Introduce Yourself

[murahilin]

Hi Everyone,
Since this is a new forum I think we should have an introductory post for old and new members alike.

[Patrick]

I am the GM of a diesel repair shop in WPB, Florida.  My hobbies include, walking around my yard aimlessly looking a each leaf of every living plant in my yard, pest and disease control of my plants, fertilizing my plants, explaining to my neighbors why I talk to my plants, explaining to my family why I talk to my plants, and seeking out new places in my yard that require additional plants in the ground...

I also enjoy working on the computer (thus the forum and other web ventures), and Charter Boat fishing from time to time.

I truly love tropical fruit growing, and honestly enjoy the growing more than the eating.  Sometimes the challenge of growing new things and being sucessful is the best part!

Those who know me say I am kind and very well organized, a good father and provider, and a little obsessive/compulsive.

I respect all Religious beliefs..

I am not political at all..
 

[Tropicalgrower89]

I'm a Biology major student at Broward College(planning on becoming an Optometrist).  I have two hobbies.
The first one is growing tropical fruits. I've always had a deep passion for tropical fruit trees since I was a toddler.

I'm also a Ford guy, which leads me to my second hobby. I have lots of knowledge about ford mustangs, especially for years ranging 1979-1993. 
I also like classic muscle cars whether it's a chevy, chrysler, ford, pontiac, etc... 

[Berto]

Hello folks!
My name is Berto and I have a small collection of rare fruit trees in Fort Myers, Florida.  I grew up in tropical Brazil and I enjoy growing and eating tropical and subtropical fruits.

[bsbullie]

As they say, admitting is the first step...with that being said, my name is Rob and I am a tropicaholic 

Since I recognize you from the other place, I think most, or all, or you know me.

Rob

[Tomas]

Hi all,

I am glad this forum exists - so much easier to use and without annoying ads. Not sure whom to thank, but thanks! I have a rather small collection of fruit and nut plants. I cannot say that I know a lot about growing and it has mostly been a journey of trial an errors. I do like to grow and eat tropical fruits that most people like too, but I am particularly interested in growing some of the more rare species. It's like going on a treasure hunt that may last for years until you find certain seeds.

Bye for now.

Tomas

[TropicalFruitHunters]

First a big thanks to murahilin and PJ for their time and hard work creating this forum.  It's already shaping up to be the best out there.  Hopefully this will draw the same talent as the other forums and these folks will find a permanent home here.  Very refreshing. 

Most of you know me from GW but if not...I live and grow in Ohio.  I fell in love with and married a lovely Thai girl I met here at work and after a few visits over there...also fell in love with tropical fruit.  Had to start growing this stuff man!  One thing led to another and I now have a GH hanging off the back of my home.  I have unfortunately took a shine to the more rare and harder to grow species and stubbornly continue to try.

I love traveling and make sure all vacations are a rare fruit destination during the peak fruiting season.  This doesn't always jive well with my better half but seeing that most vacations are back to Thailand, she doesn't complain much!  I also love Puerto Rico and the many many varieites of fruit found there.  You folks in Florida do quite well also and it's always a pleasure to visit by good friends down there.

I also grow the super hot chillies...ghost, fatalli, habs.  This year we got a little carried away and ordered the hottest seed varieties out there...among them the new crown prince of heat, the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T Strain.  Don't know what the hell I will do with some of these but it sure will be fun.

Oh yeah...everyone...don't forget to update your profile so we know where you live and what zone you are.  This helps out when specific questions are asked...saves a return question.   Just wanted to use one of these things!!

[Patrick]

Oh yeah! For new users.. It takes ten posts to lose the "newbie" status!

[lycheeluva]

what happens when u lose your newbie status

[bsbullie]

what happens when u lose your newbie status

you get three yellow boxes and you are termed a "member".

[gabodymod]

Hello guys.

My name is Guillermo. I am glad I found this forum. My interest in tropical fruits are 90% mango. I am working in obtaining some realy rare cultivars from other counties, will keep you posted.
Without mentioning names ( you know who you are) I will like to thank all of you responsible for starting this forum.


Guillermo.

[Rtreid]

Hello everyone,

I'm Richard and was posting on GW as Rtees garden.

I am in the process of restarting a subtropical garden after selling my old house a few years back.  Currently I have;
Mango (4)
Lychee (3)
Longan
Jaboticaba(2)
yellow jaboticaba
Green Sapote
Caminito
carambola
Jakfruit
Kwai Muk
and a bunch of assorted Garcinias and Euginias as well as citrus and deciduous fruits.

Almost everything i grow is outside in the ground, with the philosophy that I am trying push the limits and see just what can survive and possibly prosper here in San Diego. I can't say that I have been at it long enough to have any successes (many things are surviving and doing well so far) but I have had a bunch of failures (Durian, Rambutan some garcinia and theobroma seedlings among others).

I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with others and learning more from huge storehouse of knowledge from the people that inhabit this corner of the cyber-world.

And to those who took the time to set up this new forum, thank you!  It looks as though it will be far superior to the GW format.

Richard

[lycheeluva]

three yellow boxes? damn this forum rox!

seriously though, thanks to all involved in setting this up for the time, expertise and money spent.

[CoPlantNut]

Hello,

My name is Kevin, and I'm a generic plant enthusiast- besides tropical fruits I have to share space with orchids, bromeliads, ferns, carnivorous plants, plumeria, etc.  I've had a dedicated tropical plant growing setup (in one form or another) for 20 years now; currently I have a small grow-room setup in my basement.  At my worst, I was sharing a 400-square-foot apartment with about 500 plants.  I've got a little more space now, plus a yard to play with, but if it can't survive 80-100 MPH winds several times a year and minus-20 temperatures, I have to keep it inside.

For tropical fruits, I have:
Miracle Fruit
Carambolas
Barbados Cherry
Guavas (dwarf, strawberry, lemon)
Chilean Guava (Ugni molinae)
Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense)
Various peppers: Trinidad Perfume (heatless Habanero- all the flavor though), Bhut Jolika, various very hot Habaneros
Australian Beach Cherry (Eugenia reinwardtiana)
various citrus

Temperate fruits (which survive 20 below zero):
Pawpaws (I believe I have one of the two flowering-size trees in the Denver area; unfortunately the other is a 2-hour drive away and they need to be cross-pollinated)
Guomi
Blueberries
Gooseberries
Blackberries
Raspberries
Hardy Kiwi (14 years and still no fruit...)
Peaches
Honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea)

[murahilin]

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for joining the forum. That's an impressive list of trees for indoors in Colorado. Why are there no other pawpaw trees?

[nullzero]

Came from gardenweb, love the setup so far. My interests are in all edible plants and herbs. I grow everything from Taro to Polaskia chichipe. I love to watch things grow and enjoy the fruits of labor, I am usually always up for plant trades/sales.

[HMHausman]

I guess I might as well formally introduce myself. My name is Harry and when I am not wandering around my garden, I have been a trial lawyer for the past 30+ years.  In recent years I have opened and presently run  a traffic ticket defense law firm.  For those wayward Florida drivers that can't seem to avoid the "lead foot" syndrome, you can find me at www.florida-ticket-defense.com.

Anyway, most of you already know me from the Garden Web Tropical Fruit Forum. I have conversed with most of you and I have even had about half of the members currently enrolled in this Forum over to my house at one time or another. My home is located in Western Broward County.......Town of Davie to be specific, in Southeastern Florida.  I bought my home (and its 2.39 acres) in 1989. Initially, it was orchids that were my passion and with which I occupied my time. I had over 1,000 orchid plants in my collection.  I was a member of the Plantation Orchid Society for many years. I am a past president and served on their board for about 10 years. Gradually, over time, I came to realize that orchids eventually die.....most of them at least and besides that you can't do much in the way of eating them (apologies to vanilla). I learned about the Broward Rare Fruit and Vegetable Council and started subscribing to their newsletter.  I attended a few meetings. I got to taste some mangoes that didn't really taste like mangoes.  Hints of pineapple, citrus and coconut got my attention and got me to develop a new appreciation for mangoes that I never had growing up in South Florida and tasting Turpentine mangoes with their strong resinous bite. Slowly, I became enamoured with other tropical fruits and have gone on to a mild (ok....severe) case of mango mania. I think my present mango collection sports about 120 trees, which includes, I think, 104 cultivars/varieties at the present time. I have over 300 fruiting trees/plants which includes collections of jakfruit, lychees, longans, dragonfruit, sapodillas, carambola, canistel, sapotes (Ross, white, black and mamey), annonas (illama, sugar apple, atemoya, rollinia and some, as of yet potted, cherimoya), pineapple, avocado, abiu, momoncillo (spanish lime, genip), bananas, pomelo, macadamia nut, mammee and Malay apple, june plum, loquat, grumichama, Surinam Cherry, mulberry, cacao, wax jambu, various garcinias, tamarind, indian jujube and Kwai Muk.  Other than these few things, I am not growing very much at all.

My wife and I have two boys.  They are currently 10 and 13 years old. Here we are at a recent family photo shoot at the beach:

I look forward to interacting here on this new Forum. I also would like to extend an open invitation to members of this Forum to come by my home to sample whatever I may have that is ripening at that time.  I very much enjoy sharing the fruits I grow. Just drop me an e-mail to let me know when you'd like to stop by and we can work out a mutually convenient time for your visit.  I do have a small fruit stand at the front of my house.  It works on the honor system (well, sometimes works on the honor system) and this has provided the required agricultural  income for me to obtain an agricultural exemption on a portion of my property (a big property tax saver). From time to time I do sell fruit which I can ship out. Time requirements sometime limit me in this, but when I have fruit available, I'll try to post that information on the BUY/SELL section of this Forum.

See you all around the Forum.

Harry

[lycheeluva]

nice bio harry and lovely fam pic

[CoPlantNut]

Hello and thanks for the welcome.

I suspect very few pawpaw trees have been tried in the Denver area (what's locally called the "Front Range", right along the base of the Rocky Mountains) because their ideal growing environment- acidic, well-drained soil with protection from wind, moderate to high humidity-- is not what we have here.  We get 70-100 MPH winds blowing down off the mountains several times a year, very low humidity, and we have alkaline, non-draining bentonite clay soil.  A pickaxe is usually required if it gets dry and you need to dig a hole.  A pawpaw tree haphazardly placed in the ground here has little chance of survival.  With proper siting, on top of a hill for drainage, protected from wind by buildings and other trees, it appears it is possible to grow them in this area.

I planted two pawpaw trees (seedlings) about 12 years ago, about 6 feet apart.  One died after 3 years, the other has now been blooming for the past 3 years but has yet to bear a fruit.  Last year I did a search through local plant societies and found what was widely believed (among the social plant enthusiasts, anyhow) to be the only blooming pawpaw tree along the front range.  It was also planted about 12 years ago as one of two grafted plants; according to the owner, both grafts died and re-sprouted from the rootstock, then one of his trees died entirely.  He has had fruit form on his remaining tree, so it must be self-fertile.  Mine certainly doesn't seem to be, and even after exchanging pollen with his tree last year, I still didn't get fruit.

Last summer I planted 6 more grafted pawpaws, but it will likely be a few years before they bloom.  I'm planning on harvesting some budwood from some of my grafted pawpaws to attempt grafts onto my mature tree this spring; if I get lucky I'll be able to try the selected varieties in 2013!  I'm still hoping I can successfully cross-pollinate it with the other tree 70 miles away this spring to see if my seedling's fruit is even worth eating.

   Kevin

[GwenninPR]

Hi All-
My name is Gwenn, I am a New Yorker that got tired of the cold and moved to PR.  I am enjoying the tropical fruit growing experience here very much.  My yard is full of lots of different types of tropical fruits, orchids, heliconias and bromeliads, all in various stages of health, happiness and age.

I am happy to see this new forum and look forward to learning and interacting with the other members. 
I will see if I can get some pictures posted on this forum!

[panerai]

Hey everyone!  My name is Kyle and Im in central Ohio.  I am interested in growing tropical fruits, wrist watches and I am obsessed with fishing.  I have always had a passion for plants  but about a year ago I came across an article on miracle fruit and I had to have one.  I then met OhioJay and ended up with many more plants than just miracle fruit.   I have recently thinned out what I have as we have bought a new house and I've been busy with it and our old home.  right now I have a Grumichama tree, 5 miracle fruit bushes, tazmanian poppy, a couple dragon fruits, 2 Butch T trinidad scorpions, bhut jalokia, fatali, white habs.
I look forward to being a member of the forum.
Kyle

[MangoFang]

Gwenn - an escaped New Yorker here (from the Binghamton area) who came out to L.A. in 1981 and couldn't believe I was finally living in a place with palm trees!!!!  I couldn't stop looking around at them for the first 3-4 years.  Anyway, my name is Gary. I was Mango Dog at the "other" forum and had to change to MangoFang as "god" was taken.  (Yeah, Murahlin - not a "dog" had been used here but a "god" apparently was....somebody's got a spelling problem  yes?  Just kidding....)  I now Live in Palm Springs, California - headed to the desert during this lousy economy, sold the house in L.A. and bought one out here.

Have LOVED mangos for many years but never thought our climate was suitable to growing them.  Yes I am 99% interested in mangos with papayas being the other 1 %.  And like many here, finally decided to start growing them and have never looked back.  I have a Home Depot Manila mango I bought and planted in 2003 that is my big bearer now, though I know it's not a top quality mango, until the other 12 varieties catch up in production, they will be my main stay for the time being.  Still 1000 times better than those lovely store bought Tommies....

I have a partner, Joe, and two woofies - Amber turns 18 this June and Gracie is about 3 1/2.  I love the generosity of so many of the members here, and offer my own help whenever I can.

Not retired but getting close  and when not doing the accounting for our home based Executive Search business I just love roaming the yard and seeing what's popped out or up or gotten bigger that I missed during my last trip around back 1/4 acre.  Would love to meet another person out here in the Coachella Valley who might be into this ride.

I'd like to thank Murahlin and PJ for opening this site!!!!!  GREAT WORK and glad to be a part of it....

Fang

[Tropicdude]

Hello Folks,  this is the same Tropicdude from the gardenweb forum.  real name is William. I am a Florida native, that lives and works in the Dominican Republic.

I do not have a lot of land to work with, so most of my plants are in containers, my dream is to get a few acres and fill it up with tropical fruit trees. 

My profession is telecommunications,  and I work at a Cable TV company, as head tech in charge of the headend.

recently I have been loaned some land where i have planted around 3 dozen or so papaya plants,  and will start adding a few mango trees on that lot also ( running out of room in my back patio ).

[Sleepdoc]

Love the new forum and features.

Changed my username from sleep on GW to Sleepdoc.  I use Sleepdoc on a couple other forums, so I figured I would keep it all the same.

[FloridaGreenMan]

I am Noel Ramos, aka FloridaGreenMan. I come from a family of coffee growers in Puerto Rico and learned alot from my father and grandfather. Still have a few family members growing coffee and fruits down there. Have been growing a variety of rare fruits in South Florida for a bunch of years. Currently live in Coral Springs (near Ft. Lauderdale) and have fruited rarer stuff like Guanabana, Ilama, Abiu plus many others. Have kind of specialized in annonas over the years. I grow lots of sugar apples, as much as 150lbs per year.  Also have a rare spondias tuberosa also called Imbu that I hope will fruit this year.  My yard has 20 fruiting trees plus a maybe fifty or more in pots. I occasionally write articles about these fruits and also do presentations all over the state and have also spoken in California.  Have also been on several Fruit Safaris to California, Honduras, Costa Rica and the latest in Puerto Rico. Want to congratulate Sheehan and Patrick for doing a helluva job on this Forum.