Tropical fruits on the east coast


Not a great photo, nor are they super pretty yet. But these Owari satsumas are delicious. Baby approved

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Yes we can grow cinnamon! There is a big 10-15 foot tall tree at the Plant City Community Garden. We are probably not gonna harvest how they do it commercially (like where they strip the whole trunk of bark), but you can use the leaves to make tea with. I am also gonna try to do cinnamon powder from smaller twigs and branches, but I don’t think I’ll ever replace my cinnamon jar with what I grow. They are extremely aromatic though.

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Just curious, what do you plan to graft into your Black Cherry??

I’m amazed they taste good so green? Does that mean my kishu might be ripe? I just got it in March, so no idea when it’s ready

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Older black cherries to get fruit faster. Its a young seedling and I have mature fruiting trees in the woods. I’d rather graft on some mature wood so I can have some black cherries in a harvestable location. Granted, if there are some improved, low chill black cherries, I would be willing to try those. But I know my native ones will fruit.

I would also note that it is a seedling grown from local seed. So the seedling should also grow fine even if I don’t graft it.

I know Black Cherries are technically edible, but if you want something more substantial look into Capulin Cherry. It’s largely considered a ā€œtropicalā€ subspecies of P. serotina now, & a friend in Citra, FL grafted a few varieties onto his trees (no fruit yet tho).
Not quite one years growth:

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Once satsumas/mandarins start to turn color they are basically as ripe as they will get. I just start eating them slowly and let them hang until I’m done eating them or we have temps coming which could ruin them (below 28).

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Thank you. Do you prune back the branches after all the fruit is removed or wait until spring? And, what do you fertilize with? I’ve been using Down to Earth citrus whatever every 7-10 days but still looks deficient. Added some 10-10-10 a week ago for a quick boost but I need a better fertilizing schedule. My other citrus look fine except a variegated pink lemon that is yellowing.

Black cherry is where the flavor of cherry colas and my favorite drink ever, Cheerwine, comes from. While I don’t I will get enough to make a large amount, I do plan on using them to make drinks with. If a capulin cherry becomes available, I might get it, but I haven’t seen one for sale besides from Etsy, which I don’t like doing for actual trees.
As I side note, I started working at a tropical fruit nursery, and capulin cherry is in our inventory, but sold out. Maybe we will carry it again and I can buy it then.

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Capulin cherry is supposedly a zone 8 plant right?

It’s one I’ve been curious about for a while. But yeah, very few sources, none of them particularly good or reliable, especially for named varieties.

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It seems like its really zone 9+. Thats what most places have it as. Website linked below says damage at 19°f. It also seems to not like 90+ days, which we have alot of. If I see one here like at a plant sale or something, I’d buy it, but I am not going to get one shipped in.

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Oof, I’ll wait and see how it does for other people then.

I personally don’t really prune mine, other than waterspouts. But I would prune after harvest if I get to the point I need to. None of mine have become too unruly so far.

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I’ve read various guesstimates about Capulin cherry from a bunch of different sources. Folks in the UK seem to think it’s hardy down to temps that correlate with USDA zone 6, but I’m not sure anyone really knows yet.

I’ll have to ask my friend where he got his budwood. He has at least three different varieties of it.

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im not even a year into citrus growing but here is a kimbrough satsuma. youre saying that the top one is ripe and can just leave it on until im ready to eat?

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I tried my yellow kishu and they’re tasty, but I’m holding out hope they will taste sweeter when orange.

Yeah they will likely get a bit sweeter, I always eat some slowly at about the stage I posted going onward.

@kinghat if you only have a few you can wait, but that one should taste pretty good at that stage for sure.

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will they continue to ripen/sweeten or change color after picked?

I am not 100% but pretty sure no on both accounts.

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My understanding is after being picked they won’t color up more unless in cold storage. They can sweeten though, some varieties like Dekopan are often kept in storage intentionally to get sweeter.

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