The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have three pouteria trees that have set significant blooms once or twice but no fruit or even fruitlets yet.  I don't actually know a whole lot about them, is it likely that they need same-species cross-pollination?  They are:  canistel (grafted, Bruce), green sapote (grafted), abiu (seedling).  I don't have more than one of each species.

The canistel is in-ground in my greenhouse and probably doesn't seem many pollinators.  The abiu and green sapote are in containers and were outside during bee season.

I saw this at a nearby nursery.  No label.  Doesn't look like anything I've seen before.

This is the first year that my container Chandler has produced full size fruit.  Previous two years it is had made a few fruit that reached only grapefruit size. 

Any suggestions on when to pick this fruit?  It is the only one on the tree so I can't do the usual sampling.

A couple years ago I bought a 'Mexican Cream' guava at a lowes or home depot store.  I noticed the fruit is pink, while Mexican Cream is supposed to be white?  Somebody mentioned in another thread that this has been very common and lots of mislabeled guavas at big box stores.

It made a lot of fruit this year, and it is pretty tasty.  I wanted a pink variety anyway... any idea what type it might be?  It looks more pear-shaped and avocado-like than the round pink guavas I see posted here often.

My seedling black sapote's first fruits seem to be starting to reach full size.  When should they be picked?  Are they like avocados where they must be picked and left to ripen off the tree?  Or can they be left on the tree until they become soft enough to eat?

They are still very hard if I give them a slight squeeze.

I was pruning what I thought was my overgrown Cara Cara and knocked a few fruit off.  Still green but seemingly full size.  The fruit were unusually light, and now I see why.  This is rootstock fruit! Cuban Shaddock, I assume, as this was a Fourwinds tree from 2014.  It looks the remainder of the scion died this year and I didn't notice the rootstock took over. 

This is the second rootstock tree I have had produce fruit at a very low node count.  The other is some kind of trifoliate orange, I believe C-35. 

Should I just toss it?  I can't imagine why anybody would want this as a rootstock, and I'm not sure why Fourwinds used it.  It seems very vigorous.  The UCR description for Cuban Shaddock fruit doesn't sound appealing.  This unripe fruit I just ate had a lemon/lime/citron taste.

Can anybody suggest some good uses for these?  I have a handful of ripe ones but aside from the novelty I haven't found a good use where they clearly outshine regular lime juice.  So far they are good in fruit sherbert/ice cream.   I'm going to try in guacamole too. 

If they are resigned to the pure novelty bucket that is fine, I'll just keep mine pruned small.

The mealybugs in my greenhouse have been relentless.  I have been spraying them off with water every day, and the next morning they are back on all the fresh growth.  I ordered some mealybug destroyer insects and they just arrived.  So far it seems encouraging, they immediately started eating mealybugs when I dropped them onto the plants.

I am thrilled that most or all of my ilama-on-cherimoya grafts seem to have taken.  Many are starting to push growth through the parafilm. 

When should I totally unwrap them?  I am using zip ties to hold the cleft graft in place, and these zip ties will eventually restrict growth if I leave it too long.  How long until it should be confident that the graft is holding its own?   

My trees are in a greenhouse so wind isn't a concern. 

I went to try paintbrush-pollinating my cherimoya flowers and when I approached them a few small flies flew out.  Are they normally pollinated by flies?  Bees? 

How is this thing fruiting?  This shop constantly surprises me with the trees they have fruiting in containers that are a tenth of the volume of what I would expect is required.  Many look leggy and unhealthy but they are alive - and fruiting.

Also, any idea what species this is? 

I was just doing ph testing on my greenhouse and container soils and am wondering if anything other than miracle berry needs a low ph?  That is, below 6 or so.  Tropicals and sub-tropicals, I'm not talking about blueberries and such.