in the spring time i bought 2 phalsa seedlings, they probably had 4 leaves each at the time and each was probably about 8 inches tall and their stems were very thin, i transplanted them into gallon containers a few weeks after i got them and they grew well, perhaps reaching about 2.5 feet by summer and the trunk got thicker, they were growing like a vine so i kept them tied to a stake in each pot to train it straight. it was only growing vertically, so i decided to prune it in the summer, hoping it would make laterals. it has not grown since then. they have been getting full sun the whole time. i check the soil almost daily, making sure not to overwater (i’ve killed plants by doing that so i try to be more careful now) and i have probably only fertilized once, maybe twice, this growing season with fish emulsion. i am perplexed that growth stopped after i pruned it, it’s a been a few months now and we still have warm temperatures during the day here in the coastal Florida panhandle. i don’t think i pruned off more than 1/3rd off the tops of the plants. is this normal for phalsa? it’s not dead but their leaves are starting to brown and drop off due to cooler temperatures at night, in the mid 50s to 60s at night. i really hope i didn’t kill it. is anyone growing phalsa successfully?
I have a seedling that hasn’t grown since I got it, but I think I let it get too much sun early on, now I have it inside trying to rescue it. But I’m guessing the plants are not that hardy and that’s why they aren’t more widespread. That or the fruit sucks haha but I wanted to try it. If it decides to start pushing growth again I’ll be happy but if not, I’ll likely not try with one again.
they take full sun. i tried one berry, it tasted like a sour apple. it’s supposed to grow fast so i am perplexed.
No seedlings like full sun tho, it was very small. Had some sunburned leaves. That’s interesting flavor it sounds like cool, I’ll hope my rebounds then.
my two phalsa plants have flowered recently, i thought they flowered/fruited in the spring time, i see little fruit forming and will post pics when they are ready
Alot of evergreen/tropical spring flowering trees flower because of the daylight hours. Its possible phalsa is also like that. I know roselles and hibiscus are like that, and I have an inkling miracle fruit may also be like that (I had a bloom last fall and a bloom this spring). Not sure if phalsa is like that but it is certainly possible.
phalsa isn’t evergreen, it lost its leaves this past winter, i had them in the greenhouse and thought they were dead but came back in spring. i don’t think they like strong sun either, they were getting sunburned and hardly growing during the hot months.
Thats good to know so I don’t think mines dead when it loses its leaves. Its also apperently subtropical from Himalayan foothills, so I was wrong on both accounts. I still think its probably daylight thing. It doesn’t have to be in direct sun, plants can usually tell if there are in the shade or if its night time. Ambient light and all that.
Sometimes plants flower when they receive stress, like from pruning or a branch breaking. High winds can probably cause stress too. So if it had any stress, it possibly could be panic flowering.
I can also confirm the same, assumed mine was also dead in the greenhouse but it budded back out in spring. Planted it so we will see if it’s truly 8b hardy, granted we are newly 9a here it’s in a protected spot so I expect it will survive even if it dies to the ground
yes, i did prune it recently because i wanted it to branch out more, i’m wanting it to be bushy but i don’t think it grows that way
i’m not going to put mine in the ground until the trunk gets to be at least an inch or more thick
Is this what it looks like when it goes dormant? Its been in the back of the barn since last Tuesday because of the hurricane, so it didn’t really receive any light, which might have tricked it to an early winter.
It looked fine before that, and I can’t imagine if it was dying due to lack of sun yet, it still got some ambient light. Its not droppy, so I don’t think its lack of water, and the soil wasn’t too wet. So I don’t really know what it could be other than early dormancy.
More or less, mine hasn’t started to yet this year though. But that looks similar size and appearance when I thought mine was dying last year.
I guess I should keep it in some darkness then. Its definitely way too early for it to go dormant and I don’t want it to cut its dormancy way too short. We still have hot days ahead of us, I only think it went dormant because of how far back in the barn it was and for how long.
We had 3 days/nights of cool temps (low of 49-high of 60) with getting back to warmth again so I’m hoping it doesn’t initiate dormancy yet here also. So far so good but it could be too early to tell.
it will lose its leaves, it’s still too hot in Florida for them to lose leaves, and i am in the northwest 30 degrees N latitude, mine are fruiting but they’re not ready yet
well, i had a few fruit and they weren’t ripe, some red/purple coloring but still had some green, but i harvested them a bit prematurely because i knew a freeze was coming and i was hoping they would ripen on the counter but they didn’t, they just stayed hard and dried up, and tasted very astringent. so phalsa berries must ripen on the tree.
It’s my understanding no berries ripen off the tree/plant. Then it becomes what constitutes a berry which I don’t exactly know. However that doesn’t surprise me because I don’t think these are for fresh eating as much as making a beverage. Mine took 25* a few nights ago so we will have to see if it survived come spring. I scratched a tiny branch which didn’t have much green on it, and don’t care to stress it more by scratching the trunk. If it lives I’ll be happy, but if it didn’t, I won’t be crushed by it.
yeah, i wasn’t sure about the ripening process since there’s not too much info out there about phalsa. when i had them last year they tasted like sour apples, so i don’t know where the name sherbet berry comes from. the fruits would have been ruined in the freeze if i left them on the trees since we hit freezing 5 different days in an 8 day period. besides i only had like 6 tiny berries between two plants, not a very productive tree. i thought mine were dead last winter because my greenhouse was unheated so they were definitely exposed to low/mid twenties and came back in the spring.
When they are fully ripe, they turn dark purple (almost black). At that stage, they are tangy and mildly sour and can be eaten fresh. People do make juice out of them as well. They do like the heat and thrive in hot weather. In CA, 10b, they go dormant in December and don’t come out of dormancy till May. They grow in a bushy form and it may be best not to prune them if they are small.