Pergola-tory Finale

I sold my house. I'm moving on. Some plants are hanging out at the neighbors house still from the clean up I did for prospective buyers last month. Some plants are just hanging out and starting to wake up from the winter. The only thing is that I don't yet have my up-leg, so their fate is in a bit of limbo right now. Again, we wait.

In the meantime, I harvested 100% of my yield from 2018; a single sugar apple 'Super Atis' that hung on with my through the cold and wind and rain until today when I popped it off the top of the single trunked plant. It's a bit firm but large and ripe. I'll wait a few days to eat it up.

I wish I could say it'll be bitter sweet to leave Pergola-tory. I guess my first Passiflora was grown here. My first hybrid created here. I built the pergola after the store-bought version rusted to nothing. I planted the bamboo for privacy. I laid down the stone walk behind the house where my dad and I built the greenhouse. I got a few Salacca zalacca plants after my trip to Indonesia and I got hooked on Annona, Eugenia, Plinia, Myrciaria, Garcinia, and Pouteria.

They'll all come with me to the next place...once I figure out what and where that is.

Holiday Update - Jabo Growth

My multi-grafted jaboticaba trees are doing great. I've rotated one of them into my greenhouse for a bit to get some of the latter grafted scions to push so that I could be sure that they took on the rootstock. It seems to have worked. I got P. grandifolia and P. aureana to show their leaves and now the first of my two multi-grafts is chilling outside like it was springtime.

On my primary P. cauliflora "Sabará" tree, I now have:

• P. grandiflora (Giant)
• P. aureana (White)
• P. peruviana, syn. trunciflora (Cafe)
• P. coronata (Crowned)
• P. coronata "Restinga" (Crowned)
• P. sp. "Grimal"
• P. spirito-santensis
• P. phitrantha "Branca-Vinho" (fmr "Paulista açú") (Costada)

Besides these grafts, I have a few plants that are holding in there just fine through the colder months. Escalarte is getting bigger in the greenhouse, so that and some Red scions will probably go on to my multigrafts next spring. I'll probably do a very small graft from "Roxa Polpa" if it can survive the winter. I have had a hard time with the small plants, and this is my smallest. I've lots too many to unknown causes this last year. I think I'll stick to sticks (aka scions) or well-established plants in the future.

• P. cauliflora x aureana (Red or "Precoce") 2x
• M. vexator (Blue)
• P. sp. "Escalarte" (Scarlet)
• P. sp. "Grimal"
• P. cauliflora "Roxa Polpa"

Holiday Update - Last Annona Standing

I had too many Annona plants, and they were mostly stagnant in their small planters. I picked the heathiest plants and kept those on the fence (literally), which I up-potted a sugar apple "Super Atis" (Annona squamosa) and a Phat Pak Chong "PPC" (Annona cherimola x squamosa) into the perforated 20 gallon trash cans. The former has a large human heart sized fruit about 8 feet off the ground that is slowly getting a blush. It was was cherimoya tasted last year, and it will be one sugar apple this year. The lot on the fence are:

• Annona reticulata "Tobago Pink"
• Annona cherimola x squamosa (Atemoya) "Randhir"
• Annona cherimola x squamosa (Atemoya) "African Pride"
• Annona scleroderma (Cawesh or Poshte)
• Annona sp. (muricata x glabra) (Golden Sugar Apple or Pineapple Annona)
• Annona rollinia deliciosa (Biriba)

Holiday Update - Yuzu and Poo

I haven't been keeping up with some of the small changes in the garden in the second part of this year. Here's catch up post one.

I bought a semi-dwarf yuzu tree (Citrus x junos (ichangensis x reticulata var. austera)) from a local nursery. It's only a couple of feet tall and sitting in a 20 gal perforated trash can which has become my standard for I-want-this-to-grow-healthy-roots. It had a few tiny immature fruit and some flowers on it when I bought it. It grew a little bit in the summer months, and held on to a few of the fruit. Recently three of them were worth picking, so I have those ready for a cocktail. Coincidentally, some tiger swallow tail butterflies had been showing interest and there were a few eggs laid. The yellow jackets picked off some of the tiniest caterpillars but at least one survived to grow large enough for its bird dropping mimicry to work. I later found the dried chrysalis busted open, so I missed the metamorphosis, but wait, there were more. There were and are many more! There are about five of them living on my white sapote (Casimiroa edulis). Apparently that's a similar enough host plant on which they can feed. They are growing slowly, and I think there are a couple of parasitic tiny wasps controlling a couple. It's interesting to watch them hang out with the caterpillars 1-to-1. I'm not totally sure what's going on there, and I haven't researched it any. We'll wait to see if I get more butterflies or wasps.

Super Scionic

The jaboticabas are looking good this time of year. I think we had one week where the high temperatures hit 80°F, but that weeks weeks before summer was even officially here. Since then it has been in the high 60's and low 70's and overcast until noon. The Plinia like it though, and it seems like the grafts that I first made on my original rootstock are all taking off now. A few like Grimal, spirito-satensis, phitrantha (possible Esalq), and Coronata var. Restinga are pushing serious leaves, which are stunning little branches. Trunciflora is lagging but I think it's starting to go. Paulista and edulis are the only two that I'm not sure about yet. Maybe they'll take, maybe not. I have gradiflora and aureana coming soon, so I'll graft those scions on to really make it a proper cocktail. Now that I know I can do it with high efficacy that only seems to be dependent on the species/variety, I'm excited more than nervous.

I recently lost all the leaves and maybe the whole aureana plant that I had. The thing never seemed to grow. Red and Blue are growing slowly again. I also picked up three small plants ( "Otto Andersen, Paulista açú", Dwarf Red  "Precoce", and Escalarte, and some seedlings  "Rosa de Pescoço" and "Polpa Roxa". If all of these grow large enough, the'll eventually make their way onto the cocktail tree. I have a second root stock that has the refrigerated scions on it. I'll use that as a backup for everything once I'm convince the original grafts are fully healed and the scions are branching.

May Gray and Cool Scions

It's Memorial Day. I returned from an out of town trip half exhausted and half missing my garden. The latter won, and I decided to take the Jaboticaba scions that I received in mid-February out of the fridge. To my pleasure they looked externally as good as fresh. A few slices with my knife showed them to look the same on the inside. Plinia edulis might have been a bit off, but it was still moist and greenish. So, I took the remaining scions and grafted them to a Sabara that has been doing just fine since it arrived recently. This is a bit of an experiment. No one seemed quite sure if this tactic would work.

On a very related note, my tree grafted back in Feb is really pushing. At least one of each variety is showing life and pushing new leaves (expect perhaps P. edulis). I don't know what normal grafting success rates are especially in cool and overcast conditions, but I think the tightness with which I wrapped the white electrical tape may be important. Some reading noted that pressure is critical to cell differentiation and fluid/nutrient transmission. This along with stripping the stock leaves really seems to be the ticket...unless it's always this easy of course. We'll see what the forums say when I show off the cocktail tree once it's more fleshed out.

And back to the refrigerated tree...I can't wait to read what the forum people say to that if it works out positively. Wait and read.

April Fools Atemoya

It's April Fools day, and I was poking around in the yard, and I decided instead of an Easter egg I would have an atemoya. It's the only one to made it through the winter, on a plant that kept all its leaves and looks pretty good compared to all the other Annona sticks. There's not much more to say except that it makes me happy to harvest it. Hopefully this next season will set and keep more than one.

Cloudless Spring Day

I went to a plant sale at the local botanical garden. There wasn't anything interesting there sadly. Succulents and roses and salvias and orchids of all the usual kinds were represented, but nothing exotic fruit related. I stopped by the Armstrong Garden Center on the way home, and they had much more stuff. I was tempted by a few things, but nothing was a "must have"...except this one little thing that jumped out at me. There was something weird about one of the yellow flowers on some unremarkable shrub. I gave it a second look and it was a caterpillar...that I pocketed. It took about 3 minutes of internet research to identify it as a cloudless sulfur (Phoebis sennae). Apparently they eat herbaceous legumes in particular Cassia, so I clipped a couple of pea plant sprigs, and we'll see if it wants to dine, pupate, and fly away.

Update: One day later my caterpillar is a crysallis. This species takes 12 - 14 days to emerge, so it will be a short wait if all goes well inside. Obviously there will be another update shortly.

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

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.