The Tropical Fruit Forum

very interesting observations on the rubra x rubra grafts failing-

I have ~10 seedlings I was about to graft up but you are making me second guess

Its Justicia and BloomAndSprout said- its a great groundcover for your more thirsty plants and makes a nice relaxing tea, not sure if it has been properly chemically assayed before

No tomato taste with these- happy to share (and pay forward) cuttings to you as well brian

seeds are tough-

I have maybe only a handful of seedlings out hundreds of germinated seeds, and I have tried maybe 10 species at this point

A few problems-

Seeds can look viable but be duds- they need to be pollinated and fruit will form without proper pollination

Damping off is a huge issue- maybe spraying with fungicide would work

Slugs love to eat them

That said the people over at the SFSU greenhouse appear to have good success with a clean take-out food container and long sphagnum moss

I will offer some comparatively cheap cuttings for sale here soon (mainly to try to encourage more people to grow them) and I have had much better success growing them from cuttings




Cavendishia nobilis

Does it depend on the variety?  How best to go about such a "dwarfing" program?  If there are no other white sapotes in the neighborhood, would you need to plant two trees, different varieties?

Jack Nipomo says edulis on tertamera dwarfs them

Some new blooms on some new and old plants! I've tried the cordifolium fruit- its mediocre but can be good if it is a bit underwatered and fully ripe-

hoping to start crosses on some of these soon, maybe we can get a strawberry situation with a far superior fruit arising from a cross

Sphyrospermum buxifolium
An uncommon New World subtropical blueberry relative native to the Andes. Can be epiphytic and has hanging thin branches up to 5' long but usually shorter with rounded pale green leaves. Just looks like it wants to be on a dipping cliff by a waterfall. Egg-shaped flowers that are white-pink with darker tips followed by translucent violet-tinged edible berries much like Agapetes. No frost. Way nifty.

Text sourced from farreachesfarm.com










Sphyrospermum cordifolium - Tembo tape
Blueberry kin: Semi-epiphytic sprawling shrublet with arching branches 1–2′ long. Small lanceolate leaves, pink-bronze new growth. Little, egg shaped, white-pink flowers. Edible sweet berries, white with a violet blush. Occurs throughout the cloudforests of the Andes, this seed originated in Ecuador. Leaves applied topically for heart pains. Rooted cuttings from several seed grown plants. Acid soil, filtered light. Z9b?

Text sourced from sacredsucculents.com













Cavendishia alenii -
This is a close look at the rare Cavendishia allenii from rain forests of Panama.  This unusual blueberry relative makes striking clusters of bright yellow flowers that emerge from hot pink bracts.  Even without blooms it's a handsome plant, with glossy, thick leaves that are super attractive.  This is a prized collector's plant that is almost never seen outside of a few botanical gardens.  It is seldom seen for sale.
It grows as an epiphyte on trees in the wild, making a woody caudex and arching shoots about 3 feet long.  Some related species grow rampant over other plants, but this one stays nice & tidy, looking great in a hanging planter or on a shelf.  The flowers appear in waves throughout the year, but it usually has at least a few blooms on it.  The tight flower clusters emerge from the ends of the shoots and are 2-3 inches long, each with about 8 to 15 flowers.  The tubular blooms are pollinated by hummingbirds in the wild.  After pollination, it makes attractive lavender berries which are probably edible, but i can't guarantee this.
It comes from lowland tropical forests, where temperatures are warm or mild all year.  It grows best between about 50 and 85°F (10-29°C).  It can probably grow outdoors in Florida and coastal California if protected from frost.  It likes very bright, filtered light.  Some direct sun is fine if it isn't strong.  It prefers a loose, "chunky" soil mix that's slightly acidic.  A typical mix is 1 part small-grade orchid bark, 1 part peat moss or coco fiber, and 1 part perlite, coarse sand, or pumice rock.  Keep the soil evenly moist or allow it to dry out halfway.  Over about 40% humidity is best.  In the right conditions, it's an easy and vigorous plant.

Text sourced from strangewonderfulthings.com

Thank you for the update, please post some pictures of the plants and let us know what ends up surviving the bare root process as well-

I have had some issues with survival of bare-rooted plants from ecuador but hope better for you-

Just curious, how did you actually place the order? their website appears to only allow for ordering within India

Can Anyone tell me- male, female or hermie? ( I suspect at least hermie given the fruits)

Any japanese friends want to help me out?

https://en.plants-axis.net/product-page/agapetes-neriifolia-dehong

#2 could be nutmeg? #4 is a persimmon of some kind I think

elouicious, i thought of you the other day when a youtube guy touring an incredible private garden in columbia asked if the epiphytic blueberries were edible.  the answer he received was that some are poisonous.  in that video you can see a few really nice epiphytic blueberries.  in the first video of the tour the guy asked about the fruits of monstera deliciosa.

coincidentally, today was the first time in my life i ever heard of the fruits of philodendron bipinnatifidum being edible.  it is an extremely common landscaping plant here in socal but it is never pollinated, unfortunately, because it turns out that the fruit is delicious.  in this video a guy in misiones argentina eats the fruit, which he called guaimbe.  he strongly advised not actually chewing the flesh because the numerous small white seeds are extremely unpleasant when chomped on.  before eating the fruit he noticed some fly eggs on the outside of it but he simply brushed them off. 

i feel very wimpy about not tasting the delicious smelling syngonium fruit i found on the jungle floor in costa rica.  fortunately i somehow have some seedlings of it so hopefully one day i'll be able to redeem myself.  i've tasted several anthurium berries and they were all edible, so i'm guessing that many if not most aroid fruits lose their calcium oxylate crystals when they ripen. 

"is it edible?" is such an underrated question.  on inaturalist this question is barely asked.  are you on inaturalist?  if so, you should start a project for figuring out the edibility of epiphytic blueberries. 

regarding vigor, when one of my fig hybrids grows slowly where i currently am in socal, i can't help but wonder if it would grow faster closer to the coast where its cooler, or in central florida where its warmer.  well, warmer on average.  so vigor is very relative to conditions.  none of the plants we grow are going to be vigorous in antarctica. 

every seedling has optimum conditions.  what are the chances that a seedling's current conditions are also its optimum conditions?  very slim.  so when i have a seedling that is slow, my first assumption is that its conditions are lacking.  this doesn't mean i should keep it.  and if i'm not willing to destroy it, then...?  then i should rehome it. 

that's very nice of you to offer to share condit's paper with me.  actually i have it as well.  out of curiosity, why do you have it?  i'm guessing you read it?  didn't you say that you were working on crossing some epiphytic blueberries? 

Thanks for sharing the video, I would love to visit Colombia some day as it is a naturally rich spot for diversity of the neotropical blueberries, I have tried to incentivize some colombian members to collect and sell seeds to me but so far no bites  :'(

The one they reference eating looks to be Sphyrospermum cordifolium- which is edible but not all that palatable, I have a flowering plant now and am trying to see if I can improve the fruits with fertilization or watering regimens before trying crosses. I have also heard that some of these can be poisonous but have yet to hear of a specific species that cannot be eaten. The Cavendishia quereme (2 spp?) and dulcis are also plants I would love to grow if given the opportunity. This is not the first report of the plants being used to enhance loved either- Cavendishia adenophora, which I am growing, is used in brews to make a "love potion" as well.There are several other species I can see in the video that are not discussed as well- would love to speak to Eduardo if given the chance.

I am on inaturalist, but have only used it for native plant identification before, never proper journaling but I will look into starting a project. So far the most palatable species I ave had is Agapetes rubrobracteata and will probably be the start of my crosses.

Totally agree that some of these plants would do better in other conditions, but as you said- you can't grow them in all the different conditions and certainly shipping seedlings is too expensive to do on a large scale to test other climates also. I guess the only point i'm trying to make is maybe don't feel bad about culling seedlings- there are certainly seedlings that are sensitive to damping off and infection that are unlikely to survive or thrive in any natural environment, and one of the reasons plants produce so many seeds over so many years is to provide diversity genetically so that the species has a higher chance of surviving varied conditions.

I have it because I have journal access through a university, I have a particular vendetta against the scientific publishing system (as you note the producers of the work are in no way compensated by the journals for the fees they charge for access) and like to share the stuff when I can

a lot of things to consider-

will you plant in ground or grow in containers? If planting in ground a good rule of thumb is to go for the smaller trees as their root systems are unlikely to be affected by the pots-

if the long term plan is to grow in containers, the bigger the better

tip burn at the worst if it was actually 30 mins,

you mean it was 15 outside or it got all the way down to 15 in the garage then you noticed and changed the door?

Its basically an in-house terrarium build- might be easier to explain to contractors as such

Cool concept, would love to see the progress if you end up building it