Email features have been reactivated 4/17/24
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
I tried last year with a single flower, rubbing a Garcinia Brasliensis against it, nothing happened, I'm gonna try this year in a wider extent..Raul, can you pollinate The female flowers with pollen from a different Garcinia species? What would that do?
I haven't tried, probably you didn't notice, I mentioned Luc's plant is 30 kilometers away from mine, we got it at the same nursery just didn't know it was dioecious, we got a plant each Luc's had little fruits at buying time probably pollinated from another nursery male, he planted and the fruits got to ripe, he mentioned about a nice flavor, I think he liked it,
FYI,
kwai muk scientific name is now artocarpus parvus.
I may have some seeds available in a week or so, and if I'm on break I can send you some.
I bought some from Fruit Lover's recently https://fruitlovers.com/product/kwai-muk/
They are listed as "Available on backorder". It took quite a while before my order shipped, but they did eventually get to me.
For southern CA, the 5 bullet proof trees you can put in the ground and they produce loads of fruit with minimal effort:
1. Guava
2. Loquat
3. White sapote
4. Citrus
5. Avocado
There are better tasting fruit IMO that require more effort, but the 5 I mentioned above are set it and forget trees with the best ROI.
I'm not a big fan of starting a new topic for every question when I think adding it to an existing thread helps consolidate useful information. However, the last thread I could find labelled for Miracle Fruit advice turned into a bit of a snipefest. Even the forum code suggested I open a new thread instead of replying to the older one. So anyhow, here goes...
I have a metre or so tall Miracle Fruit tree in a roughly 15 gallon pot that I planted around a year ago. for the best part of time it did well, and when it started to look a bit iffy, I managed to perk it up with some acidifying fertilizer and got a decent berry harvest for the second time. However, it soon started to look sick again, which I initially put down to our crazy record-breaking hot dry season this past spring. However, two solid months into rainy season and it still isn't looking great.
Some background. I potted it with a mix of perlite, local topsoil, compost, and peat moss. Our local soil is very alkaline and tends to clay up when wet. The well water that is used to irrigate it during drier spells is also very alkaline. I've been religiously giving coffee grounds, sulfur, and measuring the pH to get it into optimal range, plus occasional weak compost tea and foliar sprays, so I am thinking I have other issues.
So what next? In my opinion I think that the soil has sludged up, or salt/saline conditions are taking over. I drilled lots of big holes to the pot to help drainage, but I think the roots are just too wet still. Sadly I think I will need to pull it from it's pot and try to repot it with a cleaner mixture.
My questions are:
1) Am I even on the right track with my thoughts? Can I try something else before going defcon 1? I'll try to add a photo of the tree/leaves tomorrow
2) I heard that Miracle Fruit get upset very easy when the roots are disturbed. How would I go about cleaning up any sludgy mess should I find it?
3) Related to #2, is there any suggested substrate mix which will avoid using my local crappy topsoil? I have most ingredients one could need, so it would be about putting these into an applicable mixture.
4) Am I crazy even trying? She's an already decent sized tree and don't want to give up on it.
Thank you in advance of any replies.
I have two very large miracle fruit trees (one short leaf and one long leaf) for 6 years in 20 gallon containers and I believe within the last year I finally got them extra happy. I made my own soil mixture. I used 50% Canadian sphagnum peat moss/50% perlite or pumice. I top dress every 6 months with Dr Earth Acid Lovers fertilizer- I have been adding pine needles and pine bark to the top 4 inches of soil. I will also add soil acidifier and coffee grounds to the top dressing recipe.
When the tips of the leaves are brown, it usually signifies they didn’t receive enough water or the soil is not acidic enough. This happened to the both of my plants about 16 months ago. They don’t like soaking wet soil but they also don’t like the soil to dry out, ever. I use rain water only, I mix that water with pH down to bring the ph to about 4-4.5 ph. I will also add Mycorrhiza and fish emulsion every other watering, they real seem to thrive and respond really well to extra stuff I add to the waterings. They are slow growers- but one of my plants grew and easy 3.5ft in the last year. The brown leaf tips from last year are almost gone (the plants periodically drops leaves) and the new growth is super healthy with shiny leaves. Once a year, I use a soil ph Meter to make sure the ph is within optimal range.
Both of my trees live under my screened in porch, west facing. They are shaded all day except when they receive direct sunlight from about 3-6pm. The more shade, the better. They really can’t tolerate direct sun for long periods.
I highly recommend that you repot with the proper soil mixture, it shouldnt hurt it and give it regular waterings. I water about every 5-7 days in winter and every 3-5 days in the summer. I started watering more frequently this summer and they responded well and I have been rewarded with hundreds of berries in the last 4- 6 months. Miracle fruit is a perfect container plant, best of luck with it.
I have killed my fair share of miracle berry. I am currently trying an experiment with 5% sulphuric acid and it they seem to be loving it. I am going to go against the grain and test out soils that are not as heavy in peat. Peat eventually turns to sludge which I feel is the death for miracle berries. I think I might test out more non organic soils. I have heard Decomposed granite is slightly acidic. I might try that. It will be an interesting experiment.
