The Tropical Fruit Forum

Grouping Plinia (jabuticaba) Fruit into Astringent & Non-Astringent Varieties,

a worthwhile cause, I don't believe this has been done officially in any manuscript.

This would be helpful for farmers, growers, fruit sellers, wine makers, and other who use the fruit.

There is a preliminary list I have, of astringent and non astringent varieties (it needs work, maybe a few categorized improperly).

Astringent:

Sabara
Grimal
cambuca
Paulista? (ate some early borderline edible, but I say astringent, very chalky)

Non-Astringent:
Red
Anomaly
Escarlate
Phitrantha/Aureana
trunciflora

have not been able to taste coronata, I assume astringent...

same for most of the other purple fuzzy ones, like spiritosantensis, and Peluda do mucuri...I have never tasted them though...and the watermelon jabo too...

this short list needs work and doesn't consider Myrciaria species at all...and it should not.

Anything I've left out please add it in, I'm sure I forgot something that is easy to categorize.

Some are tricky because they are palatable early, yet still astringent...but the true non astringent types, like, red, anomaly, escarlate, can be eaten with no trouble, almost completely green...they are still somewhat juicy, and even rats will take them, seed and all.

https://www.flyingfoxfruits.com/s/stories/flying-fox-fruits-and-the-naming-of-rare-fruits

Over the last decade, there has been an influx of new names being adopted the within the rare fruit community. A few that come to mind include, the "Red" Jabuticaba (Plinia cauliflora hybrid), the "Starcherry" (Eugenia selloi), and the "Pitombatuba" (Eugenia selloi x luschnathiana).

Before I began my nursery officially in 2014, I had started the process of acquiring new and useful rare fruit trees for my collection, as early as 2007. When I first started collecting it was near impossible to find any other variety of Jabuticaba, besides the most common form, "Sabara" (Plinia jaboticaba).

After conducting intense field research. reading many books on the subject, and most importantly the advent of the recently pubilshed manuscript "Brazilian Fruits and Cultivated Exotics" by Harri Lorenzi et al., I was able to form a scientific opinion that was based on a deeper understanding of recent discoveries within the genus Plinia. Which led me to the conclusion, that all nurseries in the United States had mislabeled all of their "Sabara" Jabuticaba trees as Myrciaria cauliflora, which designates an entirely different species, and much less common in nursery trade in the USA.

Further evaluation led to the conclusion that the "Precoce" or "Hibrida" variety of recent introduction to Brazil, had already been introduced into the USA, and was being sold under the moniker "Everbear" by Larry Shatzer at Our Kids Nursery, in Winter Garden, FL, since at least 2005. The name I began marketing the fruit under was the translation for the name given in the Brazilian Fruits book, which was "Vermelha" or simply translated as "Red".

From what I've gathered since, this was a mistake in the book, where they labeled both the "Precoce/Hibrida" and the "Vermelha" as different fruits, when indeed they're one in the same, and the "Vermelha" fruits were picked early, hence the red coloration, and misnomer due to the appearance when harvested. In short, the name "Red" jaboticaba was first used by Adam Shafran (me), when I started to popularize the fruit around 2010, in posting on the Tropical Fruit Forum, and giving speeches across FL to the rare fruit clubs.

The name has stuck, probably because the fruit doesn't get the same black color as "Sabara" and it can very readily be eaten early when picked with a red coloration. The fruit is actually non astringent, whereas the Sabara is astringent, thus the "Red" Jaboticaba lends itself to being harvested early during its red colored phase, before it reaches full maturity with a deep purple color, never really black like Sabara.

As for the Eugenia selloi, and the usage of the name "Starcherry" which has been widely adopted in recent years, I would like to let it be known, that the name was coined by me. Mainly because there is no credit given on the internet to me for this naming. It's meant to be used as a compound word, to avoid confusion with the "Star'" Cherry, which is a preexisting variety of Prunus.

Furthermore, the recent discovery of the Eugenia selloi x luschnathiana "Pitombatuba", was due to my efforts in growing both the Pitomba and Pitangatuba in close proximity for years on my farm. The crossing of the two species occurred casually, and the seedlings it produced were accidentally sold to nursery growers and wholesalers, some of which ended up realizing they had something special, only after being told exactly what they had, by me. I had predicted my Pitombatuba mother tree was a hybrid before it ripened fruits. I was able to tell by looking at the plant morphology, and confirm my hypothesis of this hybrid long before anyone else.

Hopefully in the future I can ensure that the impact I'm making in the rare fruit community is fully understood, and appreciated. Until the next new fruit is named, please stay tuned.

pictures coming soon,

I have this variegated Maha chanok  mango seedling that is about 3yrs old by now, and it's showing a very stable pattern that won't fade.

The chances of me getting this seedling seem very slim, check out the backstory...

about 4-5yr ago I drove by my neighbor's house, noticing his mango trees had been ravaged by freezes, showing only rootstock suckers left growing vigorously.
I explained that the rootstock would produce inferior fruit, and take much longer to fruit than a grafted tree of a known variety, and I offered to top work his trees.

with no qualms, he allowed me to proceed with grafting, which resulted in about 7 successful grafts of maha chanok and cogshall scions onto two separate rootstocks.

the trees fruited in about 1yr after grafting, and I had told the owner that I'd like to taste one fruit when it was fruiting.  One day I drove by and knocked on the door to ask if I could take a fruit off the tree, I noticed a few left that were perfectly ripe, and nobody answered the door....being that I had permission and was the one to graft the trees, I took the liberty of taking a fruit.

The fruit was delicious.  I planted the seed in my yard, out in the field and forgot about it.

Years later I noticed the seedling had a faint variegation pattern...I was astounded given the odds of finding a variegated seedling being that I've planted hundreds of seeds without getting one.

Over the years I grafted a few trees as back up and observed the mother to see if the pattern would fade, but it has only grown stronger.

The pattern is not what I'd call striking, but it's got a very nice splashing pattern on the foliage...so I named it Maha "Splash".

I hope to offer a few grafted plants in the future and would love to see how the fruit quality turns out...and if there's any variegation on the fruit.

I will post some pics of the trees very soon.

https://youtu.be/nSBwJNDDUfc?si=MdE0OFrBAY_UX7Wn

very easy method to filter water, I wonder if it has an impact on pH or chloramine, fluoride levels?

new video touring around the farm, trying to find fruits that are still left to eat after a brutal summer season that was too hot and dry.

The rains are finally coming, and everything thinks it's spring.  Mostly Plinia fruits now and Eugenias, but we also have a good amount of Garcinia, and Persimmon fruits.

What's fruiting now for you?


https://youtu.be/7oqnw8r8RsE

https://youtu.be/I27_mVYnlio

this is pure red jaboticaba pulp, freeze dried, the result is one of the most amazing fruit related items you can taste...like jaboticaba cotton candy with a crunch...intense flavor...sweet with some sour...my favorite thing to do with jaboticaba for sure...(not a wine drinker here lol...fruit leathers used to be the thing, but that's soooo 2000 and late)

it would be excellent if the strange color stays...

they’re sweet low resin fruits so far...very pale.

https://youtu.be/AvR8U05O1M0

https://youtu.be/Zf0UMG3Rjig

https://youtu.be/86naIX2TQbo

premieres in 2hrs yo...

https://youtu.be/WTu2FDDZ9O0