I think that I’m on my fourth miracle berry fruit bush. I managed to kill the first three in some very inventive ways. I bought my first one from Ong Nursery, it was a nice big bush, but very expensive. Unfortunately I was rather new to gardening and fruit tree growing, so I planted the miracle fruit bush and a blueberry bush into the ground here in SoCal. Both MB and blueberries like acidic soil, which we do not have here. Both died a slow and lingering death. I was very sad to lose both.
After some research, I did learn and the next MB I bought off Amazon went into a pot. This one actually did pretty well, gave me a lot of fruit, and lasted for several years. I think the combination of pine bark mulch and overwatering eventually killed it. Perhaps the summer got too hot for it.
I decided to try again this year and in the late spring I ordered a nice plant from Miracle Fruit Farm via Amazon. I bought some good acidic potting soil and a nice pot. When it arrived, the MB already had flowers on it, so my hopes were raised. As the MB was pretty root bound, I carefully unwound the roots, broke up some of the root ball, and then potted it up. I have a water barrel that I’ve collected winter rain from as a water source, so I used that. The MB was placed in deep shade for a week. I then moved it to a partly shady spot, stuck a few stakes into the pot and drapped sunshade over it. Unforunately the stakes weren’t tall enough and the shade cloth was partially supported by the MB foliage. I think this baked the leaves and killed the plant.
I just bought a replacement MB, direct from the Miracle Fruit Farm. What can I do better this time around? I’d like this thing to survive!
tl;dr: I killed 3 previous Miracle Berry fruit plants, I need some advice on how to properly grow this plant in SoCal.
They definitely are not cold tolerant at all, I bring mine inside when the outdoor temperatures drop below 60 degrees. It has stayed inside the house the entire winter. It is sitting on a east facing window and gets the morning and some early afternoon sun. My second plant used to sit near the sliding glass doors and got the afternoon sun, but this one is a bit too small and risks destruction by the dogs. Shadow goes a bit crazy when our gardener is working in the backyard.
I did not up pot this one when I received it. It was later in the year when it arrived and I’m not going to mess with the roots when I do up pot this spring.
It has done ok, I think that I let it dry out a little bit too much at one point and it dropped some leaves - I get a little lazy as I have to go outside to get the water for it. But the plant has some new growth up top and on some side branches, so I think that it will do ok.
These plants can definitely be tricky, but it’s worth it when you get the berries. Always a fun party trick to break out a lemon and let someone try sucking on a slice after having a berry.
I wonder if anyone has them live very long? I have a friend that buys them and keeps them in pots inside and then outside and they seem super happy and productive for a year or so and then just croak, I ask him what happens and he just shrugs. He had some very interesting fine dining goals with the miracle fruit and I admit that its a fun experience. When i would be at his house i would always grab one and see what sort of interesting combinations he had going on. For my area they seemed like a labor of love plant
That’s a good question. Incompatible pH is what killed my first one, it did struggle for awhile before it croaked. Perhaps that’s something your friend can look at. It also does not like full strength fertilizer, it has to be diluted considerably. Humidity levels are important and hard to maintain out here. A small greenhouse would help with that, but I’d worry about frying it in our summers. Intense sunlight will burn the leaves, so shade helps.
Other than that, there is not a lot of information on it.
Want to revive this topic, curious if the posters have any updates. I got a tiny seedling last fall and it really struggled in the greenhouse with minimum 39* temps. Hoping it will grow now that it’s good and warm, however I’m curious if I need to keep it relatively shaded and moist or let it get full sun and dry out in between watering. I have heard they prefer rain water like jaboticaba, any help is appreciated
So I’ve had a miracle fruit bush in the ground for about 4 years now. It was maybe a little over 1 foot when we got it and its probably between 3 and 4 feet now. Its in ground, receives nearly full sun from March to October, and gets dappled sun all winter. Not sure how fast miracle fruit normally grow, but the plant is healthy and has already begun flowering this spring. If you have it in a pot, I’d probably work my way up to 6+ hours of sun a day, like your hardening off a vegetable, and just check for any signs of leaf burning. Overall, I think that the plant does well it both partial shade and sun, so its probably just up to where you want it.
As for watering, our miracle fruit was basically completely neglected until this November when I took over the garden, so it was only watered when it rained. I water mine pretty frequently now though, and it definitely looks fuller. As a seedling, it’d probably be safer to keep it on the moister side during dry months, and then let the rain takeover during rainy months.
I’m definitely not an expert, and my sample size is 1 bush in Central Florida, but hopefully somewhere in there is some useful information.
Yeah I’ve heard that, I have a shallow well just for watering plants tho not drinking. I also try to just water with rainwater, though I seem to quickly exhaust my rain barrels in between rains.
I have had mine in a large pot for maybe 10 years. I bring it indoors and put in the hot water heater room a couple weeks ago until the Spring. That room is a bit warmer and humid than rest of house… very slow growing, couple inches per year.
In summer it goes to an area where it gets direct sun 2hrs maybe per day and indirect sun the rest of time. It doesn’t like direct sun i think.
Don’t do much in terms of fertilizer, use regular hose water to water, and occasionally once or twice a year use that HollyTone for fertilizer. Put pine needles as mulch once or twice a year at top of the pot.
Do you get fruit of yours? I don’t fertilize alot either, usually just whatever was left in the pot I used for other plants. It had a ton of fruit on it this year. Its a slow grower as well, although not as slow because its in-ground. Its a very pretty bush for me, almost purposely shaped in how it grew.
oh yeh, i def get fruit at least the past 5 years, I got maybe 100 this year and it has maybe 50 more on the plant now. I think maybe at least half of those will ripen indoors.
I always find something new to try with it.
lemons, limes, grapefruit are the must tries.
other citrus if you can find like pomelo, tangerines, finger limes. Tangerines/Oranges will taste maybe too sweet like Sunny D to me.
Kiwi, pomegranates, red wine, balsamic vinegers, some beers (esp sour fruit beers),
Last year i discovered Passionfruit tastes much sweeter. Tomatoes had less acidity and tasted much sweeter. I think Quince maybe tasted sweeter than usual. Seaberry as well. slightly tart berries like BlackBerries too.
A few days ago i had aromatic pickled japanese Ume Plums and they tasted much sweeter.
Coke tastes funky with it. Sprite tastes like simple syrup. We plan on trying it with our sour oranges. And I got some “wild” grapefruit to try it with too. But not sure if I will have any fruit for winter, hit and miss with cold fronts.
Nice, that reminds me a friend has that Flying Dragon Citrus orange. so ill prob try that at some point with it. Same with Black Currants, i can see them maybe tasting sweeter
Illl have to try Coke, i dont drink much of it past decade to save my teeth, but ill give it a try once.
