The Tropical Fruit Forum

Thank you Frank! Arrived earlier than expected and the quality is superb. Delicious, large fruits.

 

Have a few spare Pollock avocado scions.
3 scions minimum + $12 for USPS priority shipping. Send a message if interested, thanks.

   ~3/8" width, 8 total wrapped in parafilm.  $4 each

   ~5/8" width, 2 total wrapped in parafilm.  $5 each

    ~3/4"-1" width, 5 total stored in moist vermiculite.  $8 each

You can get them at just about any big box store near Hollywood (Home Depot, Walmart, etc.) or local nurseries, but its all typical red papaya.

Unless someone local responds with a good variety for sale, I recommend starting multiple from seed and selecting a cultivar you know you will enjoy. Average of 1-1.5 yrs to begin fruiting and you have an endless supply of seeds and cuttings after that.

I highly recommend the University of Hawai'i ADSC Seed Program:
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/seed/seeds.asp

Papaya varieties are Waimanalo Low Bearing (X-77), Sunrise Papaya, and Sunset Papaya. They are all non-GMO, if that is a concern for you. The Waimanalo is my favorite and I just sold off my last two or I wouldve been glad to share. They also have a wide variety of vegetable seeds you can add to your order, many of which can do well in our climate. I have not had an issue, pest or disease, with any of the solo papayas to date, though I keep mine potted and low to avoid missing any signs of papaya wasp.

I'm still looking for Darrow myself, but would definitely recommend grabbing some Oregon Exotics female and/or male che scions from Martha at https://reallygoodplants.com/ if youre looking to spice up the gene pool.

My grafts seem to be taking well.

Fruitwood Nursery currently has the edible landscaping "seedless" variety (which really still needs a pollinator for adequate fruit production) and their own female/male scions. 

My garden is not dealing with many pests at the moment, but I still have plenty of small spiders, even in my small apartment yard. You probably have an abundance of gnats, small flies, and/or mosquitos. The spiders that small generally won't affect any larger insects or pollinators, I've seen houseflies rip right through them. I think you may be overfocused on the spiders, they probably just found the best set-up to catch prey.

Aside from that, browning on mangos as pictured can be indicative of nutrient deficiency, salt burn, too much sun exposure, pests, etc. The leaves look healthy but the blooms are dying, which can indicate nutrient deficiency or fungal/bacterial infection, unless Boca has just been experiencing crazy weather recently.

You can consider treating with fungicide and maybe amending soil if browning persists. You can also check the quality of your water source, as salt build-up can certainly take its toll after a few years if not addressed. If you inspect leaves and see a ton of pests, especially scale or aphids, my suggestion would be to get like 3k ladybugs and let them loose at night. I always have better results than with sprays.

Im sure people will have more to add, but thats where I would start. Good luck

Sold

Kiwano 'Rund' Jelly Melon (Cucumis metuliferus) - Total of 10 individual seedlings. This variety is the "Round" version of the kiwano melon/jelly melon.
My grapes are coming back, so I no longer have room on my trellis, and these love to climb! Refreshing fruit for a hot summer day. Total cost for all plants + priority shipping is $25. Note that the vines and fruits will be spikey.



Sweet Maprang [aka Marian Plum or mango plum] (Bouea macrophylla)

I think it may be one (of many) Philodendron species, my best guess is Philodendron jacquinii based on the leaf.

Images of the fruit look similar as well, though I cant find much consistent documentation or pictures on immature and ripe fruits.

Did you recently re-pot the plants? Are they fully rooted cuttings? Whats the ambient temperature and whats your light source?

The general consensus I've read for the Granadilla's (passiflora ligularis and passiflora quadrangularis) is that they are not self-fertile, though it can vary down to the specimen depending on genetics/hybridization. I would recommend a pollinator companion.

Generally speaking, species under the same genus may be genetically similar enough for graft compatibility. White sapote (genus Casimiroa) and Citrus are too distant, whereas peaches, plums and cherries all fall under the genus Prunus and can be grafted as a cocktail tree.

Spent like half an hour searching my photos... found everything but the fruit lol.

I found this picture online; to my recollection, the last two fruits I ate looked almost identical to the one pictured, maybe slightly larger. One ripened in two weeks, the other ripened after a month and a half. I was surprised how evenly ripe they were considering their size.

If you are running out of space and think an airlayer may take too much time, I recommend trying to just root cuttings. I have done this with my standard papaya's and Mountain papaya (pictured below) and always find it relatively easy.

I can't find a good picture of the fully developed roots, but here is my method (started April '23) and one of the spare plants that I sold (November '23). I kept another one of these plants for myself that was ~2x the size as the one pictured, but I recently gave it to a friend and never took a photo.

   

I used a seed starting potting mix with a touch of perlite. I've used this method on more plants with some success, though I would recommend a much thinner layer of perlite at the bottom. The one pictured was my first attempt with this method.
I cut drainage holes in the bottom and along the side of the bottom of the cup. Nowadays I will also wrap longer cuttings with grafting tape or put another cup on top of small cuttings (with ventilation) to create a humidity dome.

With this, you can focus on shaping your remaining potted papaya plants and not have to worry about the impact of a developing airlayer.