Moving Pots and Munching Pests

I got a pot mover for my birthday. It's great and even works on my flimsy plastic pots. When they're watered they are quite heavy and frequently...too frequently...I strain my back moving them about. This should solve that or at least reduce the likelihood of me hurting myself some. Another surprise came today when I was poking around and spotted a large mantis in my Passiflora edulis. This one wasn't the same crippled one that I had seen before, which means not only did at least two of my nymphs survive, they hung around my yard to feed on pests. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll reproduce.

Green Sapote Surpise

There have been buds maturing on my Pouteria viridis (green sapote) for many weeks now and I have no idea what they look like before they open. My Pouteria hypoglauca (cinnamon apple) has a bunch of tiny blossoms that are between the leaves and opening in clusters, but the green sapote has pairs of much larger buds. Now there are little proboscis structures emerging from the center. The morphology has me very confused, I guess I'll keep waiting to see what happens if they don't abort.

New Eugenia

Well autumn is coming, and while the temperatures are still pretty nice the sun has retreated too far for any more growing to happen. But, the Eugenia are blooming and looking good. Eugenia luschnathiana (pitomba) has bloomed 4 times this year. The third of those times it set two fruit which are still maturing. Currently there are a bunch of little buds popping open now along with Eugenia selloi (pitangatuba aka star cherry), which is blooming for the first time. I'm not sure what to expect from either fruit, but I'm exciting to try them. I just hope they can hold out and mature through the low light conditions.

   

Update: I got a ripe one! And it tastes like a sour peach...with a hint of pumpkin maybe...

Grafting Day

Last night a bunch of sticks came in the mail; by sticks I mean Annona scions. I bought some cherimoya, sugar apple, and ilama and I was excited to try a late summer green scion graft. The first round of grafting in the early spring took pretty well though I didn't shield them from the sun as I should have. African Pride in just a few short months has 3 fruits; 2 which are swelling substatially. Lisa and Mexican Giant are doing well. Dream I lost.This time I wrapped them with that cloth tape that you find on newly transplanted trees' trunks. It's just a sunbrella for sticks really. We might have to wait a long time to see what takes, or maybe they'll turn black immediately. The goal is to get as many different types on as many different root stocks as possible so that I can condense my collection. We'll see if that plan comes to fruition or if I just get so many different types that I need all the plants in order to graft the scions.

• Cherimoya (A. cherimola)
• El Bumpo
• Pierce
• Booth
• Atemoya (A. cherimola x A. squamosa)
• Bradley
• Island Gem
• Phat Pakchong
• Randhir
• Geffner
• African Pride
• Lisa
• Birula
• Calostro
• Ilama (A. diversifolia)
• Rosada
• Genova Red
• Red Custard Apple (A. reticulata)
• Tobago Pink 
• Cawesh/Poshte (A. scleroderma)
• A. scleroderma
• Sugar Apple (A. squamosa)
• Super Atis
• Giant Mexican
• Cangrejo
• Lessard

Here We Mango Again

My 'Ice Cream' mango bloomed earlier this year and set a couple of tiny mangos, but then it dropped everything and started growing again. Bummer then; but exciting again now that it has bloomed and it has set some baby mangos again. I'm not sure if I hand pollinated it with my paint brush or some insects finally did the job, but because I have no bees around here I have to try pollinating it myself. Anyway, I hope these little fruits stick this time.

Jacked

I bought an Artrocarpus heterophyllus (jackfruit) Mai-1 recently, but it arrived just before a work trip, so I put it in a pot, watered it like crazy, put it in 50/50 sun/shade and then hoped it'd be OK until I returned...it was not. I found all of the leaves turned to a crisp, so I scrambled and stuck it in the greenhouse so that it only got filtered light and of course plenty of humidity. I'll have to post an update if it recovers.

Ground Cherry Quartet

I sprouted a slew of Physalis peruviana and picked a foursome of the strongest plants for a planter that was just sad because it saw direct sunlight in the summer and full shade in the winter. I've seen what these plants can do, and they seem to handle it all. Not to mention the fact that they're pretty tasty and their little paper lantern calyxes are novel. To date, they're all growing up just fine and will soon be ready to flower and fruit. If you don't like tomatoes, but you're looking for a substitute that is a little sweeter but still tart, this is your plant.

Pouteria Possibilities

I think I have some Pouteria flowers forming on both my cinnamon apple (Pouteria hypoglauca) and green sapote (Pouteria viridis). They look like tiny little spheres forming at the base of the leaves, but I'm not sure if they'll come to fruition (literally). We will wait and see.

Going Garcinia

I have just a few Garcinia. They've been green or sunburned all summer, but they haven't pushed any growth. So I moved all of them into the tiny greenhouse. The G. acuminata (sour bacupari), aristata, hombroniana (seashore mangosteen), and small humilis (achacha) and livingstonei (imbe) are all crammed in there now, but are pushing growth. I think it's just not warm enough here in Redondo Beach. But now they're growing, and they might be greenhouse bound the rest of their lives in my care. What's more, is that a curious sprout showed up in my Passiflora macrophylla pot. It looks like a Garcinia, but I have no idea which kind yet. I'll have to wait until it's a little bigger so I can extract it and give it a separate home.

Update: I blogged it. I couldn't stop myself from tugging the seedling to see if it would give up its purchase in the P. macrophylla pot. Since the stem was pretty firm I felt confident I could pull it up, and sure enough it released. Up with the stem came a very large seed and the roots. Relieved, I transplanted the little one (who was white half of its length due to how deep the seed was buried) into its own pot. Then I figured I would figure out what it was. So I went through my pile of discarded plant tags from all of the deceased plants I've accumulated over the years. I found two Garcinia tags that were from the same planting. One read G. brasiliensis and the other G. sp. (Vleerackerii aka Luc's Garcinia)...To the web I went, and the seed for G. brasiliensis matched my short term memory of the recent transplant, but the latter name wasn't to be found (reliably) in seed form. But to confirm my theory, I went back into my own blog and found this post: http://pergolatory.blogspot.com/2016/09/garcinia-galore.html. Which just about seals it. It's one of those two, so both tags will go into the pot for now. I'll have to wait to figure out which one.

Bananas and Bags

I found that my large Passiflora edulis was mysteriously losing green fruit. I highly suspect a clumsy opossum or a raccoon. Either way, I wanted to protect the rest of the crop. I bought some mesh bags and started covering all the new stuff. By a quick count I have about 25 - 30 bagged P. edulis fruits getting really swollen on the vine. They're hanging like white stockings above a field of bananas which are getting too big for me to pass through to my little greenhouse. I don't know what to do with them or what will happen if I leave them be. For now I'll fertilize them and figure it out later.

Unique Eugenia

My Eugenia luschnathiana (Pitomba) flowered very early this Spring, then it promptly dropped all of the buds, then leaves, then pushed new growth, then put out new buds again. Today the first one of them opened. It's a nice little puff ball of white. I brushed it in hopes of self pollinating it, but I'm not sure if that will work. I really hope I get at least one fruit to try this year.

Peanut Butter on the Brink

My peanut butter fruit tree (Bunchosia argentia) was looking pretty feeble. The leaves were very yellow and wilted. I tried some chelated iron and fertilizer but nothing seemed to perk it up so I turned to the forums. The gang almost unanimously suggested that the pH was too high. So, I did a few things, I added some acidifier, mixed some vinegar with water, put some Miracle Grow Miracid on it, and added pine bark chips to the top of the pot. I don't know which of these, if not a combination, did the trick, but eventually it did green up on most of the leaves. The others have dropped, so I'm hoping there's a enough time left in the summer for it to do some proper growing.

Puerto Rico, Lost and Found

When I went to Puerto Rico a few months ago, I visited El Yunque Rain Forest. I was on a very hastily "guided" tour which never took us away from the roads further than eyeshot. It rained harder on us at the end of the tour more than I've ever seen or felt. It was great. Even though I wasn't able to wander far, and other than the anoles scampering about, I did take a few pictures of some pretty flowers near the roadside. I didn't think much of them (unlike the stinging plant that I should have touched more gently), but fast forward to this month and a plant obsessed acquaintance of mine posted a "Red Torch Ginger" online. Initially, I thought it was very neat looking, and then today I remembered the rainforest photos. Eureka. Same plant. Etlingera elatior. Let's give this one a grow.

Tiny Flowers and Big Hopes

My Kohala longan came in the mail yesterday. It's only about 3' tall, but I opened the box to find a very sweet smelling aroma and bunches of little flowers. I'm not sure what will happen now that it's here and in a proper pot, but if it can hold on to the flowers maybe I'll get some free fruit. My Ice Cream mango has been taking off recently too. It has flowers that are about the same size and today I noticed that some of them are opened. Here's hoping for a double dose of fruity good luck.

Update: The mango dropped all the flowers without setting one fruit, and the longan almost did the same...almost. There is one fruit hanging on while some new growth pushes from the top.

Ground Cherry

It's going to be a warm weekend, so I started it off with watering my plants. Upon doing so a Ground Cherry aka Cape Gooseberry freed itself and fell to the ground. The little orange-yellow marble inside a tan paper lantern bounced with a slight crunching sound to catch my attention. I liberated the fruit from it's paper shell and popped it in my mouth. It was sweet before I bit into it. I thought, "this must be what people who enjoy tomatoes like." Except that Physalis fruits are nightshades, and they're not gross. I think anyone could grow these like they do a tomato plant, save some seeds through the winters in other zones where the plant would not survive, and enjoy the spring and summer tangy sweetness each year.

April Fools Day After

It has been some time since my last post. Partly because not much has happened since last growing season, and partly from lack of typing inclination. So, now it's time for a mega update.

I've managed to collect quite the spectrum of tropical/exotic/rare fruit plants. Some are small, but the majority are in my large plastic drilled-out pots. It was a challenge, after the flood light came down this last month, to arrange them on the patio in a non-intrusive and healthy manner. But I think I managed it sufficiently. Some skirting has to be done here and there, but in general it works. Although there are certainly a large number of plants on the patio, they're not full of leaves which gives the impression that there are not as many as a list conveys. Here that is:

Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Bradley
Annona diversifolia Ilama Rosada
Annona squamosa Sugar Apple Super Atis
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Island Gem
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Phat Pakchong, PPC
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Randhir
Annona diversifolia x (cherimola x squamosa)
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Geffner
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya African Pride
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Lisa
Annona reticulata Red Custard Apple Tobago Pink
Annona squamosa Sugar Apple Giant Mexican
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Dream
Bauhinia monandra Orchid Tree, Napoleon's Plume
Bunchosia argentia Peanut Butter Fruit Tree
Casimiroa edulis White Sapote Suebelle
Diospyros digyna Black Sapote
Diospyros nigra Black Sapote
Eriobotrya japonica Loquat
Eriobotrya japonica Loquat Averi, Strawberry, Vista White
Eugenia luschnathiana Pitomba
Eugenia selloi Pintangatuba
Eugenia candolleana Rainforest Plum
Eugenia uniflora x selloi
Eugenia braziliensis Grumichama
Eugenia uniflora Suriname Cherry
Eugenia victoriana Sundrops
Garcinia humilis Achacha, Achachairu, Bucorapi
Garcinia aristata
Garcinia hombroniana Seashore Mangosteen
Garcinia humilis Achacha, Achachairu, Bucorapi
Garcinia acuminata Sour Bacupari
Garcinia humilis Achacha, Achachairu, Bucorapi
Garcinia xanthochymus Yellow Mangosteen, Gamboge
Inga sp. Ice Cream Bean Pink
Inga sp. Ice Cream Bean
Mangifera indica Mango Ice Cream
Manilkara zapota Sapodilla, Chico Tikal
Musa Banana Thousand Fingers
Musa acuminata Banana Grand Nein
Musa Banana Dwarf Iholena
Musa acuminata Banana Gros Michel
Musa velutina Banana Pink Velvet
Nephelium mutabile Pulasan
Passiflora parritae
Passiflora xiikzodz x coriacea Manta
Passiflora racemosa Buzios
Passiflora malacophylla
Passiflora pittieri
Passiflora (incarnata x edulis) x (incarnata x cincinnata) Blue-Eyed Susan
Passiflora actinia
Passiflora edulis
Passiflora mucronata
Passiflora discophora
Passiflora porphyretica Angustata
Passiflora ornithura
Passiflora sublanceolata
Passiflora ovalis
Passiflora Kew Gardens
Passiflora lingularis
Passiflora actinia
Persea americana Avocado Red Russell, Bacon, Fuerte
Persea americana Avocado Brogdon
Persea americana Avocado Nabal
Persea americana Avocado Fuerte
Physalis peruviana Cape Gooseberry
Plina x Jaboticaba Red
Plinia glomerata Jaboticaba, Cabelluda Yellow
Plinia caulifora Jaboticaba Grimal
Plinia aureana Jaboticaba White
Plinia cauliflora Jaboticaba
Plinia vexator Jaboticaba Blue
Plinia edulis Cambuca
Plinia vexator Jaboticaba Blue
Pouteria hypoglauca Cinnamon Apple
Pouteria lucuma Lucuma
Pouteria viridis Green Sapote
Rollinia peruviana Biriba
Rollinia deliciosa Biriba
Rollinia mucosa Biriba
Rollinia mucosa x Biriba
Rollinia deliciosa Biriba
Rollinia deliciosa Biriba
Salacca zalacca Snake Fruit, Salak
Synsepalum dulcificum Miracle Berry
Syzygium samarangense Red Wax Jambu
Syzygium jambos Rose Apple


I have all the typical genera like Annona, Garcinia, Eugenia, Plinia etc. and they all do better in their pots than Passiflora. I still have some of those with the exception of P. edulis and the inclusion of the Bauhinia that are decorative, but pretty much all else is meant to be eaten. Though I must say some of these plants have stunning morphology.

Grafting is a fun new twist on this hobby as well. It's not something I tackled often with Passiflora although some notoriously difficult plants have been successfully grafted on to hardy root stocks, and it's slowly changing the game. That's an exciting development. I hope it leads to the proliferation of species such as P. parritae. But, back with the rest of the collection. I bought a great knife not meant for grafting, but that I figured would work well. And, it does. I bought a grafting tool that makes perfectly nesting little male-female saddle and wedge cuts. I got my wax tape and white colored electrical tape for sealing in moisture and putting pressure on the joints, and I was set. I grafted the Atemoya 'African Pride' and 'Lisa' scions first, and they took. Easy. Then I grafted the 'Mexican Giant' and 'Dream' and half took (the half under 24 light in the greenhouse), and half didn't (the half outside under direct light for a few hours). I'm told that they require lots of light to "take" and that seems to be proving true. So, I cut off the dead wood on both stock and scion for about 4 plants that failed to take and re-grafted them before popping them in the greenhouse as well. We'll see if that works.

Right now, in addition to the new growth pushing on the Annona and the releafing taking place on everything else, I have a bunch of flowers on my 'Brogdon' avocado. If I'm lucky, a bee or humming bird in need of some nectar will find it, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'm not sure what will be next to bloom. The 'Ice Cream' mango seems to be doing something, but I'm not certain if it's budding or leafing.
 

Blame it on the Rain

There hasn't been an update since September, but that doesn't mean that nothing has happened. True, very little has happened, but not "nothing". I spent all of the Summer and Fall last year collecting fruiting trees. Annona, Rollinia Eugenia, Garcinia, Persea, Mangifera, and more are all in their drilled plastic pots and waiting for Spring 2017. The temperatures this winter have ventured lower than I can remember them dipping; into the low 40's. And for the most part, things have survived. A few of the weaker plants succumbed early on, but even those that have been completely defoliated by the cold are holding on to life in their trunks. I think I lost a Rollinia and a Plinia edulis, but the peanut butter tree, wax jambu, bananas, and mangoes are all surprisingly tough. I guess when you're used to the fragility of Passiflora, all other species are robust by comparison. That said, my Passiflora parritae is trying to push growth. With a little more light it might just take off like a rocket.

This January has been the wettest one I can remember ever since moving to Redondo Beach about a decade ago. Today it has rained ever since I woke up and it's not scheduled to stop until well into Monday. But the temperature is dropping back into the low 40's while I'm away, so I had to do what I didn't want to do. I had to move a few plants into the house. My Pouteria caimito (abiu), Garcinia hombroniana (seashore mangosteen), and a crippled Rollinia deliciosa are all in my bathroom. But, they'll go right back outside as soon as I return because it's supposed to be in the 70's during the day. I can almost taste Spring.

And I have a few additions to pick up when I get back. I have a atemoya 'Geffner' and a cocktail loquat to introduce to the patio. The latter is going to be grafted together while I watch and learn, which should be a nice exhibition. So I'll wait until I get back to play with my plants, and that will buy me a couple of more weeks which will make it February. And February is a short month, so it's practically March!!