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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Looking for Ilama scions
« on: September 08, 2025, 01:13:52 AM »
Thanks -- maybe I should wait on grafting then...
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2
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Looking for Ilama scions
« on: September 03, 2025, 02:57:40 AM »
I'm hoping to get a couple of Ilama scions, preferably of the white (coconut/pineapple flavor) and maybe also a red or pink type. In SoCal, happy to pick up or get via mail, trade or buy. Thanks!
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: newly purchased feijoa not looking good
« on: April 23, 2025, 05:06:24 PM »
Yeah, they don't like being in containers -- I've had pineapple guavas die after too long in a pot. When planting in them in the ground, if they've been in a container for a long time I do some pretty heavy pruning or even just strip the leaves from half the plant.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Source for Gary's Best Top Pot Potting Soil in San Diego county?
« on: April 23, 2025, 02:57:42 PM »
I don't think Gary puts much organic matter in it -- he has a talk about how it's better to avoid too much organic matter in potting soils:
http://www.lagunahillsnursery.com/
http://www.lagunahillsnursery.com/
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: possibly crazy idea for planting white sapote
« on: April 12, 2025, 11:27:29 PM »
I've planted white sapotes in compacted urban soil along the sidewalk -- some of that soil was super compacted under concrete until the concrete was removed. What worked really well was direct seeding -- get the biggest white sapote seed you can find (from a Pike or McDill fruit) and direct seed in the spot you want the tree. You only need to loosen the top 6 inches or so of soil when direct seeding. Then leave a hose just with a drip / trickle of water, for a day or so, directly over where you planted the seed. The seedling tree's roots will follow the path the water found down into the soil. Eventually you can graft the tree.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Why arent mexicola avocados grown commercially nowhere in the world?
« on: March 30, 2025, 12:17:34 AM »
I agree -- Duke avocados, among other cold hardy types, should be grown more widely. While Duke is a bit milder flavored than Mexicola, its skin is so thin, green, and has no flavor so you can eat it or mash the fruit without worrying about it. It's not a bad fruit if you can't grow any other varieties.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: March 06, 2025, 06:47:58 PM »Can you post a photo of your Banana passion fruit, I have never tasted one. If its really good, I wonder why not many people here grow it.
That one is P. laurifolia. It doesn't like our weather much because it's a lowland tropical species. (It's why I grafted it, not sure if that helped though.)
There are other "banana" passionfruits that are P. mollissima and relatives which aren't usually very sweet but because they're highland species they grow fast here.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: March 04, 2025, 02:33:06 PM »Robert, sometime later, I need to get a few cuttings from you to see how your passion fruit taste.
Barath, I can send you cuttings of Fredericks, just cover the cost to ship, I purchased 3 plants (Home Depot, 5gal) just so I can compare the leaves of Fredericks to Dennis, it was too similar to distinguish one from the other.
Thanks Kaz but no worries -- I have access to Fredrick, but just haven't had time to do the grafting experiment.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: March 04, 2025, 12:16:16 PM »A long time ago I played around with Passiflora grafting, and decided to do it again. In the past I grafted the more tropical ones on P. caerulea, but that was a mistake because caerulea suckers like crazy. This time I grafted P. laurifolia on "Betty Myles Young" (P. caerulea x P. loefgrenii) because it supposedly doesn't sucker much but has the same hardiness. The graft took and it's growing (slowly). The problem I had with P. laurifolia in the past is that it hates the cold soil in the winter here, kind of like papayas, but the winter air temperature here doesn't get cold enough to kill it. Let's see if this grafted one does better.Hey Barath, did you ever try grafting onto edulis flavacarpa they are vigirous growers and mine up here in Arroyo Grande has covered fence and old dead bamboo! It's a monster and never affected my cold only a little die back of top of vine leaves one year. Just a thought!
I'm still waiting on my maybe-popenovii vines to flower so I can confirm whether they're the real thing.
I really like the fruit of P. laurifolia and hope that either popenovii fruits and it tastes similar (since they're related) or I can get laurifolia itself to grow better in our weather.
Good point -- yeah I was thinking of grafting onto Frederick since it's easy to find and very vigorous, but I never got around to it. Also, the stem shape of laurifolia matches the shape of the caerulea relatives, but doesn't match edulis or alata types, so the graft might be more tricky. Definitely worth trying.
Kaz, I am trying to get a Qinmi #9 plant soon.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What is the most underrated fruit in your opinion?
« on: February 17, 2025, 10:59:44 PM »
Surinam Cherry. A good one like Marta's 'Guaruja Red' can be better than the best temperate cherries.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: “Catherines Find” Eleagnus Cuttings
« on: February 06, 2025, 10:13:36 PM »They do well with a normal goumi for a pollinator (though it's not needed). Catherine's original bush was on the side of her house in the shade and her normal goumi bush was out front, but they were close enough for cross pollination and both produced way more fruit than she could pick.
Barath, the "Katherines" I got from you only sets a couple fruit each year. Sounds like I need another plant. Will just a Goumi work?
Yup, a normal goumi will pollinate it well. I guess you could just graft a couple sticks of goumi on it in random spots (shade, sun, etc.) to be sure that you have a range of flowering times, because I don't remember how well their flowering times line up.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: “Catherines Find” Eleagnus Cuttings
« on: February 05, 2025, 10:42:39 PM »
They do well with a normal goumi for a pollinator (though it's not needed). Catherine's original bush was on the side of her house in the shade and her normal goumi bush was out front, but they were close enough for cross pollination and both produced way more fruit than she could pick.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: February 05, 2025, 12:03:17 PM »barath, I did notice the leaves look different. But from one qinmi#9 to another, they also looked different so I wonder if it is just the age.
I'll try to find a photo showing the leaves of the mature vine I posted with all those fruits, they were real, tasted excellent. My vine is small so when I have time this week, will take photos of its leaves and post. I also bought a seedling qinmi#9 plant and it had different leaves from the mature vine.
Looking at some photos of the vine I found online, it has a bit of similarity to Passiflora alata leaves and fruit. I wonder if it is a hybrid with alata or some alata relative.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: February 05, 2025, 12:41:32 AM »
A long time ago I played around with Passiflora grafting, and decided to do it again. In the past I grafted the more tropical ones on P. caerulea, but that was a mistake because caerulea suckers like crazy. This time I grafted P. laurifolia on "Betty Myles Young" (P. caerulea x P. loefgrenii) because it supposedly doesn't sucker much but has the same hardiness. The graft took and it's growing (slowly). The problem I had with P. laurifolia in the past is that it hates the cold soil in the winter here, kind of like papayas, but the winter air temperature here doesn't get cold enough to kill it. Let's see if this grafted one does better.
I'm still waiting on my maybe-popenovii vines to flower so I can confirm whether they're the real thing.
I really like the fruit of P. laurifolia and hope that either popenovii fruits and it tastes similar (since they're related) or I can get laurifolia itself to grow better in our weather.
I'm still waiting on my maybe-popenovii vines to flower so I can confirm whether they're the real thing.
I really like the fruit of P. laurifolia and hope that either popenovii fruits and it tastes similar (since they're related) or I can get laurifolia itself to grow better in our weather.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: February 05, 2025, 12:33:43 AM »I did buy some cuttings from your post here. Since I have the Qinmi#9 plant, when and if the cuttings grow out, I can compare it to the real plant. My Qinmi#9 is a skinny vine, not sure why, but it is growing fast so I hope I get a fruit this year to try. You saw my photos I took of the large vine at the lady's place. She said her vine was only a few years old, but it was large looking to me with lots of fruits on it. When I asked her is I can buy a cutting she said no.
Maybe this year the lady might sell me a few cuttings of her Qinmi#9. I will probably offer her $10 a cutting or maybe two cuttings for $10. I'll take a large pomelo fruit on my visit as a gift.
Kaz, I was about to ask if you notice anything different about the Qinmi leaves. From the photos they look a bit different from most Passiflora edulis leaves, but I wasn't able to zoom in to get a clear view. Some of the leaves looked like normal P. edulis but some of the leaves almost looked like they had the shape of the Laurifolia supersection (which includes P. laurifolia, P. popenovii, P. venusta, etc.). If the leaves look different, I wonder if it's a hybrid.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Being safe while growing and eating rare fruits
« on: January 29, 2025, 10:50:13 PM »Galatians read the study and ill attach his post. Basically the amount of annonacin in atemoya is very low compared to paw paw. Custard apple i have not seen a measurement for but the amount is probably similar to atemoya.
Har also pointed out that the people in the study were also consuming the seeds by blending them into smoothies and were drinking the bark and leaves via teas. These parts of the fruit have much more annonacin than the flesh.
The island the people lived on was heavily sprayed with agri chemicals. The annona consumption might not have even been the factor
Finally, all plants have toxins to some extent. Oxalates, phytates, etc. yet plants are the healthiest foods on the planet. This is probably just another case of trying to demonize plants.
I have a san pablo red custard apple tree that currently doesnt set fruit. For a lot of these tropical fruit trees, 2 trees are needed for pollination. Based on what im saying above, i feel comfortable planting a second custard apple tree. I may or may not freeze the fruit, but i will probably eat plenty when its in season..sure, the annonacin is still in the back of my mind, but the hazards produced by humans are a lot more dangerous than what is found in nature, in my opinion
I've bookmarked the topic - It's interesting reading material.
I'd just like to add the table that Galatians is referring to in the image you attached:
Does anyone know if there's data on the amount of annonacin / acetogenins in Ilama pulp?
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Looking for scions of Pouteria torta gallifructa
« on: January 27, 2025, 07:49:23 PM »
I'm hoping to try grafting Pouteria torta subps. gallifructa on Lucuma rootstock to get a double benefit of cold tolerance -- a somewhat cold tolerant Abiu relative grafted on a cold tolerant Pouteria rootstock. I'm looking for scions -- please let me know if you can part with one or two! Thanks!
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Favorite Passiflora
« on: January 17, 2025, 11:48:53 AM »
P. laurifolia is my favorite, though there are some edulis fruits I've had over the years that are really good as well. P. alata and P. ligularis are pretty good, though not quite as good. I'm still holding out hope for P. popenovii.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Champa nursery
« on: November 06, 2024, 11:09:28 PM »
I've done an online order with them before and had to email them after doing the online order to coordinate with them.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Free plants: surinam cherry, chrysophyllum imperiale, coffee, cas guava, etc.
« on: November 06, 2024, 02:54:01 PM »Update: still have several coffee plants and a #15 pot of cas guava.
Would love to take this Cas if I were closer but I'm sure it'll go to a good home.
Cas guava is now gone. I'll update above.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Free plants update: Eugenia uniflora var dasyblasta, grafted cherimoya, avo, etc
« on: November 06, 2024, 01:15:25 PM »
Updated with new plants listed above.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Free plants: surinam cherry, chrysophyllum imperiale, coffee, cas guava, etc.
« on: October 23, 2024, 02:41:34 PM »23
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Free plants update: Eugenia uniflora var dasyblasta, grafted cherimoya, avo, etc
« on: October 20, 2024, 09:27:01 PM »
I'm still clearing out plants. I have:
* 5 gallon of Dasyblasta Surinam Cherry (good tasting subspecies)
* A couple of small grafted cherimoyas
* A grafted Santa Clara Gold avocado (small, but good for getting scions from)
* Passiflora laurifolia seedlings
* Grafted Passiflora laurifolia on Betty Myles Young Passiflora rootstock
Orange County, CA, pickup only.
* 5 gallon of Dasyblasta Surinam Cherry (good tasting subspecies)
* A couple of small grafted cherimoyas
* A grafted Santa Clara Gold avocado (small, but good for getting scions from)
* Passiflora laurifolia seedlings
* Grafted Passiflora laurifolia on Betty Myles Young Passiflora rootstock
Orange County, CA, pickup only.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is anyone growing Dune Soapberry ?
« on: October 12, 2024, 09:33:36 PM »My dune soapberry is flowering. Looks just like longan flowers.
congrats! think you'll get any fruit? i have some small seedlings of the related pappea capensis that i grew from seed. i read here on tff that they can take 20 years to fruit.
No idea -- this is the first time it's flowering.
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Selling various trees: pitangatubas, cas guava, surinam cherry, tamarind, etc.
« on: October 12, 2024, 08:48:51 PM »
I need to clear out more trees in pots. Some stuff for free and some for sale. Pickup only in Orange County, CA.
Two One pitangatubas in #15 pots -- one of them multigrafted and fruiting and the other flowering but not fruiting yet. $125 for the grafted one and $75 for the other one.
A few cas guavas sharing a #15 pot -- $75
And some free things if you're buying something:
* Seedling surinam cherries of Marta's Guaruja Red variety in a #5 pot
* Coffee plants in small sleeves
* Seedlings of Chrysophyllum imperiale sharing a #5 pot
* Lots of black plastic #5 and #15 pots
A few cas guavas sharing a #15 pot -- $75
And some free things if you're buying something:
* Seedling surinam cherries of Marta's Guaruja Red variety in a #5 pot
* Coffee plants in small sleeves
* Seedlings of Chrysophyllum imperiale sharing a #5 pot
* Lots of black plastic #5 and #15 pots