Wanted - Muntingia calabura seedss

[RodneyS]

I was interested in growing muntingia calabura, as the fruit are supposedly rather sweet and the tree bears a lot of crop.  Anyone have seeds to spare?

[EvilFruit]

10000+ Seeds Muntingia calabura for $6 (free shipping)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10000-Seeds-Muntingia-calabura-Jamaica-cherry-Panama-berry-Sabah-Bonsai-NO-GMO-/111952656935

[Paraponera]

They grow very quick after they get a half inch tall. Trap them in a humidity chamber (plastic bag) and spread seeds on top of the soil as far apart as possible. seeds are so small but, it will be almost impossible to separate them and not have casualties if you wait too long after they germinate. x_X They will pretty much all germinate!
I say go with the above link or some other on Amazon rather than just buying 15 to 30 for 5 dollars...seems to be a common price from actual seed sellers.

[Lory]

It grows like a weed, from seed in 2 years it can be 10 feet tall and with a 10 feet wide canopee. Plant FAR from all your other trees, its agressive roots are invading every inch of free soil avidly sucking water and nutrients

[fyliu]

I'm trying to root some from cuttings now. No idea how hard that is. I'll try with the one fruit I haven't eaten. Good luck with seeds.

[fruitlovers]

I'm trying to root some from cuttings now. No idea how hard that is. I'll try with the one fruit I haven't eaten. Good luck with seeds.

Tried cuttings with no luck. Air layers also failed for me.

[Lory]

As for my experience take a piece of ROOT and plant it shallow horizontally so that one side will be exposed to the light, it will grow in a new tree

[fruitlovers]

As for my experience take a piece of ROOT and plant it shallow horizontally so that one side will be exposed to the light, it will grow in a new tree

ok thanks, will try that.

[Paraponera]

They will fruit well in a pot. No need to plant an invasive species...though if it freezes every winter it will die back x_X. Depends where you live I guess.

I'm going to try and work with above ground clippings (though I have heard that roots are the way to go before). We shall see I suppose. I appreciate a challenge anyway!

[Pan Dulce]

Hey Oscar, I got mine as an air layer, so there is hope.  When I got it the wood was 3/4 inch diameter and it was 3 to 4 feet long.  The root ball was fairly small so I reduced it in half.  Planted it in a 7 gallon pot in July and it didn't really do too much the first 6 months, but in the spring this past year it took off big time.  Moving it up to a 25 gallon this week.  I am planning to do a couple of air layers next month, and will post my steps with pictures in a new thread.

[Lory]

Any piece of root with size equal or bigger than a pencil will vegetate if exposed to direct light

[dmouthhog]

I can't agree more with the posts regarding keeping this tree away from others if you plan to put it in the ground.  They grow extremely quickly and aggressively.  They do fruit well and in abundance, but I find I lose a lot to the squirrels and birds.  I have two planted in close proximity to one another and I'm definitely removing 1 after only two years in the ground, maybe both.  They're both already over 25 feet tall.  They were about 5 feet tall when planted.

[FruitFreak]

I'm trying to root some from cuttings now. No idea how hard that is. I'll try with the one fruit I haven't eaten. Good luck with seeds.

Tried cuttings with no luck. Air layers also failed for me.

Hi Oscar.  I'm pretty surprised you didn't have any success with airlayering.  Every single time mine have rooted within a couple wks at the most.  This is a very easy tree to layer in my experience.  What is your method?

[greenman62]

i treid 2 air-layers , and several cuttings all failed
all my seeds failed as well.
i tried 2 root-cuttings and both succeeded.
unfortuneatly i had given them away then my tree was 20ft tall
we had temps of 26F a few weeks ago, and eithe rthe tree is dead
or, its taking its time coming back.
there is a little green under the bark near the roots, but ALL of the branches and everything over 2ft high
is brown under the bark.

not sure why i never got seeds to take, there are hundereds of seeds in each fruit.
but not 1 seedling even under the tree.

i love the flavor though.
my dog even eats the lower hanging fruit.
eveyone that comes to my house has a couple to taste and loves them.

[wonderfruit]

I got hundred of fruits from the tree. I planted thewhole fruit with fresh fleshnand I couldn t get not even a single seedling.

[Lory]

I can't agree more with the posts regarding keeping this tree away from others if you plan to put it in the ground.  They grow extremely quickly and aggressively.  They do fruit well and in abundance, but I find I lose a lot to the squirrels and birds.  I have two planted in close proximity to one another and I'm definitely removing 1 after only two years in the ground, maybe both.  They're both already over 25 feet tall.  They were about 5 feet tall when planted.

I had to remove one because its invading roots were choking my little pomelo planted at more than 30 feet of distance.
It seems the send out many small rootlets then as soon as one finds good soil/water/nutrients it becomes enormous dividing into  thousands of tiny root that form a compact net which  sucks everything aroud

[fruitlovers]

i treid 2 air-layers , and several cuttings all failed
all my seeds failed as well.
i tried 2 root-cuttings and both succeeded.
unfortuneatly i had given them away then my tree was 20ft tall
we had temps of 26F a few weeks ago, and eithe rthe tree is dead
or, its taking its time coming back.
there is a little green under the bark near the roots, but ALL of the branches and everything over 2ft high
is brown under the bark.

not sure why i never got seeds to take, there are hundereds of seeds in each fruit.
but not 1 seedling even under the tree.

i love the flavor though.
my dog even eats the lower hanging fruit.
eveyone that comes to my house has a couple to taste and loves them.

It seems that seeds need a lot of light to sprout. That is i guess why you never find any volunteer seedlings under the tree.

[fruitlovers]

I'm trying to root some from cuttings now. No idea how hard that is. I'll try with the one fruit I haven't eaten. Good luck with seeds.

Tried cuttings with no luck. Air layers also failed for me.

Hi Oscar.  I'm pretty surprised you didn't have any success with airlayering.  Every single time mine have rooted within a couple wks at the most.  This is a very easy tree to layer in my experience.  What is your method?

Same way i airlayer other trees with total success: wrap moistened sphagnum moss with aluminum foil.

[Paraponera]

Seeds are EXTREMELY easy to grow (under the right light and humidity...honestly, think about how they will grow in nature...eaten and defecated out mainly by birds just on top of the soil...bird sht will not berry itself (pardon the pun) and clippings are not too hard. People are too quick to say things won't work. If I can get it to go then you can too. KEEP them POTTED and they will still fruit, but don't spread invasive plants in your area. Thus concludes my 2 cents.

R,
Paraponera

[fruitlovers]

I wouldn't call this plant invasive here. For some reason the birds here don't seem to eat them. I've had a tree for a dozen years and there are no volunteer plants anywhere on surrounding area. The only danger of spread here is through root suckers. If you are mowing around your trees then that also is not a problem.

[greenman62]

Just an FYI on cold tolerance.

i had bought mine as a 3gal from PIN over 2 years ago
i kept it around 10 to 12ft
i had to cut it back at least 5 times in 2 years
the bole was thicker than my thigh.

This year we had 26-27F temps
the ground was wet, saturated.
it killed my mangos, black sapote and other plants
worst freeze we had in 10yrs

i thought the Muntingia was dead, but, alas !!
it lives.
i just saw some small growth peeking out near the trunk.

last October
large tree at the top...