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...