You Down with PPC?

I have several Annona plants in 7.5 gal planters, and recently I decided to purchase a bunch of 20 gal trash cans and modify them as planters. All that takes is a power drill with which I make about 50 holes in the can. I make my own airpots. It seems to work really well in keeping the roots from sitting in water. Anyway, I am waiting on some grafted Passiflora, for four of those cans. Two bananas when in a couple more. With that I have 4 cans left, and I made a poll online to see which of my atemoyas people recommended for the super-up-potting. Phat Pak Chong (PPC) won that poll, so into the can it went today. We'll have to wait and see if the pot size makes a big difference in its growth versus its similarly sized brothers and sisters.

Late Winter Cocktails

Spring is rapidly approaching. Buds are pushing on most everything, except on my 'Grimal' jaboticaba, which is almost completely refoliated. It's looking really good, and it inspired me to work on a cocktail jaboticaba for myself. I've seen them online and they're beautiful trees aside from having delicious fruit. I bought a 5' P. cauliflora to be the rootstock. Everyone uses 'Sabara', but I was feeling impulsive and just went for it. Then I picked up a bunch of scions from Flying Fox Fruits, and spent a whole day grafting them on to the tree. I also decided to lop off a lower branch on my 'Grimal' and graft that on as well. This is a first attempt at grafting Plinia, but being hardwood, I think it should be relatively successful. I have about 3 or 4 chances at each of the types below.

• P. coronata
• P. coronata var. 'Restinga'
• P. 'Grimal'
• P. phitrantha (possibly ESALQ)
• P. spiritosantensis

Update: I added three more types to the top of the rootstock, and picked up P. cauliflora 'Polpa Roxa' and P. phitrantha 'Rosa de Pescoço' seedlings and a small grafted Plinia sp. 'Escalarte'.

• P. trunciflora
• P. edulis (aka Cambuca)
• P. cauliflora var. 'Paulista'

Additionally, I picked up some types that were unlikely to be successfully grafted, and I'm giving rooting a shot. This could be low success, but it's worth a shot. I'm using some CD spindle covers as the outer pot/water reservoir, a clear solo cup as the pot. I filled the latter with 50/50 peat moss and coarse sand, and then drenched the whole thing with a 5.0 pH water. The cuttings I prepared by shaving off the lower centimeter of bark to expose the cambium just below a node and chopping all the leaves in half to reduce transpiration. Then I taped a gallon bag on top to keep the humidity around. We'll see if it works for these two.

• P. inflata
• P. rivularis