Canistel (egg fruit)

Does anyone grow this here? Just got a box of fruit from Etsy (Anderson tropicals, great seller btw) and it included two of them and they are fantastic. Got the seed in dirt before I finished the fruit. It’s very meaty like a Mamey sapote but far more palatable to me. Not that the mamey isnt good, it’s just hard to eat a lot of it at once for me. Anyhow curious what people’s experience is with this fruit.

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As I said when I first had a canistel this fall, I think this is my favorite fruit. I have 2 seeds in ground, and 3 more that will go in ground this week.
I don’t personally have a tree, but we put one in at a school garden in Tampa. Its a grafted “Trompo” variety and is about 5/6ft tall. It had two fruit ripen up two weeks ago and we shared them with the kids. It was 80 bucks at that size, honestly might go get one for myself.

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If it wasn’t a zone 10 tree I’d get a grafted one myself.

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I had 2 small seedlings in containers. As for now they look quite hardy comapre tu Abiu seedlings but their taproots grow wild :joy:


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I never managed to germinate my Abiu seeds. Where did you get your seeds from?

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As far as I know they need to be planted as soon as possible after eating the fruit.

https://crazy-box.pl/mleczny-owoc-gwiezdne-jabłko-żółty?gclid=Cj0KCQiA88a5BhDPARIsAFj595ghbvFcd2Vj6D16dcJE9cxgGhiNFoJrqD92S74N9w6fhcrE4bhtHLQaAjbjEALw_wcB

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I can’t grow them in my zone. However, I used to live in South Florida and I ate them whenever I could there. I think they are one of my favorite fruits. Something I was never able to try, that I want to, is Lucuma.

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I’ve germinated the seed before though. They germinate quickly fresh.

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At least Canistel could flower in zone 7 :sweat_smile: maybe it will also set a few fruit.

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I got seeds for abiu from tradewinds and they both germinated. I beleive one defiolated, but the other is growing quite well

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Yeah I think my seeds were too dry to germinate. Most tropical seeds seem to be that way, plant directly as quickly as you can. Was shocked you could find canistel seeds in Polska. That’s a really nice collection of tropicals, your video or a friend?

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These are not seeds. It’s a grocery store with the biggest offer of tropical fruits in Poland.

As for the video. It’s from the biggest exotic fruit collector in Poland. He grow eg. Plinias, Eugenias, Poutherias in containers.

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It’s extremely tiring listening to Polish, but j understand most of it…is there something specific about this video?
It’s cold hardy to Poland in a greenhouse, at least.

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I had traded for some Canistel seeds and the guy sent me like 30 seeds. Most germinated and died that winter. One germinated after the winter and is growing painfully slow. I’m providing is protection in my garage along with the rest of my Pouteria collection. I’m optimistic that a few will be hardy enough to make a go of it in my protected yard in 9b.

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I think pouterias should be able to survive my 9b most years, but I know California is more consistently cold. We usually don’t get too much frost for too long. The canistel that is at the school gave me hope that they can fruit small enoughbto keep them alive.

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Yeah, it does get cold. My yard is sheltered by trees and slopes, so I don’t get frost on the ground. We’ll see! Might as well start seeds now and see what life looks like in 10 years

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I hope you’ll be successful, I planted my 9b Barbie pink guava due to it being far too large to continue to move. It wasn’t happy but didn’t have much branch dieback until the 4 days around or below freezing. One string of lights under a hoophouse wasn’t sufficient protection, and our winter I wouldn’t call mild but it hasn’t seen extreme lows (24 low). So I have to either increase my protective measures or really shy away from planting 9b+ plants. I’m relatively confident it will come back, but I’ll likely not see fruit this year.

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Thanks. My winter hasn’t been anywhere near lows of 24. Barely freezing. I don’t monitor my own temps, but it seems like I’m just a few degrees cooler than my weather station which hasn’t seen 20s at all yet. I lined up my young guavas along the house with several other more tender specimens and, so far, no problems at all this year. I even left out an Achacha that died back last year and resprouted. I’m really putting that one through the ringer to see if it can make a hero of itself

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Excellent keep up the good work out there

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Every lucuma based pastry or icecream I’ve had was unpleasant, chalky and cloying sweet (they’re popular in Chile). Unfortunately, I just missed my chance to try moist lucuma at a fruit market in Santiago de Chile. Thought we had bought it, but apparently not.

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