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Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: Ribes aureum (golden currant) worth keeping?
« on: December 12, 2024, 04:25:04 PM »
Ok. Can you describe the taste? I haven't yet had a black currwnt that I liked .
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Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: Zone Pushing - What to grow in unheated greenhouse in 8a
« on: December 12, 2024, 04:23:08 PM »
I'm going to say that well developed white sapote can make it. Not something small but i just brought one in and other than new growth getting hit the reat of the plant is fine. I think it may be hardier than Avocado.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Barbados Cherry - Malpighia Punicifolia (Is this the sweetest variety?)
« on: December 06, 2024, 05:49:02 PM »It never fails!! Someone always come through with the good data. Thanks.Gosh darn it. Ol' man Carolina need one of these sweet varieties. Who sells these in the 50 contiguous states?
if you don't mind a smaller plant, etsy sells cuttings, most sellers are in Arizona or Florida.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Barbados Cherry - Malpighia Punicifolia (Is this the sweetest variety?)
« on: December 06, 2024, 11:16:31 AM »
Gosh darn it. Ol' man Carolina need one of these sweet varieties. Who sells these in the 50 contiguous states?
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Large Fruited Strawberry Guava
« on: December 05, 2024, 07:32:09 PM »
My question is, "How many years before I know if I have been hoodwinked or not?"
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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Wanted GIANT GOOSEBERRY plant
« on: December 03, 2024, 06:52:00 PM »
I have some called pineapple something or other. They have volunteered every year for about 5 years in zone 7 now socalled zone 8a.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yongguan Yangmei/Myrica rubra bare root display
« on: December 03, 2024, 06:44:01 PM »
How long has this cultivar been in development? Any reason why you are barerooting the plant?
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Wrong Tree Received- seeking advice
« on: November 26, 2024, 08:40:18 AM »
The plant game is a dirty business and always has been, my friend. Post covid it is worse. Mailorder is the dirtiest and most risky. Online means "I don't have to see you and I won't give you your money back unless you can force it back and besides it ain't my fault." Everglades Farm did me dirty with crappy packaging they offered me nothing not even a discount. I called them and they said " Send us a picture of the damage." I did. Their reply "well the tree will recover. That damage is normal." Of course the tree died. I tell everyone this is what to expect with that company. Do as elouicious said, "NAME AND SHAME". On multiple forums 
Did I ever tell this forum about this rascal called Growquest that got me almost 20 yrs ago? That guy was terrible.
Did I ever tell this forum about this rascal called Growquest that got me almost 20 yrs ago? That guy was terrible.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is this tree ready?
« on: November 20, 2024, 02:10:05 PM »
Nowadays, gallon size means nothing. The majority of 3 and 7 gal trees I see now would have been medium to small 3 gallon 10 years ago ESPECIALLY if you order online. Just Fruits and Exotics and Bob Wells and Willis will send you a real 3 gallon. Three to four foot high and one inch caliper at the base ABOVE THE GRAFT 
Good stuff. I have purchased from all of them and have never received a bad tree.
Sorry old man Carolina had to get it off his chest.
If I was you I wouldn't let more than one develope if it did fruit. I have learned the hard way. You would do better to let it grow for a year.
Best of luck to you.
Good stuff. I have purchased from all of them and have never received a bad tree.Sorry old man Carolina had to get it off his chest.
If I was you I wouldn't let more than one develope if it did fruit. I have learned the hard way. You would do better to let it grow for a year.
Best of luck to you.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Last Barbie Pink Guava of the Season
« on: November 17, 2024, 11:12:26 AM »RubyXSupremeRDM can you you give us a synopsis of how each, if you don't mind. It is hard to get information from sellers. They always put the superlatives like "The sweetest guava!" "Award winner!" "Rated best by our Customers" "No pests and disease free"
... Ruby x Supreme > White Indonesian > Barbi pink > Philippine Swirl > Ka Hua Kula > Hong Kong pink > gushikin orange > guajava White pear > Bangkok Gian > frankies variegated > a few crunchy style Thai types > Malaysian Red
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Last Barbie Pink Guava of the Season
« on: November 17, 2024, 11:04:29 AM »Go NC Go! I'm happy the Carolinas are well represented in the Zone pushing community.
Got my Barbie pink covered since we had our first low into the 40s last night. I had time so figured I wouldn’t wait until a light frost to protect it
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Taiwan Ruby (pink flesh, crunchy type) Guava Review
« on: November 17, 2024, 10:54:06 AM »
I got out the guava collecting hobby about 5 years ago. I just kept getting disappointed. I never found one that be what I was sold. Now I'm looking to getting interested again. Thanks for the post.
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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Honey crisp kumquat
« on: November 09, 2024, 02:04:39 PM »
I would buy but I am afraid it is pig slaughtering operation. There have been a few foreign sellers here. I would be willing to bet more than a few are selling low quality plants. I don't don't want to buy sight unseen.
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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Haruka vs. New Zealand Lemonade
« on: November 03, 2024, 06:35:50 PM »How is Haruka compared to New Zealand Lemonade?I will check my pictures from my japan trip but I believe I had some but neglected to try the skin or pith. For the most part I remember all the citrus I tried there being superior to anything I have had in the US. All of them had flavors I would describe as distinct they way mandarins taste similar but different than oranges and lemons but all have a "citrus" taste.
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Citrus General Discussion / Re: Honey crisp kumquat
« on: November 03, 2024, 06:25:56 PM »
I would love to try it. So many varieties available in the world but not here. I wonder why the citrus budwood place doesn't have it? Is it a relatively new variety?
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best tasting cattley guavas
« on: November 01, 2024, 08:00:38 PM »Both my strawberry and lemon are very good eating but for me too small in size to be enjoyable. They're also very likely to get wormy. Yuk! They're coming out this year.I have a few trees.
Lemon guava's are great from two of my trees: big pingpong ball sized fruit and sweet. Two others make a lot of small fruit that are just ok.
Strawberry guava's have had low productivity. This is the first year I have gotten any fruit off of two plants that have been 15 gal size for about 3 years. The fruit off of one was good. I am looking for a strawberry guava that makes big sweet fruit.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Last Barbie Pink Guava of the Season
« on: November 01, 2024, 07:48:37 PM »
What about some cuttings next year? I doubt one will take right now. Everything I have is put up in the greenhouse waiting for winter.
I doubt one will take right now. Everything I have is put up in the greenhouse waiting for winter.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Nursery recommendation for San Diego?
« on: November 01, 2024, 07:39:23 PM »
Did Exotica ever shutdown?
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Passiflora phoenicea x caerulea?
« on: October 27, 2024, 06:00:31 PM »SplorKeLZ, caerulea grows outside for you? in my area its cold tolerance doesn't really get tested. so far the hybrid seems to be more of a cooler grower than phoenicea and it even kinda slows down in the summer. i was hoping that it would combine the grow temps of both its parents so it would grow year around here... aka "hercuthermal" (growing in a wide range of temps, a term i made up). as opposed to eurythermal (tolerating a wide range of temps).
for me dryness is a much bigger limiting factor than temps. so the optimal hybrid swarm would most likely involve passiflora arida and/or passiflora palmeri, both of which come from relatively drier habitats in baja california. no idea if either is compatible with phoenicea or caerulea.
from raindance seeds i just ordered the following seeds for my public food forest...
diospyros californica (baja chocolate persimmon/sapote)
passiflora palmeri
passiflora pentaschista (desert passionfruit)
prosopis pubescens (screwbean mesquite)
ziziphus parryi (desert jujube)
i'd like to try crossing these 2 passiflora species with my other ones. this passiflora phylogenetic tree is worth taking a look at but it's a little tricky for a couple reasons. the countries indicate where the material, not the species, are from. also, since so few species are included, the distance between them is probably misleading. for example, there's only one species between caerulea and edulis, which makes it seem like they are very closely related. but if we were to zoom out and see a phylogenetic tree of all the passiflora species then there would probably be quite a few species between caerulea and edulis. on the tree i linked to, passiflora palmeri is surrounded by foetida. in theory this should mean that they are basically the same species. foetida is right next to quadrangularis, which is right next to passiflora alata, which is closely related to phoenicia. again, this should be taken with a few grains of salt.
please post updates on your hybridization efforts! i'm very curious how your crosses turn out. it's unlikely that you'll get the best of both worlds at the 1st attempt so you'll probably have to try some backcrosses. if your hybrid swarm is big enough you're bound to get something good.
Epicatt2, thanks for the tip.
Those seeds from raindanceseeds are super expensive. Five bucks for one diospyros californica!
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is anyone growing the Thomas variety of Sapodilla?
« on: October 27, 2024, 06:36:21 AM »Seanny, thanks for the suggestion. I might give that a shot.I would say that there are mail orders that will give you a lot more bang for your buck. Everglades Farms is one. They have been improving with their boxing quality which was super hit and miss. The size varies but they usually sell real small to midsize 3 gal. A Natural Farm is also another shipper that has somewhat decent prices. Boxing quality is pretty good.That may be one of the bigger 1 gal's I have seen from Lara. Yeah $85 plus shipping. That's why I stopped buying his online stuff. That and I got some stuff that had bad grafts.
Definitely among the lusher 1g plants I have gotten mail order from them
There are some drawbacks to buying from Lara Farms. I have come to accept those in exchange for access to rare items that (almost) nobody else has. I admire the goal of preserving and spreading these lesser known cultivars into private collections. I also have no problem paying a little more for something that is rare and in demand - that's how business works. I think the main reason they sell 1 gallon trees is because they are cheaper to ship, and safer to box up than a heavy 3g or 7g. The business is really optimized for mail order and convenience.
After losing a few plants, I now understand that a 1 gallon grafted Lara tree needs at least 6 months, and more likely a full year, until I can put it in the ground. When you buy a 3 gallon or 7 gallon plant, you don't have to worry about that time because it's already in the past. You also have to baby the tree during this critical period which for many people is too big of a commitment. It's vulnerable to aphids, overwatering, sunlight damaging the trunk/graft, girdling from the thick grafting tape, graft failure, etc.
The truth is, anybody that secures permission can get access to TREC and harvest budwood. Other nurseries are grafting the source trees there. Or you can do the legwork and hit all the fruit tree nurseries on the circuit - I have been surprised at some of the rare stuff hiding in the rows. I found a 15 gallon Lorito Mamey Sapote with flowers and fruit on the branches today that was on clearance for $100. I would have spent about $80 to get a grafted 1g Lorito by mail order.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Last Barbie Pink Guava of the Season
« on: October 27, 2024, 06:25:14 AM »My barbie pink is very much paler, this is a very bright fruit! How’s the taste?Same here. The one I used to have never got that pink. Sell me some cuttings cousin Kevin.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Carissa carandas
« on: October 27, 2024, 06:21:29 AM »
As far as I know these are not common in the US. I have been looking for a plant but unfortunately the only carissa I have found is carissa macrocarpa.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is anyone growing the Thomas variety of Sapodilla?
« on: October 23, 2024, 07:44:11 PM »Here it is. 1 gallon from Lara Farms of the Thomas Sapodilla. Hopefully it will size up enough to plant in the ground by springtime.That may be one of the bigger 1 gal's I have seen from Lara. Yeah $85 plus shipping. That's why I stopped buying his online stuff. That and I got some stuff that had bad grafts.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Keppel in Miami.
« on: October 12, 2024, 04:33:28 AM »
I read it takes 10 years to fruit. Is that true.
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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Anybody Growing Dovyalis Caffra (Kei Apple) ???
« on: October 03, 2024, 09:21:37 PM »
I had three in the past. They never flowered after almost 7 years.
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