The Tropical Fruit Forum

Just one man's experience:

Moringa is bullet proof. It will just grow. Cut it back as hard as you want, it'll keep coming back. I've got a few that, twice a year, I completely top down to about 4 feet tall (just trunks at that height) and they grow back to 15 foot in the next six months.

Leaves are the main thing your harvesting/eating. We throw them in just about anything that parsley wouldn't be weird in. Mine have very little taste (some trees are spicy/horse-radish type hot). The flowers look nice on a plate.

As per the pods, I've yet to harvest any that I could chew through. Even down to when they were pencil size they were still tough and stringy. But they do eat them some places, so I'm going to keep trying to figure my trees out. Grinding the seeds is supposed to be good, and the roots of the tree are supposed to make a horseradish substitute. But I've never tried either.

For planting, let the pod dry out on the tree, then open it up and each of those seeds inside can be planted.

Depends on how I'm using it. The seeds actually crunch kind of nicely (more like a rice crispy then a rock) so we leave them in sometimes, take them out others. My wife makes a lemon loaf with a passionfruit glaze that blows minds  leave the seed in the glaze for that one.

Easiest way I've found to get the seeds out is in a blender. Just pulse it a bit to break up the ... Jelly sacks (?). Then put it through a fine sieve. Smoosh the goop with a spoon til it stops dropping (or til you're over it). Done.

Post away. I for one would love to see some new ideas for the passionfruit I end up drowning in. 

Haha. Exactly, Xesoteryc. I think it's his cruel joke to advertise all the best stuff, then not to sell to us! The plan now is to collect, propagate, then sell something tempting enough that he'll buy. That would open the door, but it's a paradox, because he's already got the best stuff!

(I'm just playing, obviously. There's a lot of flakes and even more jerks in the world. I get it.)

Galatians, can we make requests? I was inspired to go check out the grapes growing in the woods near where I work. I had assumed they were muscadine, but lots of dark purple bunches and super sour. I'll grab some and try juicing tomorrow. Found a bunch of persimmons too. Very worthy 5 minutes walk.

Anyway, I came across a couple of tallow plums (ximenia Americana). I've got the quick basics but wonder if you're harboring any cool info.

...mostly I'm just not ready for this thread to get buried yet.

How about in Florida? I was trying to search this exact thing two days ago. I know it's been answered already but I can't find it.

Quote from: FloridaGrower69 on February 29, 2024, 05:59:22 PM

Hey John,

My favorite would the Dellerman Gold since he's a local farmer with a really unique MD2 variant.  I've tried a lot of pineapple and that one scores high because of the light to medium coconut taste ...depending on the plant... and the very hefty aromatics.  It smells amazing.  So I'm a bit opinionated on that one.  I've tried getting the material out to different members on this forum and I'd be interested what success they've had. 

Another favorite is Cayenne Hilo - which has a good, complex flavor with a little hint of tart. 

My wife's favorite is the Cabezona hybrid that's grown on the western side of Puerto Rico called Las Marias (that's the home town to the woman who hybridized it)  Supposedly it's Cabezona (bulls head, a very prickly and large fruit) cross pollinated with something called PR-167.  It produced a very strong vanilla flavored fruit that can grow quite large.  Though it's a prickly monster and tending to it can be like wrestling a Cholla cactus <kidding>.  LOL


I have Japanese Peach ('soft touch') coming along and that will be a real test to see if I can get the same strong aromatics and flavor that the Japanese farmers' fruit produces.   We'll see.

Picture of a Las Marias below next to a Giant Paun to show globe shape of fruit and beautiful color and some other images from the grounds.

I forget which thread you posted linking to the gentlemen who grow the Dellerman pineapple. the owner Mark Dellerman IIRC from the video was his name? It was a good share and now I want to visit his farm and cop a few of his pineapples when he's in season to sell them, he had a good story about his farm and his pineapple, they also sound really good tasting too!

I'll second that, Rice. We are in Melbourne, so not very far. Everytime I went south for anything I tried to work in a stop at one of those spots you said we're selling it, Brett, but it was either out of the way or odd hours. This year I'll just have to plan to just come to your ranch, instead of trying to finagle it in. ... Maybe I'll call it a homeschool field trip. I'm sure you'd say something educational. Haha

So this is embarrassing. I figured I'd double check my grow chart before taking a picture, and discovered I was totally wrong about that tiny variety. It is not lakatan, it's a kokopo. I looked into getting lakatan at the same time and must have conflated the two. 😅. My bad.
Here's some pictures anyway to atleast prove I was honest about the size difference between the namwah and the little guy.

Stevenson Nursery lanscaping and irrigation.
I'll add this nursery in Cocoa. Lots of good stuff.

I've got a couple pods just starting to brown right now. Should be a bunch more in a month or so. How many are you looking for?

My persimmon was much slower at waking up this year than I expected. It's only been pushing for a month or two now. Maybe that's normal, I don't know, but it's been in the 80's since February.
No advice, but if you're still scratching green, I wouldn't give up on it.

Alright, I'll respond for poor Ceejay's sake. Y'all are keeping it entertaining, but poking him just to poke ain't very nice.
I don't claim to know much about anything. And even less about this post. (4 days and 4 pages. I've lost the plot a little). I am somebody you would probably consider "on the right," though I don't actually play for one of the teams and disagree with most of their decisions. Maybe I'm the exception, but I don't think so.  John, you said denial/mockery of climate change is based on being against government control, and I think you're right there.  For real people (as opposed to the media), it's a question of how much warming, how catastrophic that warming is, what role humans play in it, and what the reaction to it should be. There is real fear of more government control and interference. To me, that fear is totally legitimate. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I for one do not want more government in any area I can think of. I've got a rock solid belief that government screws up everything it touches.
But before I draw myself off, in my reading, ya'll haven't actually touched anything that hits those points at which we actually disagree. I agree with a lot of what you said in that last post, without any real struggle. Truthfully, I don't have a lot to add, just felt you'd earned a response from the "other side."
I did wonder from the Exxon chart (your climate files link). Bottom right shows Exxon's estimate of temp change stretching back 150k years overlaid in red with "simulated change". Any thoughts on the disparity between the pre"today" temps? Advances in core drilling and interpreting maybe? Or just years of additional sampling maybe? ... Not really an argument for or against anything, just interesting.