The Tropical Fruit Forum

A recent thread got me thinking that we need a place to exchange constructive advice about how to best ship/recieve the rare planting material or products that we value as a part of this group. Hopefully, those of you who have lots of experience with this will comment so that others can learn from your experience.

Texas Mark posted a while back about how his Sugar Dragon survived some pretty extreme cold when his green house lost power. That got me thinking that there might be some clones with more cold tollerence than most people realize. I was hoping everyone could chime in on what varieties they are growing and what temperature they have survived without getting damaged. My Delight got toasted pretty good in the mid 20s here. I am especially interested in information on any of the forms of Paul Thimpson's S8 (Sugar Dragon/Voodoo Child) and Houghton (its parent) if you have them. Thanks for your help!

So, I was out in the yard today and noticed that an okrung mango seedling has some bloom just starting. I pruned it back hard around the beginning of April because of cold damage (I didn't have time to freeze protect the tree because of everything else I had going on). I have always thought that somewhere around the middle of April was the latest opportunity for mango bloom here, but I guess I was wrong. 

Looking for budwood of any low chill plums that might do well in central Florida (250 chill hours or less). I am especially interested in the Gulf series plums (Gulf Gold, Gulf Ruby, Gulf Blaze, and Gulf Beauty) since I have grown them in the past successfully but would be interested in others as well. Already have Scarlet Beauty, a chickisaw plum with decent sized fruit that had been a rootstock (Sharpe?), and am trying Guthrie.

I was doing some reading and came accross this article from an Isreli study. To sumarize, Sugar Apple scions grafted to Cherimoya rootstock in this study were almost twice as productive as those grafted to Sugar Apple roots and far more productive than Cherimoya grafted to Cherimoya roots. In addition, the cross grafted trees had larger trunk diameters, heavier fruits, and a higher proportion of edible pulp.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333247923_Effect_of_grafting_of_sugar_apple_A_squamosa_scion_on_the_cherimoya_A_cherimola_rootstock_on_annona_fruit_production_under_the_climatic_conditions_of_South_Lebanon&ved=2ahUKEwjrhtzgqMbzAhVKQjABHTGBDN0QFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0PEzfg3OVPVNN3N8PP2rXL&cshid=1634092662493

We discovered by accident the other day that if you eat Cranberry Hibiscus (Hibiscus Acetocella) leaf after a miracle fruit it tastes amazing! It is almost like eating a sald with a sweet/sour vinaigrette dressing built into the leaves. I did not realize that the leaves had a sweet component to them until eating them after miracle fruit!

This post is about grafting Dragonfruit onto other cactus species and the benefits that this may provide. Even though Cacti have remarkable variation in appearence, they tend to have a high degree of graft compatibility within the family. I am wondering how we as fruit growers can use this to our advantage.

For example, maybe crest grafting to sturdy columnar cacti could create a permanent/inexpensive trellis that grew with the vine and never rotted? Or possibly some of the more drought tollerent species can be used as rootstocks in arid locations (such as Stenocerus pruinosus)? We might even find rootstocks that improve fruit size or quality.

I have successfully grafted dragonfruit to peruvian apple cactus (what species that is I will leave to the experts). I also have another graft on an unidentified semi-columnar cactus that is doing well. Opuntia (as suggested elsewhere on this forum) did not work for me, but that may just have been poor technique.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Merry Christmas to all of you! It is nice to have a reason to celebrate after such a crazy year. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!