The Tropical Fruit Forum

Varietal labeling may not be required by law, but you should still do it anyway. You will be a new business starting up in a competitive field. You will need something to differentiate yourself from more established nurseries. After all, why should a customer patronize your business instead of one he or she has been buying from for years. So, if nurseries in your area do not label their plants with what variety they are, you should to give yourself a possible edge on your more established competition.

In my experience, pitangatuba is not picky about its growth medium. The only time I ever lost one was when I allowed it to get too dry for slightly too long. My surviving ones are just in a standard potting soil mix with Espoma fertilizer every once so often.

Pitomba seems more finicky, at least mine are. They have never thrived despite growing in the same growth medium as my pitangatubas and other Eugenias.

Ha! That would be my own grasskeets that live in my greenhouse!
For the most part they leave my plants alone, but every so often they go on a binge, and walk the tops of the banana leaves, eating the tasty, crunchy part where the leaves attach to the ribs. I come into the greenhouse in the morning and banana leaves are all over the floor, with just the ribs still attached to the plant like a giant yucca or something.

Carolyn

Well, you can hardly complain about your own birds messing up your plants. That would have been like me complaining about my dog digging in the yard. He was just too entertaining to stop, regardless of how much of a mess he made of the place.

Now, if it was someone else's birds getting into your greenhouse and damaging your plants, you might have an valid complaint (in addition to being confused as to how someone else's birds are getting in).

You might want to cite the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead, Florida to the Los Angeles parks department as an example of what such a park would look like and how it would function. Or not, considering the current antipathy between California and Florida.

Also, taking into account the incredible levels of bureaucracy in California, it would probably take about ten years and $200 million to plant two fruit trees. At least it will after the public hearings, the environmental impact statement, the archaeological survey, the testing of the trees to make sure they will not give Californians cancer, the research into whether fruit trees are systemically racist against minority and indigenous communities, and all of California's other requisite nonsense. And in the end, those fruit trees will provide some homeless, mentally ill, drug addict a very nice place to defile with his or her (or they or whatever) campsite.

None.

Now, I have some bird damage each year to various fruit crops: blackberries, tomatoes, etc. The usual suspects of cardinals, mockingbirds, catbirds, etc. are responsible. But, I try to grow everything in such abundance that it really does not matter what the birds do, they never make a dent in my crop, and I always have more than enough fruit after the birds take their share.

But... squirrels and chipmunks are a completely different story. They did up potted plants. They chew up plants, potted and in-ground. They waste fruit by pulling off unripe fruit and partially eating it. If my yard was the Old West, there would be posters hanging up everywhere stating, "Wanted: Dead or Alive. Squirrels and Chipmunks. Shoot on Sight."

It reminds me of Eugenia observa. It looks similar to other photos I have seen identified as that species. I could be wrong, though.

I think scientists are starting to discover this is more common than previously realized, though really it is pretty self-evident. Someone, long ago, finds a tree, bush, or other fruiting plant that has really good fruit, better than he or she has ever tasted from that species. That person takes the seeds or cuttings from that plant to propagate. Seedlings, cutting-grown, and/or grafted plants begin to be spread around. Since this new fruiting plant is better than the old fruiting plants, those old plants are not grown anymore or only grown in very small quantities. After a while, all the plants grown of that particular species are descended from that single, original plant. That is fine, until some pest or disease inevitably discovers that we have created a genetic monoculture of plants very susceptible to pests and diseases.

The process is ongoing as we speak. After all, one can only look a few decades into the future and extrapolate how Zill-developed varieties are likely to become the dominant ones for mangos, sapodillas, Surinam cherries, etc.

It looks like most of the seeds germinated.  Unfortunately, again most of the sprouts died shortly after germination while still under an inch tall.  The pulasan seedlings I got in the spring did the same.  Not sure if this is a soapberry thing, lychees seem to have a much higher survival rate

Anyway I got two healthy plants out of this batch so far, and possible more will survive given time.  I am curious what others' experience with rambutan is.  Every one of the seedlings from my previous batch that survived seems to have yellowing leaves that go necrotic quickly, though so far they have been replaced by new leaves.  I tried acid soil, high potassium fert, high humidity.  Not sure what it is they are wanting.

I grew some rambutans from grocery store fruit last year. Apparently, the fruit was not irradiated. But, since I had never had any success when I had tried to germinate rambutan seeds in previous years (probably because that fruit was from a different company and had likely been irradiated), I did not try and germinate those rambutan seeds. I just threw them into a compost bucket. In less than a month, I had a dozen or so rambutans. They grew excellently for about three months until summer ended and fall started settling in. I could not bring in my compost bucket for the winter; it is filled with insects and other things I do not want indoors. But, transplanting those rambutans killed them almost instantly. They were all dead within a couple of weeks. Although I had tried to take care not to disturb them too much during transplanting, I had apparently still disturbed their roots too much.

So, if I were to try and grow rambutans again, I would put them in an extremely rich potting medium: basically put the seeds in pure compost. I would keep them in part shade. The environment would be one matching an Alabama summer: very hot and very humid. Compost readily retains moisture; I do not remember watering them much since I think it rained every few days, but I would water them as needed.

Maybe try some of those tips and see if they work for you.

PM sent.

Grumichamas can get rather large in comparison to other Eugenia species. It is not the best for container culture, which is why I have never added one to my collection. You can grow one in a container but be prepared to stay on top of it to both keep its growth in check and give it the nutrients required for it to successfully fruit for you. Surinam cherry (Eugenia uniflora) and pitangatuba (Eugenia selloi) are better for beginners to try to grow as container plants, in my opinion, at least among the common Eugenias. Pitangatuba is an especially good plant as it does not grow large and can be kept in a container for a long time. Seeds for all of these Eugenias can be easily found online, both on the Forum and elsewhere, and are inexpensive to purchase.

I think this is the 3rd thread you've created asking the same question. The other threads were answered for you.

Agreed. Quit cluttering up the Forum with threads asking the same question.

The leaves are looking dry, and it appears to be growing inside a house. While Garcinias can be overwintered indoors in colder areas during the winter for a few months (as I do with mine every year), they do better when grown in places with more humidity than is usually found inside a house. That lack of humidity especially affects smaller Garcinia seedlings before they become well established. This is the time of year for it to be outside in the heat and humidity. Put it outside, in a shady location or in a sunny location under shade cloth. Very lightly fertilize it. Keep it watered but not waterlogged. It may not grow much more this year, but you will want it to be in peak condition before it has to endure a long Michigan winter indoors.

I've had a ton of small plants mailed to me all times of year, from the heat of summer to the freezing winter.  Even the most sensitive plants, ex. mangosteen in winter when its freezing outside.  I have personally never had issues with the weather as long as I receive them as soon as delivered.  I have also bought plants in person at nurseries in CA and FL and mailed them back to myself or boxed them up and packed as checked luggage on planes. 

By far, the most important factor seems to be the amount of root disturbance.   Some trees I had barerooted pretty much all died.  Plants that were poorly shipped where dirt was everywhere tended to die. 

I have seen some sites mention lychee trees do not ship well, but I boxed up a 3gal and put it on a plane and it is doing just fine still.

Bare rooting is fine for temperate trees that go completely dormant. But, for tropical and subtropical plants, it seems to be nearly an automatic death sentence. I have not had many plants sent to me bare root, but only one ever lived, an imbe. I believe that is because it has thicker leaves and fleshier roots. The other plants had finer roots.