The Tropical Fruit Forum

Most of the solanums that I grow are poisonous when green, and not very sweet when eaten raw and ripe. But they make awesome pies, jams, etc.
Wonderberry, a Luther Burbank cultivar I think, is the best raw.
The garden huckleberry is also a very nutritious green. I have some seeds from Cameroon, and some from Burundi, courtesy of the gardeners at the community garden that I run.

You have to be really careful with all these if you have kids. They are closely related to black nightshade and since most of these are poisonous, you have to get your seeds from a reputable source.

Yes, I grow ground cherries. My favorite cultivar is "Aunt Molly". I start them in the greenhouse quite early then put them outside. They are very tasty eaten out of hand, and have a slightly sweet pineapple flavor.

Cheers, Carolyn

Seriously, pot it up. You can totally control water, nutrition and heat. Your greenhouse gets colder then mine,  so you could even wrap heat tape around the pot.
I have mine down to a system -
1. In the early spring, separate out the pups and repot them. Keep the best one for a replacement and sell the others to unsuspecting homeowners.
2. Start feeding the hell out of the mother plant. It will usually bloom some time between May and September.
3. After harvest, throw away old plant, revitalize the soil and pot the best pup into the 25 gallon pot.
4. Repeat yearly until the grandkids are grown and I can't keep up with eating all the bananas (luckily my son gave me an AWESOME chocolate banana cake recipe that uses 12 bananas!)

I get bananas every year!

This year's plant (aka last year's pup)


Last year's crop

Shelled, they are brown on the outside and creamy on the inside.
Seriously, driving over them with the car will not hurt them, and will clean the husk off.
These are all shelled...

I have used cattle fence panels. Cut them with heavy duty bolt cutters and wire the pieces together. Triangle shape is strongest.  Bury in the pot. Like this one that is holding up my dragonfruit.

Yeah, the germination rate on the seeds that I have is fairly low - out of 25 seeds I got five plants.  I will try cuttings once they get mature.
The trellis I was going to use is a fan that is 3 ft wide at the top and 5 ft tall.  Maybe I will build one that I can attach directly to the rafters.

That's awesome! I was excited to see that I already have many of the tropical ones in my greenhouse!!!

Carolyn

I have some loroco (fernaldia pandurata) seeds that have germinated and am looking at potting them up shortly.
Anybody familiar with these? How big do they get? I can't find much info on the size. I was thinking of putting a few in a single 16" pot with a trellis, and then growing a couple up the greenhouse porch post as annuals.

Thanks, Carolyn

Maybe I'll just call it Mahoi.
They taste delicious!

Carolyn

I am pretty sure it was actually successful, here are the results in another video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMl6HnhFFIA

Yes, they were very successful!!
I even named my pet rat Snorky...

Carolyn

So I wonder, since you obviously can't grow an actual banana plant from a banana, can you sprout roots from the banana stem?
Or are those roots just from tomato seeds or something?
Hmmm...

If you use Azera, make sure you add a "sticker/spreader" or it won't stay on the leaves long enough to kill the scale. I have also had really good luck with Imidicloprid. I find the liquid easier to mix than the granules. But it is very toxic to beneficial insects also, so timing is critical.

Carolyn

I bet you don't have to have a greenhouse there!
Happy fruit growing, and I'm glad your wife gets to be near her family!

Think I'll try the paper towel thing.