They have arrived! The first one is Muntingia calabura, Jamaican Cherry, datiles, aratiles or Strawberry Tree (its flowers look like that of strawberries). This is my favorite fruit tree as a kid, too bad it is tropical, so it will die if planted in the ground in our yard, so I’ll attempt to grow it in a container and keep it small and see if it will fruit for me. The next one is Babaco papaya and should be cold hardy enough to go into the ground. This unnamed babaco cultivar is supposed to have tastier fruits than the one circulating in Southern California. It will be used in grafting experiments later.
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My Babaco also came from Logees. You should have green fruit next year and ripe fruit the year after that. You don’t need me to tell you this, but as with all Papayas they are most likely to die in winter if drainage is poor. A light frost won’t kill ‘em but wet roots will.
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I have a 10 year old babaco planted in the ground in Davis under the eaves of the house. Never fruited. Grew super slow. Will experiment with that one too.
Joe,
I loved these two cherries in my Grandma tropical fruits orchard.
Tony
Surinam Cherry Black Eugenia Uniflora Pitanga
BARBADOS CHERRY, Malpighia Emarginata sweet exotic
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I really miss Muntingia calabura. It brings back lots of childhood memories! It was my favorite tree as a kid. I love its peculiar aroma that’s not found in other fruits. Like a young salmon smelt ingrained with the dissolved minerals in a river, so is the flavor and aroma of Muntingia calabura ingrained in me as a kid. It is irreplaceable.
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I think I remember this fruit. the fruit size is smaller than a marble. Sweet and fragrant with a alot of small soft tiny little seeds. We called it fish eggs tree or Cay Trung Ca in Vietnamese. I loved the taste also. We used to climb these trees after school out and enjoyed the sweet treat.
Tony
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10 years?!?! Has it not flowered or does it just refuse to hold fruit?
It hasn’t flowered. To be fair it is completely shaded, receiving only indirect light. Never irrigated, I chalked it up for dead, somehow it comes back every year. Will try to rejuvenate it next time I’m at our rental property.
And so now they’re potted for rapid growth! Will try to propagate then this year perhaps. Then I’ll do some experimentations. Will investigate the effects of bark inversion of the Muntingia on plant size, quality and quantity of fruits!
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How are they doing?