I’ll probably rip out anything that gets toasted this coming spring, because I want only ones that have no problems to be kept around.
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Tzimbalo (Solanum caripense) seedling growing tall. The pictures of the fruit remind me of a tomato-sized watermelon or a mini pepino.
In the 4 cell is Manilkara rufula, a small fruit cousin of sapodilla. Below it is an “Improved” Lemondrop Mangosteen (Garcinia intermedia).
My Abiu (Pouteria caimito) seedlings. A few of them are from named improved cultivars, the rest are from a seedling of an improved culitvar from Australia.
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Mystery seedling. I originally thought it was Abiu with a different leaf shape, but the new leaves open like a fig. Makes me think it is either an Asian Persimmon or more likely a Jackfruit. However, most jackfruit I have seen have rounder leaves, and both of the ones I have have these more pointed leaves. Could just be younger trees have more pointy leaves.
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Wani/white mango (Mangifera caesia) sprouting. My other one is starting to bump the soil as well.
Duguetia aff. confusa. Related to annonas, but are a very striking fruit. One of two have sprouted so far.
American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). Pretty vigorous grower so far.
Can barely see them, but these are Randia ruiziana. Related to Blackberry Jam Fruit (and other gardenias). Still have there seeds on them.
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wow, very very neat! think it will be able to grow in central florida?
Grow? Yes. Fruit? We’ll see. Its actually currently taken a turn for the worse. My greenhouse was getting to the mid 100s and its leaves appear to have fried. Its not dead yet, so I am praying for a recovery. Shade cloth on the greenhouse has helped tremendously.
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Some red-veined guavas I grew from fruit I ate. I assume these are from the watermelon guavas (pink inside) and not the thais (white inside) but who knows. I have about 5 or 6 with the red veins and 2 or 3 without.
Starapple from fruit I ate. No way to tell if this is the purple or the green unfortunately. It originally had less of the bronze underside. It seems to be developing it now.
Uppoted my community pot of loquat seedlings. It came out to 14, I composted about 5 of the weaker ones. Hopefully some future rootstock.
Giant mulchi going strong. Will be uppoted and seperated soon. I am glad they are doing so well, the reason why they are both growing with a V is because an armyworm took the tops of the first sprouts.
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A Jaboticaba (Plinia sp most likely) from Corrientes Province in Argentina. It is going into its 3rd year from seed. One of the first seeds I started, it has been doing good. Supposed to be decently cold hardy, like most jaboticabas.
Ligonberry seedlings (Vaccinium vitis-idaea). The hardest part about growing these is their size. They are so easily jostled and toppled. They are bottom watered, but somethings around them are not, and an accidently spray uprooted like half of them. Only 2 left now. This is my second attempt, I know we don’t get cold enough for them, but one can dream.
Bilberry/European Huckleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) doing a little better. I just managed to not hit them with the spray as often. A shame because I would rather have more Lingonberries to test, but Bilberries should be equally as hard to grow. The goal is to get two (of each) to at least survive a year and go from there. These are also good practice for the native blueberries I will be starting after they are done cold stratifying. Tiny seeds are an art to germinate.
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Over the past 9 years I have grown several hundred Australian Finger Lime seedlings. The first 10 were from seeds I extracted from a California-grown fruit, all the others were from seeds extracted from fruit I harvested from those original seedlings I am growing in-ground near Houston Texas. About 3 years ago I planted a batch of around 50 seeds from a couple of my finger lime fruits, and two of the seedlings produced some small “weeping form” plants. They continued to grow in a very diminutive size and shape since. I gave one seedling away, but here is the second one at 3 years of age:
and beside a normal sized/shaped 3-year old plant from the same batch of seeds:
I call the weeping one “Bonsai”. Hopefully someday it will get large enough to flower and perhaps take cuttings from. It is a pretty cool looking seedling.
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My Mamey Sapote seedlings (2 in single large pot) are now about 8’ tall. No signs of flowering yet, but they probably need to get about 20-30’ high first. I shuttle them into the garage for our rare (SE Texas near Houston) hard freezes. Here are my two seedlings (from a store-bought fruit about 5-6 years ago):
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I sprouted a bunch of both Passiflora edulis edulis and Passiflora edulis flavicarpa seeds about 8 years ago. All but 3 of those seedlings went in the ground (SE Texas near Houston), and all have subsequently frozen completely dead (we dropped to 9 F in 2021, which finished off most of them). Fortunately I planted one of each in a large container with a built-it trellis, which I have shuttled into the garage for freezes. I put it below a 25’ tall holly tree in the spring, and the passion vines climb to the top by late fall (with ripe fruits drooping to the patio on their own). Here are those 3 seedlings now about 7 years old.
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Wow that’s really neat. They all share the same pot and all 3 produce?
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I really just put them all in the same container as “back-up” insurance to preserve the genetics in the event all my in-ground plants died in a freeze (which they did). During a few years these container-grown plants have produced a handful of fruits, but last year, all (every single one!) of the purple fruits were completely hollow inside. Poor/no cross-pollination I assume. The other years they had flesh and seeds. Here is one last November 25 just before it dropped. Completely hollow:
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About 10 years ago I purchased and planted a mature Longan tree in-ground here in SE Texas. It flowered the next year and produced a small cluster of fruit. I germinated one of those seeds and that container-grown seedling is now about 6’ tall. It gets moved to the garage during hard freezes. Unprotected, the original tree has frozen to the ground essentially every year since 2020, and will likely never get large enough to bloom again. I can’t protect it because I assumed it was dead and planted a pomegranate in the same spot, which is not 8’ high. Somehow the longan keeps resprouting and gets about 2-3’ tall each summer, only to freeze back to the ground each winter. Here is the seedling from that original plant (in front of the banana)
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The leaf bud sheaths mean this is not a Diospyros species. Looks most like a jackfruit seedling to me. I grew about 50 of them one year and they looked identical when small (the lobbed leaves appear slightly later). FYI, I gave away all except one seedling which I planted in the ground here in SE Texas. After a string of warm winters it had reached about 15’ high. The February 2021 record-breaking freeze here (9 F low, below freezing for over 50 hours) was the end of that beautiful tree. For the record, SE Texas is NOT jackfruit country.
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I am only just starting to grow passionfruit now, but this seems so odd because you say there is edulis and flavicarpa in the same container. How could you get empty fruit?
I agree it has to be a jackfruit, I have a couple seedlings also and they look nearly the same
It definitely is jackfruit. They were in the same pot as my abius and I got them at the same time.
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Can jackfruit be grafted onto osage orange?
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Probably not. I don’t know for sure though.
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