The Tropical Fruit Forum

I’ve seen rollinia in Florida, São Paulo, and southern Bahia so it’s a very flexible tree. That said it’s night and day with the rollinia in an equatorial rainforest climate versus subtropics. Here there’s commercial plantations and it does fantastic. The specimens I’ve seen elsewhere produce and are healthy but look less vigorous I guess. All this just to say I think it likes consistent warmth and rain (my region has 2000-2500mm avg annually, temps basically 18-32c).

Yes its adaptable I have a tree still flushing out growth outdoors in Los Angeles. Wide variance of genetics in Rollinia.

When it gets colder and dry it will go into hibernation shedding it's leaves. The plant will stay hydrated by its storage tuber. I would only monitor soil to keep slightly moist during winter months. Excessive wet cold can risk fungal and bacteria diseases and rot to the tuber.

Please tell me about the soil for this plant. My little seedling is practically not growing and looks depressed. Perhaps I did something wrong. It has acidic soil and perlite.

They don't like the soil and water above 7 PH. If they start to show chlorosis in leaves. Try treating with EDDHA chelated iron. Also if in ground make sure to mulch with some good compost to supply slow release nutrients.

If in a container mix in some osmocote slow release fertilizer.

Humidity Dome, LED grow lights, temp controlled heatmat. That is usually the standard setup. I set my heatmat at 75f to 78f.

Run grow lights half the day. I do seeds and cuttings.

Quote from: nullzero on November 05, 2023, 08:45:26 PM

Anyone have some seeds for sale or trade of Psidium striatulum I'm looking. I had this species in the past and lost it due to planting in a spot which got flooded for 2 weeks.

Give me a couple weeks and I can send some fruit.

Thanks, just keep in touch with me if there is anything you want to trade.

Great guy and tropical fruit enthusiast. I got a Wango this weekend. It looked beautiful and very healthy.

It is great to see a update photo. You are taking care of them nicely. You may get fruit before me. My largest on its own roots is 3ft tall. I had some seedlings in clay pots on autopilot in FL.

Over here in CA I have more coastal influence and my inground seedlings are in part sun. I may reconfigure my plantings to see if I can get them in a full sun spot to speed up.

What type of low temps have your plants encountered?

Yes so far this is the best seedling I have grown. I am about to harvest Passiflora maliformis for first time, so I will see how it rates compared to edulis.

I am going to probably cull or cut back and graft the other seedlings with the superior yellow one.

Quote from: SHV on October 06, 2023, 02:14:19 PM

Quote from: roblack on October 06, 2023, 12:16:31 PM

Excellent! So, each jar is like 33 fruits? I would hide that in the downstair fridge!

I actually like to keep pure pf juice, and also some frozen pulp/juice/seeds. The seeds have a lot of flavor; have found uses for them, such as providing some nice crunch when added to jerky. Seeds reportedly are nutrient rich as well (Vit A and C, mag, pot).

Each jar is the equivalent of 33lbs of fruit!  I too enjoy eating the seeds.  I still have many more passion fruit that I eat as snacks when I find them on the ground.  Always keep a blade handy for on the go fruit consumption.

Well worth the work, that stuff is the best. Enjoy =)

NZ, I have a similar type of large Brazilian passiflora from seed that is very good, big, and yellow. I call it Big Bird.

Roblack,

Yeah the Brazilian Large Yellow type of Passiflora edulis genetics seem to be popular in Florida.

Use a shop vac with no filter, place plastic bag inside. Make sure the shop vac tubing and nozzle is not used on other stuff.

I would just use a paper cutter for cutting the tops. Then suck out the pulp with the vac.

Malay apple is more sensitive then rose apple. I had a container 3 year old Malay apple it slowed down and struggled with 40s and died by the end of winter. It never got colder then 40F really that winter.

Rose apple seedling no issues. Pouteria family Lucuma and Ross sapote no issues but Abiu dies in low 40s.

I gave away all the seedling from that batch 5 years ago.
Glacially slow in Santa Cruz. They were still 2-3" tall after 3 years.
Thanks for bringing them in though, only time I have seen them available.

Quote from: nullzero on September 18, 2023, 02:49:32 AM

You have to taste fresh S. queretaroensis to see why. The poor shelf life, limited season between May to July depending on year, and potential for crop failure is high. The monsoon rains coming to soon during the final ripening can ruin crop.

The flavor is more fruity and sweet intensity compared to dragon fruit. The texture is like a dragon fruit mixed with a ripe fig. It's syrupy sweet with intense berry flavors. Some can taste like raspberry jam. This was my experience with them at least from the plants producing in Southern Zacatecas.

This cactus is worth the trouble to grow. I can see potential in interior warm areas 9B or higher of Southern CA, Southern Nevada, and Southern Arizona.

It can take a while to fruit from seed 7 years or more. Mature cuttings are hard to source. I am 5 years in from ones grown from seeds.

My largest surviving is a seedling from a large orange fruit which was the sweetest of the fruits I tried. I am hoping in the next 2 years I can get it to flower.

I would try grafting to dragon fruit, Cereus sp., or Echinopsis sp. To see how it would respond. Currently I have about 10 seedlings left between CA and FL. They are slow here in southern CA only putting on good growth during July and August. In Florida puts on nice growth from May to October.

It likes temps in the 90s with full sun and nights in the 80s to really grow fast. Does not mind humidity as long as the root zone is not sitting in water for long and it's warm above 70f.

Central and Northen coastal CA does not have enough heat units to really push the plants. Fresno would be the northern range possibly protected to get a chance at a crop.

Keep Figs managed in containers. I made mistake of letting 3 fig trees gain mass and be planted in ground. I would say way to go is manage several fig trees in containers and bag all the Figs.

As for citrus, I would go with the same approach. Grow in containers and place netting over the trees to prevent pest infestation.

The other option is finding replacements for the fruits. I feel that passiflora does well with a acidic flavor that mixes well for drinks and dishes which call for citrus. Also other unique replacements like Corryocactus brevistylus which is reportedly has lemon like flavor. Kei apple have citrus like flavors as well.

As for resistant black fig fly type cultivars. I noticed that CdA and Dk Jumbo got hit particularly hard. While Lebanase Red and Sangue Dolce not as much. It may have to do with the larger Figs emitting more scent and being a better target for the fly.

Anyway I am going to cut back hard the inground fig trees. I have nearby Ross sapote and chestnut that would love to get more sun.