Plinias with big yellow fruit take centre stage

[Mike T]

There is plenty to collect for Jab fans and loads of variations in Phitrantha, coronata, aureana, cauliflora and the other 5 or 6 notable blacks. I have cast aspersions of yellow jabs before but acknowledge some selections of the common yellow are good and there are even big fruited selections around which must be good.
What has sparked my interest and attention with plinias in recent years are some of the tropical whoppers which are the must have that few people have. Mulchi both giant and standard are attention grabbers. Just 70km or so away from where these are found id Plinia sp. shawii with whopping apparantly tasty fruit on a fairly big tree, Plinia clausa seems to be a prince amongst plinias with tasty fruit and Plinia yasuniana a semi dward with 30mm fruit is a newer attention grabber.
At the other end of South America is the cambuca another big yellow fruited Plinia of note. If we can call these species jaboticabas, then these are the species of jaboticaba that excite me and the measure of a collectors' success.

[W.]

I have seen photographs of Giant Mulchi recently and was quite impressed at the fruit size. The only photographs I have seen of a jaboticaba with fruits that large are, I believe, the Jumbo Sabara variety. I have seen a photograph, reportedly of that variety, with fruits nearly as large as a small mandarin orange. I have not found much information about Jumbo Sabara. There does not seem to have much information online about the various Mulchis, either.

I have started to see Plinia clausa offered occasionally for sale. Perhaps people have been able to fruit it outside of South America and are increasing its availability.

Here is a paper about Plinia yasuniana, "A NEW SPECIES OF PLINIA (MYRTACEAE) FROM ECUADOR, WITH DEMOGRAPHIC NOTES FROM A LARGE FOREST PLOT" by Maria Lúcia Kawasaki and Álvaro J. Pérez, from Harvard Papers in Botany: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41761739.

[TomekK]

I have seen photographs of Giant Mulchi recently and was quite impressed at the fruit size. The only photographs I have seen of a jaboticaba with fruits that large are, I believe, the Jumbo Sabara variety. I have seen a photograph, reportedly of that variety, with fruits nearly as large as a small mandarin orange. I have not found much information about Jumbo Sabara. There does not seem to have much information online about the various Mulchis, either.

I have started to see Plinia clausa offered occasionally for sale. Perhaps people have been able to fruit it outside of South America and are increasing its availability.

Here is a paper about Plinia yasuniana, "A NEW SPECIES OF PLINIA (MYRTACEAE) FROM ECUADOR, WITH DEMOGRAPHIC NOTES FROM A LARGE FOREST PLOT" by Maria Lúcia Kawasaki and Álvaro J. Pérez, from Harvard Papers in Botany: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41761739.

Giant Mulchi sure looks amazing! But flavor-wise, I heard FlyingFoxFruits say that it tasted weird, not fruity but something else-don’t remember what, maybe meaty? Heard it during one of his livestreams a year or so ago. Also he said it grew super fast and big and he didn’t have enough room for it.

[W.]

I have seen photographs of Giant Mulchi recently and was quite impressed at the fruit size. The only photographs I have seen of a jaboticaba with fruits that large are, I believe, the Jumbo Sabara variety. I have seen a photograph, reportedly of that variety, with fruits nearly as large as a small mandarin orange. I have not found much information about Jumbo Sabara. There does not seem to have much information online about the various Mulchis, either.

I have started to see Plinia clausa offered occasionally for sale. Perhaps people have been able to fruit it outside of South America and are increasing its availability.

Here is a paper about Plinia yasuniana, "A NEW SPECIES OF PLINIA (MYRTACEAE) FROM ECUADOR, WITH DEMOGRAPHIC NOTES FROM A LARGE FOREST PLOT" by Maria Lúcia Kawasaki and Álvaro J. Pérez, from Harvard Papers in Botany: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41761739.

Giant Mulchi sure looks amazing! But flavor-wise, I heard FlyingFoxFruits say that it tasted weird, not fruity but something else-don’t remember what, maybe meaty? Heard it during one of his livestreams a year or so ago. Also he said it grew super fast and big and he didn’t have enough room for it.

Thanks for that info. Adam's live streams have some good information in them. But sifting through his ramblings has become too time-consuming for me to continue to do. If Adam does not have enough room in his greenhouse for it, I think I might avoid it for the time being. I guess it lacks the cold tolerance of the rest of his Plinias, otherwise he could keep it outside in a large container or in the ground.

[TomekK]

I have seen photographs of Giant Mulchi recently and was quite impressed at the fruit size. The only photographs I have seen of a jaboticaba with fruits that large are, I believe, the Jumbo Sabara variety. I have seen a photograph, reportedly of that variety, with fruits nearly as large as a small mandarin orange. I have not found much information about Jumbo Sabara. There does not seem to have much information online about the various Mulchis, either.

I have started to see Plinia clausa offered occasionally for sale. Perhaps people have been able to fruit it outside of South America and are increasing its availability.

Here is a paper about Plinia yasuniana, "A NEW SPECIES OF PLINIA (MYRTACEAE) FROM ECUADOR, WITH DEMOGRAPHIC NOTES FROM A LARGE FOREST PLOT" by Maria Lúcia Kawasaki and Álvaro J. Pérez, from Harvard Papers in Botany: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41761739.

Giant Mulchi sure looks amazing! But flavor-wise, I heard FlyingFoxFruits say that it tasted weird, not fruity but something else-don’t remember what, maybe meaty? Heard it during one of his livestreams a year or so ago. Also he said it grew super fast and big and he didn’t have enough room for it.

Thanks for that info. Adam's live streams have some good information in them. But sifting through his ramblings has become too time-consuming for me to continue to do. If Adam does not have enough room in his greenhouse for it, I think I might avoid it for the time being. I guess it lacks the cold tolerance of the rest of his Plinias, otherwise he could keep it outside in a large container or in the ground.

If I remember correctly that was the case.

[Finca La Isla]

We are growing mulchi and dwarf mulchi.  The dwarf mulchi is very cute and a good producer of novelty fruit that are not bad to eat. 
The mulchi tree has grown nicely, looks healthy, but hasn’t produced and it’s well over 10 years old.  Seems I heard from Jim West that his took ages to produce as well.  I’ve never eaten the fruit but it has a very good reputation.
Peter

[W.]

So, would it be safe to assume that the various types of Mulchi are more like Coronatas in that they take a while to fruit, as opposed to Phitranthas which fruit fairly quickly from seed.

[Mike T]

Cambucas take about 10 years and my oldest is around 8 years. Dwarf mulchi around 6 or 7 although my one is this age and still a foot high yet my brother has one from the same batch that has flowered. P.clausa is supposed to be faster as evidenced from Hawaii and P.sp.shawi is probably around 10 years considering the trees get quite big.Giant mulchis grow slowly and the dew around Cairns that are 6 or 7 years old are mostly less than 3 feet tall. Mine is barely 2 feet. I am interested to hear that giant mulchi fruit is not so flash and would like to see the first hand account. Cambuca, clausa, and shawi allegedly have good tasting fruit. Dwarf mulchi has scant flesh.
A bit hard to compare them with the classic small leafed black leafed Myrciarias from southern Brazil. Trunciflore, sabara and coronata are some tht are slow to fruit.

[ben mango]

Cambucas are definitely nice fruits and should be worth the wait. I haven’t tried the mulchi ones mentioned.

[OCchris1]

For some reason I can't upload the image but my "Crown 1" jab produced fruits that were at least 1.5 inches (38.1mm) last time it fruited. It only produced (maybe) 10 fruits but the flowers were huge. It's currently flowering so I will keep you posted.

[TheGivingTree]

Does cambuca take more time to fruit in FL? I was lucky enough to see a mature fruiting tree and cant wait for mine to follow suit.