The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi Luc,

Have all the seeds been spoken for?  I sent you an email about 6 months ago and you said check back in May. I didn't realize I could have reserved some seeds at that time.

pineislander hit the nail on the head.  After the storm the lush tropical landscape looks like the dead of winter in the northeast, completely barren coupled with massive trees uprooted or snapped in half.  The grass is completely unaffected so when you see aerial footage from after the storm you see the barren landscape interspersed with these bright green patches of grass.

We have tons of beautiful and giant mahogany trees on St. Croix as pineislander pointed out.  Overall they are very strong and hold up to storms very well.  However they are no match for a Cat 5 and several large ones were completely uprooted.  I'm talking about 300-400 old tress that have seen countless storms.  I bet trees like this would live even longer but its probably big storms like Maria that cut their life short.    I saw one that was not only uprooted but some how lifted and flipped over so the roots were pointing straight up, crazy! 

I was really bummed my Lingum Vitaes did not make it because they grow so slow.  Pretty much the strongest wood in the world so I was really surprised to see what happened to the ones on my property.  Its like a hand from the sky came down and grabbed them and tossed them somewhere else.  No hole in the ground where they were or anything.  On the other hand, my friend on St. Thomas says he has a couple on his old Danish Plantation property with 2' diameter trunk that he says probably saved his house.  So maybe mine weren't big enough to have developed and extensive root system. 

Tbe black ironwood (Krugiodendron Ferreum) trees I have on my property survived which is also a native hardwood. They lost branches but did mostly ok. The West Indian Locust trees also known as stinktoe did very well.  There is a massive one near me that is easily 500' tall and it survived!  The Kapoks and Baobobs seem to have done ok, perhaps due to less windage.  We have tons of big mango trees as well and they do surprisingly well. 

The genips which are everywhere here don't do well at all but they come back quick even if they get snapped in half, those things are almost like weeds! 

Other trees which you would think would do well actually don't.  The Saman do not handle high winds, several large specimens just tossed over like toys.  Neem trees I have come to learn have a shallow root system and are toppled easily.  Tibet trees are the worst, they were coming down in Irma which was only tropical storm force winds for us on St. Croix.  Flamboyant aka Royal Poinciana are susceptible too high winds too. 

Unfortunately like pineislander mentioned the opening up of the canopy is allowing the vines, tan tan (Leucaena Leucocephala), Acacia, and manjack to thrive.  I know a place where there are tons of juvenile mahogany trees so I'm going to try and relocate them to my neighborhood so one day we will have a beautiful mahogany canopy. 

This is from an email I received from Sadhu, I hope he doesn't mind me sharing.  I would love to help but am dealing with the same situation of a hurricane battered island here on St. Croix.

As most of you know, the entire island of Puerto Rico was hit hard by category 5 hurricane Maria on September 20th. The hurricane was the worst in the island's recorded history and caused severe damage and devastation in all parts of the country. It took many lives - the exact count will not be known before the center of the island will be accessible again - and it destroyed much of the local infrastructure. The situation can only be described as catastrophic.

Almost two weeks later, gasoline and food are still rationed and it is estimated that rural areas will be without electricity, water and phone for six to twelve months. Sanitary conditions are deteriorating and there is no end in sight in terms of getting landslides and devastated nature under control again.

Unfortunately, Govardhan Gardens, which has served the Caribbean for the last 20 years as the most diversified source of tropical fruit, nut and bamboo species, has been hit directly, as were practically all farms in Puerto Rico. Four out of five nursery structures (and plants) were obliterated; over one thousand trees are down, and most of the surviving trees heavily injured and defoliated. In total, about 80% of the botanical collection are lost. Since many of these species were the only existing ones in the Caribbean, they are extremely difficult to replace.

The total loss was so enormous, that I was not certain that I can afford to clean up the farm again (chainsaw work for 1.5-2 years) or not. Just to clean up the farm would cost around $30,000, and there would be only expense during this period, without much income opportunity. The damage of collapsed structures and other features of the property are in the tens of thousands of Dollars. The collection was priceless, but if one would want to put a price tag on it, its over $250,000.

I weighed my options carefully and I decided to try the following:

- Clean up the entire farm, if possible in 1.5 years or less
- Repair the landslides
- Restore the fruit tree nursery again over the next few years
- Rebuild and expand the bamboo nursery


All of this can be done for approximately $40,000. This is still a larger amount than I could come up with myself, but if at least a fraction of it could be raised, there is hope to save Govardhan Gardens.

I already received one substantial offer to start the process of restoring as much as possible, and I will start the work already within the next days. It will be physically very demanding to cut up hundreds of thousand of pounds of fallen trees and then integrate them into the eco system of the farm but I have made my decision to commit myself to the task.

On a larger scale, the eco system of Puerto Rico is in an extremely precarious state now. We desperately need more ecological role models to save our environment before it collapses completely. For this reason, I will expand my services of providing tropical bamboo species that are hurricane resistant and extremely helpful for erosion control.

Although I am hesitant to ask for support, I have no choice this time but to reach out to all friends of Govardhan Gardens. I know that the economy is affecting everyone because it is designed to feed only the elite and drain the rest of us. But if everyone who is concerned about the future of Govardhan Gardens can help in some way, there is hope to save the project.

If you want to donate for the cause, please send whatever you can either via PayPal to sadhuoroverde@gmail.com, or mail a check, written out to Sadhu (my first name is sufficient) and send it to: Sadhu, POB 8132, Mayaguez 00681, Puerto Rico. Please make sure to declare the donation as "Hurricane Relief Donation".

With my sincere thanks,
Sadhu
www.organicfarm.net

Irma was something else, our neighbor islands saw 185 mph sustained winds with gusts to 225 mph.   

Hi everyone,

Well one of my Avocados got attacked by a deer.  I took the fencing down protecting it figuring it was mature enough to survive on its own now.  But alas, the deer have been scratching their antlers on the trunk right above the graft and now all the leaves are wilted.  Not sure if its going to make a comeback which is a bummer because it was a rare variety from Puerto Rico and thus far has been thriving.

So can anyone give me some recommendations of good varieties that do well in the Caribbean and the tropics.  My location gets about 65-85 in of rain annually and I also have them on drip irrigation.  Good fertile soil.  About 100' elevation but due to proximity to a low lying area that collects water, we do get some pretty cool nights in the winter and various times throughout the year.  Thanks for the help 

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

That's coincidental Frank.  I had been living in St. thomas and Tortola about 9 years ago.  My girlfriend at the time and future wife was moving out to Kauai to study a type of body work called Rolfing aka Structural Integration.

Being a lifelong surfer, I thought about it for two minutes before I decided to quit my awesome job in the British Virgin Islands and move to Kauai with her.  We settled down in Kapaa on Hauiki rd.  Views of Mt. Waialeala waterfalls out of our living room window.  I love Kauai so much!  It is an amazing place.

After about a year, we learned that we had conceived a child.  People had told us that Kauai is a fertile place in more ways than one.  An opportunity in St. Croix came about which was more on the "professional" side of things than the boat captaining and waitering I was doing in Kauai.  With all moving expenses being paid, we decided to make the move even though I had never been to St. Croix. 

So far, its turned out to be the perfect fit for us.  Been here about 7 years now.  My son was born here so he is a "Crucian" rather than Hawaiian.  But he is about as close to a mini Tarzan as you can get lol.  We absolutely love the northshore of St. Croix. 

Definitely miss Kauai and very much looking forward to bringing my son back so he can see where his mama and papa planted his seed. 

Purchased a one acre property on St. Croix about 2.5 years ago.  Started with clearing by hand with machete and chainsaw. 

This is what it looked like in March 2015:


We have come along way with just my wife, six year old son and myself doing all of the work.  Now in the process of building a house.

Here is a video I made this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i_F2zogAJI

My island home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5QBOPl3-rQ

After learning about this forum, I have done lots of reading on here.  After doing keyword searches, I recently started on the last page of this forum and am slowly working my way to the beginning.  Not reading every thread, only the ones that pique my interest. 

There is so much great information in this forum and so many great members!

Has there ever been a forum meet and greet?  Would there be any interest?  Something like a seed and scion exchange and an opportunity for forum members a chance to meet and arrange trips to come visit each other's fruit paradise. 

I know there are a lot of FL members on here and you all probably know each other already.  I am originally from Lake Worth but have been in the Virgin Islands for over a decade (with a brief respite when I spent a wonderful year in Kauai).  But I would definitely make a trip somewhere for something like this!

Just throwing it out there to see if there's much interest.

So down here in the Caribbean we are in the midst of our yearly fruit bonanza.  All kinds of awesome fresh fruit available.

I would like to add some fruits to my collection that would be available during the winter time.  I believe starfruit is one that will sometimes be around in winter. 

What are some other types fruits that produce in the tropical "winter" season?

Hi everyone,

So I started planting up my property here on St. Croix a couple years ago.  Started with raw land and carved out areas by hand with machete and chainsaw.  We started with grafted mangos and avos, guavaberry, carambola, tangerine, and lots of dwarf coconuts and along several other species available here on island.

Lately I have really gotten into buying seeds from forum members here and also a recently placed order with Fruit Lovers.  So now I have several Pitanga seedlings, Sabara, the Boca Snob Jack fruit, Miguel's 'Neylita' Jabo, Mangosteen, Blue Jabo etc etc etc.  Its such a rewarding feeling seeing those seedlings pop up through the dirt!  I know I will have to wait 10 years or more on some of these but that's ok I'm still in my early 30's  .

Fighting the urge to buy more more seeds   I have a dream of one day having this great variety of fruit trees with lots of rarities that no one on St. Croix has- much less even heard of.  I am also germinating more seeds of each species than I will be able to plant so hopefully can recoup some seed costs in a few years as they mature.

Until then, does anyone have any tips on how to maintain my growing collection?  I am starting them all on a covered lanai with a few hours western sun exposure before it sets in the evening.  I am having good success with germination.   As the seedlings grow and mature, I re-pot them into bigger pots and move them outside to my "nursery".  The nursery is a table under some large Moringa trees which provide dappled sunlight and also drop their blossoms into the pots which seems like it could be beneficial.  I have a worm inn and put the vermicompost on top every couple weeks.  Besides re-potting when it seems they need it, providing adequate water, and topping off with vermicompost, is there anything else I can do to ensure vigor and health? 

As my collection grows, I will start segregating like species together since they will start to have different needs.  I sort of fantasize about the idea of having a small rare fruit nursery one day and be able to offer these hard to come by species to other residents of St. Croix.  Any tips on how to do this are much appreciated!

Thanks John.  I emailed the Ebay seller and this is what they said:

"Don Ramon variety has this name because a local farmer make this variety by mixing hass and butler. The fruit is more related to butler but with bigger fruit."

So is sounds like this could be a good one, I am very excited to get my first Avos off this tree, its been growing very well.