The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi forum,
It's been a long while since I've been back on here. Life is busy - in a good way. In the last two years Ashley and I got married, and bought a house together. Work has been picking up as well and the business is growing. We moved into a bigger office which has been terrific. Last summer we built a pretty large container garden and grew some great veggies. With all of this spent time, sadly most of our container grown tropical fruit plants have dried up over the winter from neglect :-(. We still have some jaboticabas, a few guava varieties, and a few other randoms including loquat and fig.

So this year, (September) I'll be turning 30, and the wife has pushed for us to do something fun and memorable. And I agree. Life is short, and it's been going at a faster and faster pace. Active effort needs to be made to stop and smell the flowers. So we started looking at doing a trip to mexico, same area we did our honeymoon(riviera maya). It of course was beautiful and relaxing but a bit, 'the same'.  But i got to thinking..I've always wanted to go to Puerto Rico and I thought this might be a great opportunity. We'd really like to combine a nice relaxing resort stay, with the ability to see and explore some of the old city, and the jungle. I would also love the opportunity to explore some new tropical fruits. We would only be able to do a week, and would be on a moderate budget, but from a quick look, it doesn't seem that flights or hotels are terribly expensive so thats good!

So that's where i turn to you all. I'm not exactly sure how to begin planning out a trip like that(how does one go about finding/planning a mini-fruit excursion?) as well as being able to just explore areas like the jungle, safely. Seems like most/all flights would come into San Juan, but then where to stay would be up to debate so that we could still visit the city, as well as reach out to the more jungle-y tropical places. We are not exactly seasoned travelers, having only stayed at inclusive resorts. I'm also not sure if mid September will still provide a season to get to enjoy said tropical fruits.

I certainly appreciate any insight or suggestions

Thanks!

Luke

Was wondering if anyone here is growing any wax jambu. It is on my wanted list, and across the internet I have come across some prolific examples of it fruiting in a container. Although I have seen three scientific names applied to it: Syzygium samarangense, Syzygium javanicum, Eugenia javanica, I am unsure of the difference.

Please share your experience!

-Luke

There is a local compost/mulch/rock place here in town that sells "ground cedar chips". When i asked about it, she said it's 1/4" and smaller peices and is specifically sold as a soil conditioner. She said it is much to fine to use as a mulch. Price was somewhere between 15-20 bucks a cubic yard, sold in any amount I want.  Has anyone used something similar in place of the fir or pine fines? I'm looking to do some side by side tests with the Al's gritty mix and the 5-1-1 mixes. This will be used for tropical fruit in permanent containers. I realize with the 5-1-1 mix I will have to replace the mix once in a while, more often than the gritty mix. But i've heard with the Al's mix it requires more precise watering/fert schedules - which i'm not always so good at haha.

Can anyone think of why cedar would not work as a replacement for the pine/fir fines in the mixes before I buy a bag? I realize it's harder wood, would not decay as quickly(hypothetically, not sure with such small peices); but not sure what effect that would have within the mixes. Thoughts?

Thanks!

-Luke