got to go to a great place called Tropical Fruit world. It's the biggest and best (in my opinion) tropical fruit farm in Australia. They grow >600 different fruits.
Last time I went I bought my first ever Mamey Sapotes - a Pontin and a Maganta.
The Pontin ripened first, and I quite liked it rich, wierd taste of syrup-y pumpkin pie, but I could only eat so much.
By the time I had finished my 1kg Pontin (3 or 4 days), my Maganta had ripened and was about going bad. I ended up procrastinating and never ate the giant fruit on my kitchen bench - I just went off.

Here is my point: I just reckon Mamey Sapotes would be better at a modest size, like the size of a large mango ~ 450g.
My reasons for my opinion are:
1: Smaller fruits are easier to eat in a single helping, making for a filling snack.
2: If you have to get through an entire giant Mamey Sapote without it going off, especially for a first-timer, it's not a great experience. Too much Mamey Sapote! Mamey overload!
3: Australian Mamey Sapotes are on the verge of going commercial, and I think that for the everday shopper there would be greater uptake of a smaller, mango sized fruit, than of a Giant that costs a fair bit, that you might not even like.

Anyway, that's just my opinon, what do you think?

69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Bacupari ?
« on: January 24, 2025, 05:29:58 AM »
They still list 'Madrono' in other names.
And they also give a link for further reading that takes you to a trade winds fruit info page about the true Madrono (Garcinia Madrono).
Good old Daleys...

70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What Fruits do you regret not planting?
« on: January 24, 2025, 05:27:02 AM »
I once bought a Star Gooseberry (Phyllanthus acidus) without knowing much about it. I ended up giving it away. The fruits are rubbish unless you have them with sugar.

If you are looking to collect fruits and are moving out in a few years my advice would be to fruit trees in grow bags. Maybe 50 or so litres, depending on the plant. That way you can grow them nicely for the next half-decade, then you could buy your own property and plant trees that should start fruiting straight away.

EDIT: I misread the topic, and thought it was "what fruits do you not regret not planting". LOL  ::)

71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Bacupari ?
« on: January 23, 2025, 05:14:24 AM »
Quote from: 0hip on January 22, 2025, 05:42:29 PM
rob - lemon drop should not be called madrono. thats only because daleys and others sell it as that incorrectly. the more people you can tell to stop calling it that the better

Thanks. I'll do just that.
I've noticed that it is becoming a common name for G. Intermedia here is Australia. All the nurseries call it Madrono. I wonder how it started?

72
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Poorly pruned citrus
« on: January 23, 2025, 04:27:59 AM »
There is a very good way to prune an old citrus tree called 'skeleton pruning'.
Here is a video on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEQ019GgzJA&t=1s
BTW I'm pretty sure that I have picked fruit from that exact tree, if not from trees in it's row.

73
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Germination rate of annona reticulata seeds from Bellamy Trees
« on: January 22, 2025, 04:06:44 AM »
Today I bought myself a heat mat, and I've set it up and got it working. Should be somewhere from 85F to 95F.
I took my 2 mexican custard apple seeds out of their pots and trimmed them with a nail file I found around the house. I trimmed until I saw white. I then put my seeds in labelled plastic bags, filled them with warm water, and placed them on top of my heat mat. I also put a Salzmanii seed with it's shell removed in a plastic bag with water on top of the heat mat.
In about an hour I will drain the water from the bags and place a moist paper towel around the seed in each bag.

I really hope I can get some sprouts!

74
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Germination rate of annona reticulata seeds from Bellamy Trees
« on: January 21, 2025, 03:59:39 AM »
Sorry, I've been busy for the last couple of days. Tomorrow, if I get a chance I'll buy a heat mat so i can get started. I'll share updates.

75
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Food Forest Help Needed
« on: January 18, 2025, 05:31:32 AM »
Thank you! I've sure got a lot of stuff to digest! Here are my key takeaways so far:
1: Spacing only applies to large, permanent, overstory trees. Short understorey trees can just be stuffed in.
2: Overplant. Some trees will thrive, some will die, and some will be in the middle. You can always move trees and spacing only becomes problematic after 5-10 years.
3: Plant temporary trees to give plants shade as they grow. And you can always move them later on, just don't let them take over where they are.
4: "I spaced mostly 10-15 feet". Judging from just that nothing is too strict.

Now for some futher questions:
Make sure that you have paths/rows so you can move wheelbarrows and the like. I just saw the edulis design food forest, and there were lots of paths and the whole forest was very open to the sun. I have always imagined walking through a food forest like a rain forest; trees overhead as you walk through. I guess I need to rethink that, but how open should a food forest be? How big should the gaps be between overstory trees like Sapotes, Avos, Mangoes, etc, to let light into the understorey?

Different fruit trees come in different shapes, and that is important...
How should I fit in trees all the odd trees, like permanent bananas that form large clusters, or the dense annonas that grow kind of like spheres, the slow growing lychees/longans (that grow tall but seem to like the shade, if I'm right), and the garcinias and papayas that grow thin but tall?

Thanks for all the help so far, I can't wait for more answers!  :)

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