The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: Jaboticaba45 on November 10, 2022, 10:46:05 AM
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Let’s use this thread to spread awareness of cool underrated fruits that are worth growing. What are your takes on this?
I’ll go first.
Kwai muk. Why?
Great taste as it’s like a peach citrus with balance tartness. It’s also a cold tolerant tree.
Beautiful tree too.
Honorable mention to olosapo
Also a beautiful tree with silvery leaves and the fruit smells so good like burnt sugar.
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Good topic! I hope to learn from this one. I think your namesake fruit should be grown more in South Florida, as should white sapote, persimmon, and atemoya, but those are considered pretty common.
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Good topic! I hope to learn from this one. I think your namesake fruit should be grown more in South Florida, as should white sapote, persimmon, and atemoya, but those are considered pretty common.
Of course, what is considered common is relative. The fruits you mentioned are known to everyone on the Forum but, even in areas where they can be grown, are probably unknown to 99% of the public.
I will add Kadsura to Jaboticaba45's list. Even just a couple of years ago, when I started growing it, there was almost nothing online about it. Now, there is an effort to push it as a new specialty fruit.
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I would like to add Caimito. Obviously I'm biased as I'm not living in the tropics but I still think the fruit is underrated.
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Mammee Apple
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Mammee Apple
I hope so. When I was first getting into this based on fruits I had tried living in Miami and I meant to buy a Mamey Sapote and bought this instead now I have a 3 foot Mammee Apple tree that seems to be doing well
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Abiu
and i agree with the others on atemoya, kwai muk and mammee americana
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Agree w abiu, but I also really dig grumichama and wish I had bags of em. Excited to try kwai muk someday but I dig lakoocha which I hear is similar.
-Joe
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wax jambu (samarangense), chill them and eat them in one big bite. As a kid I never tried 'rose' flavored things because I thought 'roses are flowers, obviously they aren't going to taste good' ...... I can't believe I missed out for so long
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To me, a lot of tropical fruits are unpopular for obvious reasons - difficult to eat or questionable flavor (especially older cultivars).
However I think sapodilla (aka chico sapote) is definitely underrated; apparently it used to be gritty but current cultivars, such as Alano which I have, are delicious and very easy to eat. They should be much more popular but nobody knows about them.
Canistel (and ross sapote) are another. Certainly plenty of people don't like them (texture usually), but I think the good cultivars are very enjoyable.
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Theobroma bicolor (mocambo) and Theobroma grandiflorum (cupuassu). More common but still hard to buy here - Artocarpus integer (cempedak) and Pouteria caimito (abiu)
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After reading that kwai muk is apparently cold tolerant enough to survive here in Florida 9b that convinced me to try growing it.
This species, from the descriptions of the fruit and its flavor that I've read about, sounds clearly underrated.
Paul M.
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I will add Kadsura to Jaboticaba45's list. Even just a couple of years ago, when I started growing it, there was almost nothing online about it. Now, there is an effort to push it as a new specialty fruit.
I was reading about kadsura and daguetia recently and they sounds interesting but it looks like from the pictures there is hardly any flesh? Have you tried it?
And has anybody actually tried yangmei fruit?
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I will add Kadsura to Jaboticaba45's list. Even just a couple of years ago, when I started growing it, there was almost nothing online about it. Now, there is an effort to push it as a new specialty fruit.
I was reading about kadsura and daguetia recently and they sounds interesting but it looks like from the pictures there is hardly any flesh? Have you tried it?
And has anybody actually tried yangmei fruit?
Kadsura has very little flesh to seed ratio. I was able to read another collectors take on the fruits and he said it was just more ornamental the edible. But again, I and the whole community would like to wait more until the jury is out. Especially since it was only one person.
Seems cool that I could just plant them outside here. Even if it is more ornamental.
several people have had yangmei fruit. And it seems to be decent.
I talked with someone who had some but they said it was good, but had some bitterness? Or something like that I forgot.
It has to be a good fruit given that China's production acreage is triple our apple production. The hype this fruit has recieved the last few years is amazing.
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I've tried a yangmei juice drink at a Taiwanese restuaraunt. It has a herbal taste that is pretty quintessential of chinese medicine. If you're not accustomed to the flavor, you probably won't like yangmei.
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I've tried a yangmei juice drink at a Taiwanese restuaraunt. It has a herbal taste that is pretty quintessential of chinese medicine. If you're not accustomed to the flavor, you probably won't like yangmei.
Ostensibly Yangmei is the flavor called Yumberry in the berry mix Skittles packages 😄
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There are a lot of really good eugenia that I think go unnoticed or under valued. Cherry of the Rio Grande is crazy productive for me, it's really easy, it's more cold hardy than you think and it's tasty.
Thanks to this thread I bought a kwai muk to trial here.
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There are a lot of really good eugenia that I think go unnoticed or under valued. Cherry of the Rio Grande is crazy productive for me, it's really easy, it's more cold hardy than you think and it's tasty.
Thanks to this thread I bought a kwai muk to trial here.
I don't think you will be disappointed.
I have 3 of them and don't plan on getting rid of them anytime soon.
I hear the CORG sometimes has bad taste, but again once you find the good variety you can always topwork. I have ben's beaty and calycina.
That's a eugenia I'm looking forward to trying.
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Dabai - very tasty, calorie dense food. If I ate a kilo I would be full for hours. Seem like a pain to harvest and I’ve heard only 1 in 10 trees will produce a female tree but still doesn’t make sense to me why they aren’t more commonly grown outside of Borneo. Taste I would describe is something between an olive and an avocado. Definitely in my top 10
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Is anyone in Southern California getting good quality fruit from Kwai Muk?
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Java plum. Good cultivars have small seeds. Tenderized to reduce astringent taste by gently shaking them with a pinch of salt and ground red pepper until the fruits are very soft or broken.
guamuchil. Good cultivars are big and sweet.
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Hi Seng,
I have some Java Plum Syzygium cumini growing in a Citrus / Grape growing region. Seems fairly tough but only flowers slightly, not fruited, for the first time this year.
Are you growing Java Plum in CA / San Diego ?
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I will add Kadsura to Jaboticaba45's list. Even just a couple of years ago, when I started growing it, there was almost nothing online about it. Now, there is an effort to push it as a new specialty fruit.
I was reading about kadsura and daguetia recently and they sounds interesting but it looks like from the pictures there is hardly any flesh? Have you tried it?
And has anybody actually tried yangmei fruit?
Kadsura has very little flesh to seed ratio. I was able to read another collectors take on the fruits and he said it was just more ornamental the edible. But again, I and the whole community would like to wait more until the jury is out. Especially since it was only one person.
Seems cool that I could just plant them outside here. Even if it is more ornamental.
several people have had yangmei fruit. And it seems to be decent.
I talked with someone who had some but they said it was good, but had some bitterness? Or something like that I forgot.
It has to be a good fruit given that China's production acreage is triple our apple production. The hype this fruit has recieved the last few years is amazing.
No, my plants have not fruited, yet. But, it is a fruit I am very excited about. All the writings and video reviews I've read about Kadsura heterclita and Kadsura coccinea indicate that they are very delicious. Jared, the Weird Explorer, likened it to lavender mixed with citrus, and his was overripe and turning brown. Another reviewer described it as a mixture of lychee and mangosteen; his was not overripe. The flesh-to-seed ratio does seem to vary, but it looks better than many jaboticaba varieties I've seen going for big money on eBay. It may never become a commercially successful fruit, but it looks like it might be a winner for home growers.
The person whose review you read may have been talking about Kadsura japonica, which, while the fruit is edible, is a more commonly used as an ornamental plant and has been planted in the US since at least the 1940s (there are examples planted by E. A. McIlhenny at Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, Louisiana that have been there since before 1945). Kadsura heterclita and Kadsura coccinea are grown for their fruit in their native Southeast Asia and are apparently very recent introductions to the US.
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On the nut side, I think hickory and probably hecans (hickory x pecan hybrids) are very under rated. The taste of hickory is excellent, the knock is getting them to crack out cleanly However, that might be solved with further hybridization with pecan.
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Hi Seng,
I have some Java Plum Syzygium cumini growing in a Citrus / Grape growing region. Seems fairly tough but only flowers slightly, not fruited, for the first time this year.
Are you growing Java Plum in CA / San Diego ?
Yes, San Diego.
(https://i.postimg.cc/rdWcjk3S/20211020-java-plum-size.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/rdWcjk3S)
(https://i.postimg.cc/N5zcwFw6/20210928-java-plum-cluster.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/N5zcwFw6)
(https://i.postimg.cc/c6z9xnrL/20210613-java-plum-tree.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/c6z9xnrL)
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Any underrated garcinias? I have purple mangosteen and achacha but I wouldn't say these are underrated as both are commercial crops. Keledang looks amazing but I have never tried it. Pretty sure there have to be quite a few underrated Artocarpus, besides Kwai muk.
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“Peanut Butter Fruit”- Bunchosia argentea- High fat content ,decent (excellent imo) balanced avocado peanut/sweet peas flavor, fruit production nearly year round, can be blown over by hurricane and uprighted no problems, very filling can give you the farts.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tY0K7qFv/6-B0-BAB27-226-D-464-A-AA94-3-B29-D25-A892-A.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/tY0K7qFv)
(https://i.postimg.cc/mPBKNmXQ/715708-C6-6-C7-C-4-E7-E-A486-A795-FC23-A45-D.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/mPBKNmXQ)
(https://i.postimg.cc/ykFwZMP1/AF3635-CB-6-C3-B-4-FE0-8-EB2-95-D03-F8419-FA.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/ykFwZMP1)
(https://i.postimg.cc/PCy96190/F0-C47289-E12-B-46-BA-B17-B-CAB56-D579853.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/PCy96190)
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Flacourtia indica.
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Flacourtia indica.
if it's thornless for sure!
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for me the one that gets me excited is maprang.
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for me the one that gets me excited is maprang.
Yes I have to agree with this one!
gelatinous flesh and good flavor. Unfortunately not many people are growing this in the US, especially in FL.
I think a good one might outrank a regular mango for me.
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I agree, i would love to grow Maprang and mayong chid. From what i heard it's hard to grow in fl? I still want to try it tho lol
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I agree, i would love to grow Maprang and mayong chid. From what i heard it's hard to grow in fl? I still want to try it tho lol
Slower growers, and weaker root systems. I've seen a decent sized one, but still way off from fruiting. I wish I bought some.
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I agree, i would love to grow Maprang and mayong chid. From what i heard it's hard to grow in fl? I still want to try it tho lol
Slower growers, and weaker root systems. I've seen a decent sized one, but still way off from fruiting. I wish I bought some.
From what i research in Thai, younger tree and newly planted tree must protected from direct sun until established.
Roots must be protected with mulch.
When planting in the ground, do not let the roots fall apart. Wait for the dirt in the pot to dry out before planting. That way the dirt hold its shape. You can deep water it after planting.
Do not fertilize the tree until you see new growth. Give very little cow maneuver compost. (It doesn't like salty? Do not use chicken maneuver because it's too salty)
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My second maprang seedling died like the first, and because the third one is looking haggard also I tried planting it into pure peat moss as a hail-mary in case it is wanting acid soil or something.
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My second maprang seedling died like the first, and because the third one is looking haggard also I tried planting it into pure peat moss as a hail-mary in case it is wanting acid soil or something.
I hope it does better for you. I like that thinking lol
Mine has been very slow in regular soil
best bet is to buy grafted trees from PR imo
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best bet is to buy grafted trees from PR imo
I would think a grafted tree would be even more finicky! I am not risking growing any expensive grafted trees if I can't even get a seedling to live for more than six months :)
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Maprang is more difficult then mango in Florida i think its the humidity but Im not positive
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don’t think Maprang is underrated tho, the folks who have tryed it rate it highly…
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Id add jakfruit to the underrated list, but understandably so. Some cultivars mediocre on flavor and others are a pain to process the fruit out, but then you come across a easy peel absolutely delicious jak and doors to fruit heaven open.
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don’t think Maprang is underrated tho, the folks who have tryed it rate it highly…
I don't think it is a commonly known fruit in the USA. Even so not many people are growing it.
where can you try the fruits?
And Jackfruit I'd say has to be well rated as it's pretty common.
But I can't deny that it is a good fruit. My favorite is the hybrid.
Chempedak is just too slimy for me.
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I have had some really good Hog Plum (Spondias purpurea). But you don't hear much about it. It had an awesome fruit punch type flavor. Cercropia was pretty good, too. Not mango good, but as good as mulberry which gets a lot more press on the forum. I also enjoy natal plum--fruits are hard to come by in Florida because of the sterile plants used for landscape, but the soft-ripe fruits remind me of cranberry/apple sauce.
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I have had some really good Hog Plum (Spondias purpurea). But you don't hear much about it.
Are the urushiol levels or the risk of contact dermatitis/allergy a problem? The descriptions suggest the contents are higher/less localized than in mangoes.
Given that it's a semi-arid species (hence the urushiol, which acts as a waterproofing/anti-desiccant agent), I'm surprised the agricultural uses have focused on Florida and not California or Arizona. Too much risk of frost in the desert?
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I have had some really good Hog Plum (Spondias purpurea). But you don't hear much about it.
Are the urushiol levels or the risk of contact dermatitis/allergy a problem? The descriptions suggest the contents are higher/less localized than in mangoes.
Given that it's a semi-arid species (hence the urushiol, which acts as a waterproofing/anti-desiccant agent), I'm surprised the agricultural uses have focused on Florida and not California or Arizona. Too much risk of frost in the desert?
probably. they are barely able to survive winters on the southern coasts of Florida
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I have had some really good Hog Plum (Spondias purpurea). But you don't hear much about it. It had an awesome fruit punch type flavor. Cercropia was pretty good, too. Not mango good, but as good as mulberry which gets a lot more press on the forum. I also enjoy natal plum--fruits are hard to come by in Florida because of the sterile plants used for landscape, but the soft-ripe fruits remind me of cranberry/apple sauce.
Natal plum was decent for me but there was a lot of sap.
I do agree that hog plum is underatted. I do think it tasted good, but it's been a while since I last tried it.
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What does this have to do with Mango? :-)
Seriously, down here in Florida I think that persimmon could use a boost in popularity
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What does this have to do with Mango? :-)
Mango Fruit Forum.
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I would like to add Caimito. Obviously I'm biased as I'm not living in the tropics but I still think the fruit is underrated.
Where I live people grow them mostly for shade and the look. Many of my neighbors have massive trees for shade and orchids and the trees are super high, like 10 meters tall or more, and most people don't even pick the fruit. Side note the wood from the tree is highly prized for orchid mounts, it is one of the longest lasting wood for orchids mounts at around 10 years before it rots. where i live most wood rots in a year or 2.
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I would say june plum is pretty underrated. If anyone loves sour crunchy fruit this is a good one. Great with salt and chili when it's green. You can eat a ripe fruit but i eat them green. Green fruits can be pickled. Many things you do with a sour green mango you can with the june plum. Even tender leaves are edible and sour. The only thing they are a pain to separate the flesh from the spikey seed if your new to the fruit. But it's much easier as you develop your technique. They grow a little slow in my area but I think it's because they bloom profusely and of course not the most ideal climate but I seen some large trees. Gophers seem to kill my tree every so often, ahah.
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I would say june plum is pretty underrated. If anyone loves sour crunchy fruit this is a good one. Great with salt and chili when it's green. You can eat a ripe fruit but i eat them green. Green fruits can be pickled. Many things you do with a sour green mango you can with the june plum. Even tender leaves are edible and sour. The only thing they are a pain to separate the flesh from the spikey seed if your new to the fruit. But it's much easier as you develop your technique. They grow a little slow in my area but I think it's because they bloom profusely and of course not the most ideal climate but I seen some large trees. Gophers seem to kill my tree every so often, ahah.
I could never get myself to like the taste of these both ripe and unripe. Tried some with salt also. Seems like it is another fruit that has more uses underipe in cooking than ripe.
But I did like the hog plum a relative of this tree.
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I would say june plum is pretty underrated. If anyone loves sour crunchy fruit this is a good one. Great with salt and chili when it's green. You can eat a ripe fruit but i eat them green. Green fruits can be pickled. Many things you do with a sour green mango you can with the june plum. Even tender leaves are edible and sour. The only thing they are a pain to separate the flesh from the spikey seed if your new to the fruit. But it's much easier as you develop your technique. They grow a little slow in my area but I think it's because they bloom profusely and of course not the most ideal climate but I seen some large trees. Gophers seem to kill my tree every so often, ahah.
I could never get myself to like the taste of these both ripe and unripe. Tried some with salt also. Seems like it is another fruit that has more uses underipe in cooking than ripe.
But I did like the hog plum a relative of this tree.
The leaves are the best part in my opinion. I don't lay awake at night dreaming about when the fruit will get ripe. Lol!
Maybe I need to try it green in Thai salad.
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Ｉthink duguetia
any one growing it in 9b
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Dabai - very tasty, calorie dense food. If I ate a kilo I would be full for hours. Seem like a pain to harvest and I’ve heard only 1 in 10 trees will produce a female tree but still doesn’t make sense to me why they aren’t more commonly grown outside of Borneo. Taste I would describe is something between an olive and an avocado. Definitely in my top 10
Yepp definetly Dabai,
Also wampee, had some big really sweet ones the other day! WOW delicious. Better then a Lychee IMO. And the tree does give fruit yearly in abundance here while Lychee is always patchy even in the highlands.
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Dabai - very tasty, calorie dense food. If I ate a kilo I would be full for hours. Seem like a pain to harvest and I’ve heard only 1 in 10 trees will produce a female tree but still doesn’t make sense to me why they aren’t more commonly grown outside of Borneo. Taste I would describe is something between an olive and an avocado. Definitely in my top 10
Yepp definetly Dabai,
Also wampee, had some big really sweet ones the other day! WOW delicious. Better then a Lychee IMO. And the tree does give fruit yearly in abundance here while Lychee is always patchy even in the highlands.
I'm gonna keep my eye open to some good wampee. The ones I had were super sour.
I do think I would like it if they were sweeter.
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Wangoes. They are new and very few people have tried them. I am convinced that locked within their genome lies some useful code for our future fruits.
Not directed at people on this forum, but mangoes are largely under appreciated in the USA. Especially up north. Funny though, most people here in South Florida have never had a really good mango. Opinions vary greatly, but my belief is there is a mango flavor profile that suits everyone, if they just find it. Mangoes are indeed an underrated fruit.
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Cutnut. Beautiful tree with even more gorgeous flower & fruit.
Taste similar to peanut & walnut, or so I hear.
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I was in San Francisco last week and bought some Feijoas at Bi-Rite market (this is the market that sells Yangmei when in season). They were so good, I ate a basket myself in one sitting. They were the best I've tasted, not sure what varieties they were.
I'm growing lots of rare stuff that are high maintenance, feijoas are the opposite. They grow with little care, drought tolerant, can be pruned hard into a hedge or allowed to grow, ornamental blue green leaves, pretty flowers that are tasty and edible and fruit tastes great from selected varieties. I haven't tasted any of the New Zealand cultivars but I'm looking forward to them.
Janet
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Yepp definetly Dabai,
Also wampee, had some big really sweet ones the other day! WOW delicious. Better then a Lychee IMO. And the tree does give fruit yearly in abundance here while Lychee is always patchy even in the highlands.
wampee definitely belongs on this list.
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I was in San Francisco last week and bought some Feijoas at Bi-Rite market (this is the market that sells Yangmei when in season). They were so good, I ate a basket myself in one sitting. They were the best I've tasted, not sure what varieties they were.
I'm growing lots of rare stuff that are high maintenance, feijoas are the opposite. They grow with little care, drought tolerant, can be pruned hard into a hedge or allowed to grow, ornamental blue green leaves, pretty flowers that are tasty and edible and fruit tastes great from selected varieties. I haven't tasted any of the New Zealand cultivars but I'm looking forward to them.
Janet
Yes, all around great! I wish they grew here.
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Good quality abiu. Taste so good, I can eat like 2 kilos at once, and I'm not even a big fruit eater despite being here :). Most importantly in tropics they produce 3-4 times a year at random times, loaded trees.
Agree on Dabai as well. However, harvest is a problem. Trees are very tall, my first branch is like at 18 feet high, and than crown. So, basically we eat only dropped fruits. My tree looks exactly like first one in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLbBjC2aqA Basically you have to be experienced coconut tree climber in order to get fresh fruits.
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Good quality abiu. Taste so good, I can eat like 2 kilos at once, and I'm not even a big fruit eater despite being here :). Most importantly in tropics they produce 3-4 times a year at random times, loaded trees.
Agree on Dabai as well. However, harvest is a problem. Trees are very tall, my first branch is like at 18 feet high, and than crown. So, basically we eat only dropped fruits. My tree looks exactly like first one in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLbBjC2aqA Basically you have to be experienced coconut tree climber in order to get fresh fruits.
I had to look up dabai. I have eaten canary nut before and thought it was good. What does the fruit taste like?
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Good quality abiu. Taste so good, I can eat like 2 kilos at once, and I'm not even a big fruit eater despite being here :). Most importantly in tropics they produce 3-4 times a year at random times, loaded trees.
Agree on Dabai as well. However, harvest is a problem. Trees are very tall, my first branch is like at 18 feet high, and than crown. So, basically we eat only dropped fruits. My tree looks exactly like first one in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLbBjC2aqA Basically you have to be experienced coconut tree climber in order to get fresh fruits.
I had to look up dabai. I have eaten canary nut before and thought it was good. What does the fruit taste like?
Taste like "nuttiest", "fruittiest", fattest avocado, you'll ever have. Traditionally eaten with salt or soy sauce. All these years I don't remember a single post anyone attempting to grow it in subtropics.
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Not directed at people on this forum, but mangoes are largely under appreciated in the USA. Especially up north. Funny though, most people here in South Florida have never had a really good mango. Opinions vary greatly, but my belief is there is a mango flavor profile that suits everyone, if they just find it. Mangoes are indeed an underrated fruit.
I can back you up on this one. I've lived in Florida all my life and I'm still not positive I like mango. I'm fully the average Joe ya'll lament over because he's only ever tasted "nasty, grocery store mango." I literally didn't know the flavor profiles could cover the massive span that it does, and especially (, for me) that the resin taste was not inherent in all mangos.
Reading this forum is almost the only thing that has raised my interest in them. One day I may even taste a different one!