The Tropical Fruit Forum

Nothing ground breaking, but I felt like these Hass were really outstanding size wise.

I tasted a few CORG's from a friend's tree, it is a seedling tree that is over 5yrs old. The fruits were very sweet, and the seeds were very small, he called it Seedless Deborah. I took some photos and have it somewhere in my computer folders. Do you know how sweet they get, brix?

My other fruit friend Dan has a large tree and his CORG fruits were good, and I measured those brix = 11 to 12.

When we have had a major heat wave at just the right time, I got one reading up to nearly 16, but that was an anomaly. I have definitely had sweeter CORG than the 13.7 shown. I think ScottR's has been overall one of the best. Ben's Beaut is not that sweet. It's big, and balanced. That may be more desirable to someone looking for a standard cherry replacement in the  tropics.

Trying my best to stake this thing up.





And this one is finally showing. The other take I had, the branch that was growing popped off in the wind.

Curious to see some brix readings from other CORG / calycina growers. I will continue to add cultivars as they ripen, and will do an orange CORG soon too. While this is not definitive as to what tastes best, some have a really nice sour sweet balance, it is at least a data point to consider.

Nelita straight from Miguel. Could be sweeter in full sun. Absolute cannon of a fruit.






“Genealogical” cultivar




I note that calcyina have red flesh, Corg have orange.

Looking good so far. For Yangmei, buds can push and then suddenly die back. I consider it a success when the first flush fully hardens.

For the Cerifera, it usually takes about 3-4 weeks for mine to root out in warm weather.

“Sudden die back on yangmei” is my middle name Simon. 

I will keep you all updated. The cerifera cuttings have a few buds showing, if you zoom in you can see them. I know it is common for cuttings to throw leaves or even whole branches without any roots at all just stored energy so I will be patient.

The Wandao tree really is budding up nicely. I want to say I nailed the timing, but let’s see.

Barbados straight up died for me at my old place every single time. I think it is far less cold hardy than is pitanga.

It looks like I possibly have some fruit holding. Hopefully they don’t drop.






Bill

Great job on that! This is a real accomplishment for SoCal!

I have not yet encountered a pitanga which can tolerate temps below freezing for long periods. They will take leaf damage in the mid 30s, defoliate at 32f, and get tip damage below 30f. Below 26f and you’re losing branches up to 1/4” thick (pencil size) if for more than a few hours. Been there done that. I have at least 20 examples of varying sources. Only the Argentinian variety, Missiones, displays a very slight edge.

My mango season is just getting started since I got back from FL. I did visit Fruit and Spice Park and was really pleased with how many trees had good quality fruit, so I got to sample lots of the old school oddballs. It was great.

I was well taken care of by Skhan, who is a top tier grower in my humble opinion, visited Rich Campbell, and also had a few seedling mangoes of good quality with JohnB51! A well rounded trip. It looked to me that it was a solid year for mangoes, and I was glad I made the trip. Maybe not a banner year, but a good one nonetheless.

I think the early entry was the real value, including the ability to load up on the top tier fruit which was totally absent when I got there just after 10am. It was an absolute zoo already, with line up wrapping around the building into the parking lot.

Being that fruit was being cut fresh, that's a step up from the Mount's Mango Fest, which was served cold, bagged, and soggy from the night before. It was not worth it last year at all.

Functionally I just think it's kind of impossible to do a mango tasting in full form for more than a handful of people, say 6, at a time. This, along with the variability of each individual fruit makes it really challenging to nail it.

Quote from: K-Rimes on July 01, 2025, 10:52:28 PM

One of the easier ones. In a pot pushed just below soil surface and covered in a well draining potting medium. Almost never fails. An easy sprouter. I do community pots often.

No significant losses from the community pot method?

As long as you get to them before they get too big they separate pretty easily. They tend to have a pretty easily separable tap root. Wouldn’t go crazy density, maybe 20 seeds per 1g max

Quote from: K-Rimes on July 01, 2025, 02:02:10 PM

These oddball guavas are not like guajava. They generally have soft seeds that you barely notice. Their flavor is not "stinky" like guajava either, it's something quite different that I would suggest is more candy, sweet with a real bright undertone. I like guajava of course, all of them aside from the crunchy stuff, but I think these other species are worth a serious look at and definitely are top of mind for me to create a hybrid. The size of guajava + sweet sour of the "big yellow" would be top tier stuff.

A lot of them seem by their descriptions to be wonderful candidates for container culture and overwintering indoors. Seems I've been sleeping on this genus. How large in general do they need to be to fruit?

I get fruit off them about 3' tall, sometimes less, in containers. I usually get them to fruit once they're in a 15g. You can really abuse them with pruning too since they are tip bearing. I would highly recommend them, personally. I'll have fruit this year if you want seeds. It's just easier for me to send whole fruits even if they rot on the way and aren't edible.