Nifty video on frost in tropical climates.
This certainly goes some way towards explaining why some tropical and subtotal species have frost tolerance.
That, and highland species of course. But those are different and this video intentionally excluded tropical highlands.
Best tasting fruit Iâve had, this eggfruit (Pouteria campechiana) that I got from a fruit vendor in Broward (Still havenât had my Mamey yet though). It was absolutely delicious, like cold pudding texture with a unique flavor.
But the best part about it, the seeds were germinating in the fruit! So now I got two seeds that I know are viable. Relatively cold hardy too.
Not sure if the cherimoya or sugar apple seeds will be, they came from out of the country and they radiate them which can kill the seeds. We will see though.
Wait what? Do you just mean the best tasting eggfruit, or are you saying that thing tasted better than mango, lychee, longan, jackfruit, etc.??
Iâve eaten quite a few eggfruit, but never had one that was any better than âpalatableâ and many of them were not even that. The taste is vaguely âoffâ to me, even dead ripe, and the texture is like pudding that for some reason included chalk as a major ingredient.
I had a surprisingly similar experience last week.
I bought a mamey sapote at a local place. Iâd bought one there before but really didnât enjoy it. This time, a Mexican dude with really broken English helpfully stopped and told me which one to get while I was looking over the fruits. My wife, remembering the last one, was skeptical.
When I cut it open, the seed had not only germinated, it was already starting to push roots⌠Which kinda messed up part of the fruit, but so be it. The taste was way better than I expected, remarkably similar to persimmon. Not as sweet, not as rich, and maybe a little starchy/sweet potato like as well, but still, the persimmon flavor was definitely there. Not the best fruit Iâve ever had, but certainly the best mamey sapote Iâve ever had, and pretty good tasting overall. Iâm pretty glad I now have a decent persimmon substitute pretty much year-round, and one that comes in several pound fruits that are easy to clean and very easy to seed, unlike real persimmons, especially the native ones.
Iâm way, way too far outside the zone for mamey sapote, and itâs a honkinâ big tree, so I tossed the germinated seed.
A fully ripened mamey is wonderful. Probably my favorite smoothie fruit, or up there in the top few, and pretty good for fresh eating too. It sounds like yours was picked only slightly early based on the starchy flavor and lack of the almost sickly sweetness that you can get in ones that fall from the tree.
For testing whether a hard one in the store will ripen you do the same thing as sapodilla: small fingernail scratch. If itâs greenish or pale green/yellow, it was picked too soon and wonât ripen.
Yeah, grocery store fruit is grocery store fruit. They do better than most places, but theyâre still limited by what can ship in bulk and sit around.
Huh, I suspect that explains why it had a deep nail imprint on one side. I had figured the stocking guy had just mishandled it, but sounds like it was actually some grandma the day before checking it for ripeness, ahaha
It was the first time I ate a fruit and thought âthis could be a dessertâ. Donât like most mangoes or jackfruit. The longan family are good, but they arenât my favorite. It is hard to compare to like a Granny Smith or a fresh Blackberry if I like one over the other.
The texture is a big part of why I like it. Its like cheesecake. I can scoop it out and just have a bowl. It does have this, for lack of a better term, âoffâ flavor, but I really like it. Couldnât really nail down a like flavor for it.
I donât like jackfruit at all, but donât like Mango!? Thatâs wild to me haha
There are some I like (like the little yellow ones). But the ones most people have in their yards, or the one in stores and the smoothie one, I donât like.
I cut open my mamey sapote last night and had a similar experience. They have a pumpkiny taste with a slimey texture. I can see it being really good with ice cream.
Unrelated note, Roselle does not do well with strong winds. Already had two fall over, so I tied them all together. Everything else seems to be fine for now, its probably gonna come down to if an oak branch lands on top of a plant or not.
My issue with Mamey is I never want that much of it. Itâs quite good but I canât eat a 3lb fruit at all, and they donât keep well
Tried most of the tropical fruits that I bought in South Florida, so now I got some new seeds to plant.
Pepino (Solanum muricatum) was like a really flavorless melon, but had a really melony smell. It was probably picked super underipe, but I can see it being good in a smoothie.
Tree tomato (Solanum/Cyphomandra betaceum) had a really strong flavor, especially the rind. I didnât like it raw, but it tasted really good cooked. Didnât take alot to add flavor to a dish. Almost like a citrusy tomato.
Mamoncillo/guinep (Melicoccus bijugatus) tasted like tutti frutti bubblegum, a very nolstalgic flavor. Tough skin, big seed, so not really alot of flesh, which was its only downside.
Jamun/java plum (Syzygium cumini) was insanely astrigient. Theres a trick to sprinkle salt on it and shake it up, which makes it less astrigient, but its still pretty mouth drying. Another big seed, but has edible skin. Tasty other than the astrigiency.
Cherimoya (Annona cherimola) was super good, better than your standard sugar apple. Its like a custard in texture, and tastes like a fruit cocktail. Very seedy, but I think all annonas are.
I can envision alot of ways to make some good meals with all of these fruits. The jamuns would make a really good juice or wine. Excited by all my new seeds I got from the fruit too! Hopefully the cherimoyas do better than my fresh sugar apple seeds. Out of about 30, I think half of the sugar apples have sprouted, and of those, I think I only have 3 or 4 left. So hopefully better than that.
Iâve heard how great Jamun is and itâs described as ending with mild astringency so perhaps it wasnât fully ripe. Also could be just a bad fruiting tree. I have a seedling Jamun I may try to plant and graft one day. Iâm sure it will die eventually but apparently they have almost zero chance to fruit in a pot. Apparently pepino root really easily from cuttings, but yeah when Iâve had them they tasted like nothing.
Possibly, the lady at the register mentioned shes had some that werenât as astrigent as the one they had on the property. The flavor past the astrigency was really good. Almost like muscadine without the seed.
The perfect amount of nothingness to go in a smoothie with white dragonfruit. Thats what I plan on doing with it anyways, still have some leftover dragonfruits.
I like them a lot. Underripe, theyâre basically just a cucumber. But the ones I ripened were good. Sweet, melon flavors, and refreshing. They were not strong tasting, but werenât bland either. Iâll be getting some next year again. I grew tzimbalo this year out of curiosity. So far they havenât ripened, but the fruits are pretty fun looking. Taste like soap so far, so for sure arenât ripe yet.
Does anyone know if you can graft peanut butter fruit onto Acerola? They are in the same family but could be too distant, curious if anyone has tried
Acerola is barbados cherry right? I am surprised that they are close enough to even consider it. They grow and look completely different, and even have different flower structure.
Google-foo has given me nothing on it. I have no experience in grafting, but its something I am looking to get into. I could attempt grafting a branch onto my barbados cherry next spring though if no one else can (and if my PB trees survive winter 
). I think the hardest part would be matching thickness, the PB stems are thicker than the BC.
Edit: I forgot to ask why you wanted to graft them together. Are you just trying to save space, or does BC have something you are looking for? My BC grows alot bushier than my PB (which are more upright) so for me personally Iâd rather have Barbados cherry on peanut butter (assuming it was possible).
Saving space theoretically but I have a good sized Barbados cherry so it would be easier to track down a scion than buying a large plant. But likely it canât be done they probably arenât closely related enough
It is unfortnately time to trim my big cranberry hibisicus. They just wont survive the storm, they are not wind tolerant. Iâm gonna be keeping some cuttings in pots, hopefully theyâll flower so I can have seeds for next year. Probably gonna trim my in-ground moringa down to its new shoot too. Everything else should do fine. They are all still small and flexible.
