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Topics - CGameProgrammer

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Ross Sapote setting fruit in San Diego
« on: August 31, 2016, 04:22:16 PM »
I'm excited, my Ross Sapote that I've had for two years flowered for the first time this year and has surprisingly already set a bunch of fruit. Hopefully they ripen properly. Has anyone grown this plant in California?

Click the thumbnails for the full-sized images:




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Currently I have Kari which makes nice sweet and sour melon-flavored fruit with a few seeds but not many. The tree is about six feet high at the most but it still produced ripe fruit December through April even though it was only one crop, it just ripened one by one over months.

Now I'm looking for another variety that is sufficiently different than Kari, particularly Fwang Tung or Sri Kembsomething. How do they compare?

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / In California, looking for Coconut Cream
« on: July 21, 2016, 06:17:06 PM »
I'd like to get CC and maybe one or two other interesting mango varieties but I don't know of a nursery selling them that ships to CA, except Top Tropicals but they reportedly can't be trusted for mangoes. Is anyone aware of one?

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Are there any farmers markets where rare fruits can be purchased? Not much may be in season in June admittedly.

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For space reasons, it can be prudent to grow some trees tall with the lower branches removed, harvesting the fruit after it drops to the ground instead of picking it from the branches. But I wonder which trees work well like this? The fruit should drop before becoming overripe, it shouldn't immediately begin to ferment, and it shouldn't break open upon landing.

I'm particularly curious about sapodillas or any of the pouterias. These trees can grow very tall and it's usually not visually obvious when the fruit is ripe. So can you just harvest them from the ground after they drop?

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My grafted Green Sapote arrived a few days ago from TopTropicals. Right now it's in a pot to recover from shipping, but soon enough I'll be planting it. Has anyone gotten it to fruit successfully here? Mine seems very healthy at the moment (but some plants take a while to recover from shipping) although the graft looks ugly to me, but I don't know anything about grafting. The plant has five branches - the central leader and four others symmetrically around it. Exceptionally well-formed for a mail order plant.







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I bought a carambola tree in May, and while it flowered intermittently throughout the summer, it just recently flowered extremely profusely, covering every branch and much of the trunk. The bees took notice and caused like half the flowers to set fruit. The tree has been aborting a lot of that fruit though, although there's still a lot remaining, but it seems like every day a whole bunch drops. Is this normal? I want to make sure it's not a sign the tree is deficient in nutrients or water or whatever.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Canistel pollination
« on: August 05, 2014, 05:46:21 PM »
My Bruce canistel tree, which was heavily loaded with flower buds, is now in the middle of blooming, if you can call it blooming. Some buds form greenish-white petals that never fully open and eventually drop off. Others form a single thin rod that excretes a rich nectar that smells like honey. No bees are anywhere near the plant although ants are crawling all around it.

Anyway, I was wondering what these two forms of flower were, how they get pollinated, and what a canistel fruit looks like when it's just begun to set (meaning the way to tell that pollination was successful). Thanks in advance.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / High-phosphorous fertilizer?
« on: May 27, 2014, 07:04:36 PM »
I was at Ong's Nursery this weekend buying some plants, and got to talking with him since he was present (a rarity). He recommends applying a water-soluble 10-52-10 fertilizer twice a month to aid and extend flowering/fruiting. He said normally for example Wax Jambu just produces one crop in July but with the fertilizer it continues flowering/fruiting until November, producing up to 5 crops total.

But everything else I've read about high-phosphate fertilizers is extremely negative. Even water-soluble fertilizers in general seem to have a fair amount of bad things written about them. Of course Ong specializes in tropical fruits from southeast asia so maybe those have a higher need for high-phosphate fertilizer than other plants? Does anyone have personal experience with high-phosphorous fertilizer?

I'd love to extend the fruiting period but probably not if it significantly compromises vegetative growth.

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A Surinam cherry tree I recently planted had great-looking fruit when I bought it but they've all become very dull-looking and somewhat shriveled, instead of smooth and shiny like they should be. They have been ripening/growing however. Also some leaves seem to have developed some black spots, probably related to the heat. I'm guessing the fruit issue means the tree doesn't have enough water but want to make sure before I add more, so I don't drown it if water is not the issue. Has anyone seen this sort of thing? These fruits were on the ground because the tree has been aborting some fruits but not many. But nearly all of the fruit on the tree look just like this.


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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Carambola care in a container
« on: May 12, 2014, 09:00:32 PM »
Are there any tips/tricks for growing carambola in a container? For example, what container size is best long-term and at what point should the tree be moved up? I have a ~5' tall tree I just bought which is in a 15-gallon container. I assume it would eventually need a larger one...?

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Do any bananas taste unlike bananas?
« on: May 12, 2014, 02:53:36 PM »
Maybe it's a strange question but I don't particularly care for the taste of bananas although I like the plants. I am wondering if any edible (when raw) banana varieties have a taste unlike the regular banana taste? I know some cultivars have subtle taste variations but that's not what I'm talking about.

Put another way, are there any varieties where if you put them in the blender and drank them as a smoothie, you might not recognize it as being banana?

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I haven't been able to find any information on this - during what months of the year does sapodilla tend to produce ripe fruit around here?

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I have a muntingia calabura (strawberry tree / panama berry / jamaican cherry) purchased and planted a few weeks ago which is perhaps 5' tall. Anyway recently some of its leaves have  been turning yellow and falling off. We did have a heat wave with fairly high winds recently. Perhaps it's not getting enough water? Has anyone experienced this? I watered it a bit more but don't want to risk overwatering.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Fruiting and flowering periods
« on: April 30, 2014, 07:38:18 PM »
I'm new at growing fruits but am very interested in finding out the fruiting and flowering periods for all the plants people are growing. Can you guys contribute information on your plants, stating your region, the months during which the plant blooms, and the months during which it produces ripe edible fruit? Of course this applies only to plants mature enough to fruit reliably. Most of my plants were acquired within the last few months but I have had passion fruit for over a year:

REGION: San Diego (10b)

Purple Passion Fruit (passiflora edulis 'Frederick')
BLOOMS: April through December
FRUITS: July through March
NOTES: Flowers last 24 hours but are produced continuously. Most days have at least one flower. Fruits ripen in 3 months.

I hope you guys with all your fruits can contribute. In particular the fruits that produce over extended periods are most interesting. Reportedly surinam cherry, strawberry tree (muntingia calabura), and some jaboticaba can produce continuously or nearly so over the whole year...

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