The Tropical Fruit Forum

Here is an update. I planted this plant in the ground in late summer. It has a banana growing over it, has a rock wall behind it, and below it. Once temps dropped, I stopped giving it water, but our sandy soil has stayed moist due to rain. I recently piled up some fresh wood chips around it in hopes they would raise air temps a couple degrees around it. We've had several nights of light frost, but the plant is in a micro-climate location that doesn't seem to frost. Interestingly, the lead branch arrested growth as soon as night temps dipped below 50ºf, but it appears several branches of new growth have emerged close to the soil level. They pushed new growth before I piled chips around it. The plant doesn't look great, but it looks a lot better than I thought it would. While the leaves don't look great, there doesn't appear to be any dieback on the stem, despite it being green wood.

I have some male and female I can cut for you. If $30 for two of each (including shipping) sounds good to you, shoot me a PM. Should be done soon, as mine are just starting to wake up. I'm in Central CA.

I have a 15 gallon fruiting one here in south San Diego that I may want to sell.

What would you say its cold tolerance is?

Quote from: Reedo on August 29, 2024, 10:51:30 PM

Mine just fruited for the first time. Pretty sweet tasty.

Good on ya! Shame we don't have them in down here in Australia.
I might have to buy seeds at some stage, but are they better than the good ol' English Black, or whatever grows wild in the USA? I Just want to make sure that whatever I do is worth my time, money and effort.

It's very good, but if you're just starting to acquire mulberries, I wouldn't go out of your way to get this one. It's similar to the other Himalayan types, but has a very novel leaf shape. There are many excellent selections already in circulation where you are. Marta has a nice blog that details a lot of them.

https://fruitsandgardening.blogspot.com/search?q=mulberries

This cultivar has probably been posted already. Nettie white sapote.

Mine just fruited for the first time. Pretty sweet tasty.

Another vote for Poha / Cape Gooseberries. Cherimoyas and some of the other Annonas seem to fruit in ~3 years. Guavas fruit pretty quickly too. Mulberries fruit very quickly when grafted onto established rootstock. Rooted cuttings of figs can fruit in 0-2 years.

Quote from: sc4001992 on June 18, 2024, 12:54:15 PM

There is large fruit size white sapote that tests very good, as good as any I have tasted. You should get the Selk or CT#7, see my photos. These fruits are very good tasting. How you tried either of these fruits. Also, Cuccio gets very large, but I like these two over Cuccio.

I'll be able to taste my seedling McDill fruits this year and people say it is on the large size but it doesn't look as large as the two I mentioned above.

I've had Selck and Cuccio, and they're good but aren't quite as good as the best ones I've eaten. Even within a single cultivar on a single tree, white sapotes vary a lot. I'm no expert on them, so this is just based on trying maybe 20 varieties. But the best two varieties I've had are Walton and @ScottR's Rainbow seedling.

Yeah, McDill is a huge fruit but I put it in the middle of the pack -- sweet and bland. At least it's a really consistent fruit.

Among the widely available and productive varieties, Vernon is a good choice, because a good Vernon fruit is really good, decent sized, and the trees are productive and precocious.

Is the "@ScottR's Rainbow seedling" circulated as "Robert's Rainbow", or is that something different? Any chance you got to see the tree's growth habit? My grafted Robert's Rainbow finally started to take off, so I'm going to get it in the ground. Curious if it's going to be a monster tree like my Walton.

Quote from: MoNLA on May 21, 2024, 07:32:48 PM

Quote from: spaugh on May 26, 2022, 12:08:45 PM

My definite keeper list:

Hass
Reed
Fujikawa
Nabal
Sharwil
Gwen
Carmen

And theres a whole list of undecided but likely to be doused with glyphosate and set on fire if they dont do something useful very quickly. 

Any updated on your keeper list or has it been the same?

That is my currwnt keeper list.  The santa clara gold is keeper so far.  Also I have a few pinkerton trees that I have had forever and am keeping for now.  I have a green gold tree also but don't think it as good as sharwil so it is kind of useless.  Murashige from Hawaii is also doing well but the fruit don't seem great but this year I have a lot of those to try and see if they are good.  Also Hellen is TBD but seems promising so far.  Hopefully they get good oil before dropping this year.  I have been very patient with jan boyce but so far its worthless.  Maybe it will impress this year. 


Here is the list of ones I top worked and are gone for good

Mexicola,
Stewart
Sir Prize
Gem,
Lamb,
Bacon,
Fuerte,
Mex Grande,
Ardith,
Nishikawa,
Kahalu,
Malama,
OTA

What attributes led you to cull Gem? Why has Jan Boyce been "worthless"? Low fruit production? I really liked the JB fruit I've tried, but mine rarely sets fruit in Santa Cruz, CA.

Quote from: Reedo on May 03, 2024, 05:31:52 PM

Quote from: sc4001992 on May 03, 2024, 12:46:52 PM

I would trade you if you have a mulberry variety that I need. Do you have something good?
Not planning to sell any more on here.

Thanks! I found a friend locally that has a plant and can trade me in the fall. Always happy to trade if you're looking for something specific. Just let me know.

I have an extra rooted cutting and grafted tree if your friend doesn’t work out. They are still young but should be fine. Looking for Skinner, DMOR9, red Himalayan and Kaester.

Great, thank you! I’ll check back in late summer when I rooted cuttings. I have DMOR9 and Skinner for trade.

Quote from: Reedo on May 04, 2024, 09:58:50 AM

I've had a lot of variance in growth and fruit set on my 12 trees planted in nearly identical locations. Some are 12' tall, some are 4' tall, and they're all the same age. They're pretty tolerant of different growing conditions. Mature trees are huge, so yours might just be a little young to establish a regular fruiting cycle. I haven't seen any research done on rootstocks and growth, but variance in genetics is always a possibility.

https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/downloadpdf/journals/hortsci/42/6/article-p1329.xml

https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117152821/http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/white_sapote.html

https://apps.cals.arizona.edu/arboretum/taxon.aspx?id=439

https://gardenoracle.com/images/casimiroa-edulis.html

Reedo, good links to casimiroa, I have found growing w, sapote can be interesting for sure as you mentioned different growth rates with same age trees. I've grown w, sapotes since i was part of CRFG group that went down to Bob Chambers grooves to help save his varieties by harvesting as many varieties that we could find off his maps. This was in 2011 and I still have varieties as single trees that are only 3-4' tall and other multi-grafted varieties that are trying to be huge. I had found that one variety rootstock is vary vigorous and that is Pike variety there are others too but I think if you want a vigorous tree try planting a vigorous seed from robust variety. Also, experimenting with casimiroa tetrameria (yellow wholly leaf) as rootstock for dwarfing white sapote when grafted onto it. My friend Jack Swords first found this out my making a dwarf tree that way, also trying white sapote rootstock with yellow grafted on to it then graft white back on to it and see what size tree you get. Many folks now live in smaller yards and need smaller trees.
By the way that group that went down to Bob Chambers place was started with help from Bob Holzinger and Jack Swords, Harvey Correia, John Valenezula, and myself helped harvest scion wood from conflicting maps.

Very cool, thanks for the info! I was on the board of Monterey CRFG for a couple years and struggled to find any white sapote material locally. Jonah (Bush2Beach) was really the only person I could find with labels on his trees actively sharing scions. If you have any cultivars worthy of preserving, I'm active with the MBCRFG group, and am currently the only one bringing white sapote scions to events. I'd be happy to graft up and distribute anything I don't already have that's a favorite of yours. I currently have Vernon, Pike, Nettie, Lemon Gold, Wilson, Cuccio, Santa Cruz, Walton, Malibu #3, Michele, Delta Gold (Harvey's selection from seed), Lammertz, and Nova (a Bay Area selection from Laurie Mintz that is reported to have coconut notes). Only a few varieties have fruited for me so far, but they're definitely a family favorite!

I've had a lot of variance in growth and fruit set on my 12 trees planted in nearly identical locations. Some are 12' tall, some are 4' tall, and they're all the same age. They're pretty tolerant of different growing conditions. Mature trees are huge, so yours might just be a little young to establish a regular fruiting cycle. I haven't seen any research done on rootstocks and growth, but variance in genetics is always a possibility.

https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/downloadpdf/journals/hortsci/42/6/article-p1329.xml

https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090117152821/http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/white_sapote.html

https://apps.cals.arizona.edu/arboretum/taxon.aspx?id=439

https://gardenoracle.com/images/casimiroa-edulis.html

Thanks Reedo, that's when I did my graft's too was in March I've found that graft's can set quite awhile with just maybe a flower pushing before leaf growth comes out. Last year I did 10-grafts on various trees of 'Pecan Pie)( 4-trees out of total 6 tree in ground) but only one took originally looked like 3-took but in end only one. I'm impressed with your percentage success are your trees in ground or pot's?

The grafts were done on potted plants in my passive greenhouse. I think the warmer temps and diffused light help.