Exotica Nursery's Lemon Guava Selections (Psidium cattleianum lucidum)

[greg_D]

On the Yelp page for Exotica Nursery (San Diego area) there's a photo of their in-stock list that includes a reference to lemon guava selections. I called today to ask about it. Apparently they have two selections of lemon guava. One is 'giant Hawaiian' which has abnormally large, normally flavored fruit. The other is 'big leaf' or 'shiny leaf' or something like that. That one, the one I can't remember the name of, has strange leaves and abnormally large, unusually flavored fruit (more acidic than normal). I asked the nursery owner which he liked more and he said he likes both.

Curious to hear if anyone here has tried these two selections and what they think. I'm also curious to learn more about the history of the unusually flavored selection. I know there are several guavas which seem very similar to the strawberry guava varieties but are in fact different species. For that reason I'm wondering if the unusually flavored selection could be one of those.

[hammer524]

Man I really need to make the pilgrimage to Exotica

[greg_D]

Man I really need to make the pilgrimage to Exotica

Drove the two hours to get here today and am very disappointed. The nursery in general is great, but per the employee onsite (owner isn't here) they only grow guavas from seed. So you're not actually getting the variety, just seedlings of the variety. I'm now wading through a small grove of lemon guava seedling trees trying to find one with big fruit. They all have unripe fruit on them that to my eye looks very typical for the subspecies in terms of size. Employee said there's no way for me to buy a cutting, sucker, etc from the mother tree.

[K-Rimes]

Exotica was cool a few years ago but I think COVID cleaned them out of the good stuff. I was there a few weeks ago and it was pretty barren. Just teensy little seedlings for to be quite honest way too high of a price. 4" tall cherry of the rio grande seedling for $40 type of thing. Ended up buying a macadamia to graft and that was it. They used to be cheap but not anymore.

[greg_D]

Exotica was cool a few years ago but I think COVID cleaned them out of the good stuff. I was there a few weeks ago and it was pretty barren. Just teensy little seedlings for to be quite honest way too high of a price. 4" tall cherry of the rio grande seedling for $40 type of thing. Ended up buying a macadamia to graft and that was it. They used to be cheap but not anymore.

I told the owner on the phone the other day that I was driving all the way from Long Beach specifically for the giant Hawaiian selections of p lucidum and he never mentioned it was seedlings only. I only found out when I got here.

I didn't make a fuss about it, still bought something, etc and I'm trying to be as charitable as possible, but if you are growing seedling plants that you believe will bear fruit **similar** to the parent plant, it is false advertising to call them the named variety you got the seed from. Especially important when you're selling a tree that might take years to bear fruit, that the customer may be planning to have for decades. Not saying he's trying to trick people or that he's acting in bad faith, but he really should clarify. Not just when someone happens to ask, but instead by calling the varieties 'seedling of (name)' on the labels, inventory list, etc.

So anyone who goes to this nursery, don't assume the named varieties they advertise are actually those varieties unless you get verbal confirmation that they are clones.

[hammer524]

Thanks for the report. I was planning on making a trip to Socal to check out the nurseries in a couple months. Is there a nursery that stands out for more unique/ rare plants. Or is it best to reach out to forum members

[greg_D]

Thanks for the report. I was planning on making a trip to Socal to check out the nurseries in a couple months. Is there a nursery that stands out for more unique/ rare plants. Or is it best to reach out to forum members

Ong nursery is supposedly amazing. San Diego area only open on weekends. Pricey but good.

Los Angeles area check out Mimosa nursery. There are three 'Mimosa Nursery' locations in SoCal; I would not recommend the one in Anaheim. The east LA one is pretty good, the other one (Rosemead?) is IMO the best.

[Oolie]

I'm familiar with two types referred to as lemon guava. One is a close relative of strawberry guava. The other is a larger fruit which is lemon shaped and has high acidity. It has excellent eating qualities and is a strong producer. Unfortunately the skin is quite thin and they don't ship well but they are excellent for fresh eating and processing and they appear to be true to seed.

Sorry it didn't work out for you Greg. I know the difficulty of trying to locate true mexican cream guavas.

[hammer524]

Thanks for the report. I was planning on making a trip to Socal to check out the nurseries in a couple months. Is there a nursery that stands out for more unique/ rare plants. Or is it best to reach out to forum members

Ong nursery is supposedly amazing. San Diego area only open on weekends. Pricey but good.

Los Angeles area check out Mimosa nursery.

sorry to hear about the guava let down, luckly mimosa now ships. so I have bought a few plants from their website. Would love to check them out still

[K-Rimes]

Thanks for the report. I was planning on making a trip to Socal to check out the nurseries in a couple months. Is there a nursery that stands out for more unique/ rare plants. Or is it best to reach out to forum members

Mimosa, Champa, Ong's

Exotica is cool to visit if you go as more of a tour of a yard - not with goal of buying anything. There are some established large trees like jabo, pitanga, cherry of rio grande that are cool to see.

Forum members have cooler stuff at better prices imo

[SDPirate]

Exotica is nice but a bit chaotic and unorganized.  Atemoya Nursery in Vista is nearby, pretty good also and good prices although probably better to call them ahead.  Ong's is pretty good too and more central SD but pricey like someone mentioned and only open weekends.  At Ong's the plants I saw were more mature in general.

[JCorte]

Agree with Kevin, Exotica is a really cool nursery to look around.  They have a lot of really mature trees planted, it's an established food forest.  They have a beautiful really old Persian mulberry they sell airlayers of.  I think it's worth visiting just to check out, but then again I like to visit gardens just to see mature plants and how they grow. 

As far as buying plants, I think time of year you go matters for a good selection.  They had a lot of plants in spring and the nursery was really cleaned up compared to other times I've gone.   They do occasionally sell grafted plants and rooted cuttings but most of their in house stock are seedlings.

Steve, the owner, is really nice.  He showed me around and sold me scions I was looking for off his tree.

Janet

[nullzero]

Most of Exoticas inventory like others have said was bought out the last 5 years. I was down there a little over a month ago, and the only thing I thought was an ok price was a macadamia nut rooted cutting in a 5 gal I got for $70.

I bought a Diamond guava seedling about 4 years back, after tasting one of the mature Diamond guava seedlings on a past visit. The trees were gone which I tasted the fruit from, so I had to asked Steve if he had anymore. He did have some smaller 1 gal seedlings of Diamond guava, so I took a chance and grew it out. The tree fruited last year and the guava was very large with great flavor and a small central seed cavity (so I would say I got fairly lucky with the offspring). The other guava seedling which I got he called it waimea red guava. This fruited last year as well, however the fruit was not red and the flavor was ok. I would rate this guava like a B-, its a dwarf stature with good production and decent flavor so I will keep it for now. The Diamond guava seedling I would rate as a solid A.

I would not recommend going there unless you want grafted mango or a common grafted annona (gefner etc.). Everything else is mostly seedlings with variable quality, the loquat seedling may be worth it depending what mother tree they are from. The guava seedlings are a random chance you probably get a decent tree at least. You are going to get better selection of trees with ad hoc local collectors, etsy/ebay sellers, and online nurseries. The tropical fruit scene is booming in South Florida with small fruit farms and nurseries. California it seems to have stagnated with nurseries.

[hammer524]

I was looking to drive to Cali to namely check things out and buy some cherimoyas for my greenhouse. don't want to take the flight to Arizona East (Florida)

[greg_D]

Agree with Kevin, Exotica is a really cool nursery to look around.  They have a lot of really mature trees planted, it's an established food forest.  They have a beautiful really old Persian mulberry they sell airlayers of.  I think it's worth visiting just to check out, but then again I like to visit gardens just to see mature plants and how they grow. 

As far as buying plants, I think time of year you go matters for a good selection.  They had a lot of plants in spring and the nursery was really cleaned up compared to other times I've gone.   They do occasionally sell grafted plants and rooted cuttings but most of their in house stock are seedlings.

Steve, the owner, is really nice.  He showed me around and sold me scions I was looking for off his tree.

Janet

I did have a great time walking around. Also, there's a nice fruit stand across the street and a good Mexican place a mile down the road (Cocina Del Carmen). So I think it's definitely worth checking out if you're in the area, but maybe not a place to make the trip for

[eNorm]

Hey Greg,

I haven’t been back to Exotica for a few years now, but years before that, I did purchase their large lemon guava type.  It has fruited for me and the fruits are about 1 1/2" wide.  I also have the standard size one from Home Depot and they're approximately 3/4".  They taste about the same, but not really worth eating the smaller ones when you have the larger ones available.

I've also grown out seeds of the large one and they have consistently grown the larger size fruits.  I think there's a good chance of getting the larger fruit.

Norm

[greg_D]

Hey Greg,

I haven’t been back to Exotica for a few years now, but years before that, I did purchase their large lemon guava type.  It has fruited for me and the fruits are about 1 1/2" wide.  I also have the standard size one from Home Depot and they're approximately 3/4".  They taste about the same, but not really worth eating the smaller ones when you have the larger ones available.

I've also grown out seeds of the large one and they have consistently grown the larger size fruits.  I think there's a good chance of getting the larger fruit.

Norm

Thanks norm! Good to know. I might stop by again when the fruit is ripe on the trees

[shmojojojo]

I was looking to drive to Cali to namely check things out and buy some cherimoyas for my greenhouse. don't want to take the flight to Arizona East (Florida)

Hey Marc. If you make the drive up to LA county, I can show you around a bit. I'm within a 5 miles of Champa, Mimosa(Rosemead) and a few other spots. When did you plan on coming out here, because Champa is having a 50% off everything Labor Day sale that ends 9/11. Champanursery.com is updated pretty regularly, but not everything they have is listed. Looks like they'll have "Cherilata" (Annona Cherimola x Annona reticulata) in stock this month. I got a few things growing too if you're interested.

[hammer524]

I was looking to drive to Cali to namely check things out and buy some cherimoyas for my greenhouse. don't want to take the flight to Arizona East (Florida)

Hey Marc. If you make the drive up to LA county, I can show you around a bit. I'm within a 5 miles of Champa, Mimosa(Rosemead) and a few other spots. When did you plan on coming out here, because Champa is having a 50% off everything Labor Day sale that ends 9/11. Champanursery.com is updated pretty regularly, but not everything they have is listed. Looks like they'll have "Cherilata" (Annona Cherimola x Annona reticulata) in stock this month. I got a few things growing too if you're interested.

I appreciate it and will probably take you up on that when i decide to pull the trigger.  I bought a matt snow black sapote from Champa last month. Great prices. Here is what my bookmarks for online sellers look like. Gotta be shrewd being away from all the action.

[shmojojojo]

I appreciate it and will probably take you up on that when i decide to pull the trigger.  I bought a matt snow black sapote from Champa last month. Great prices. Here is what my bookmarks for online sellers look like. Gotta be shrewd being away from all the action.

Sure man, let me know. They hold plants too (I always see reserved plants bundled together) in case you want to get in on that sweet 50% off and pick them up later

[greg_D]

Update: just stopped by a local nursery - H&H in Long Beach - that had P lucidum of similar size with fruit on them. The ones at Exotica are in my opinion exactly the same. Each tree has many fruit of various sizes, some large, most regular or small. You could take a photo of one of the big ones and say 'look how big the fruit is!' but it would not mean the tree is the giant variety. It's normal for the subspecies for a few of the fruit to be abnormally large.

[K-Rimes]

Update: just stopped by a local nursery - H&H in Long Beach - that had P lucidum of similar size with fruit on them. The ones at Exotica are in my opinion exactly the same. Each tree has many fruit of various sizes, some large, most regular or small. You could take a photo of one of the big ones and say 'look how big the fruit is!' but it would not mean the tree is the giant variety. It's normal for the subspecies for a few of the fruit to be abnormally large.

A well thinned guava will make monster size fruit compared to one that is allowed to hold all of them. Hopefully you can find what you're looking for.

[CarolinaZone]

I bought a Diamond guava seedling about 4 years back, after tasting one of the mature Diamond guava seedlings on a past visit. The trees were gone which I tasted the fruit from, so I had to asked Steve if he had anymore. He did have some smaller 1 gal seedlings of Diamond guava, so I took a chance and grew it out.

Is a Diamond the same as a red diamond?

[CarolinaZone]

Thanks for the report. I was planning on making a trip to Socal to check out the nurseries in a couple months. Is there a nursery that stands out for more unique/ rare plants. Or is it best to reach out to forum members

Ong nursery is supposedly amazing. San Diego area only open on weekends. Pricey but good.

Los Angeles area check out Mimosa nursery. There are three 'Mimosa Nursery' locations in SoCal; I would not recommend the one in Anaheim. The east LA one is pretty good, the other one (Rosemead?) is IMO the best.

I have meaning to take trip to East LA but Rosemead? Did I ever tell you guys about the time I visited there and met the old cranky Chinese guy?https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=40308.msg396957#msg396957

[brian]

The larger cattley guavas seem to be excessively seedy, the sweet spot for me is around 1in diameter.  All on same tree, I get from 1/2in to golf ball size depending on how many set