USF plant sale was last weekend. Since I can only go on Sunday mornings and with the past freeze, there wasn’t that much stuff for me to look at. Did manage to pick up some things I was looking for.
I got 3 Sundews (a carnivorous plant) for my greenhouse. They don’t solve the bug issues, but they definitely help.
Native-wise, I got Shiny Blueberry, Winged Sumac, Maypop and Giant Plume Grass. All of these are native versions of a more popular edible (blueberries, sumac, passionfruit and sugarcane respectively) but are also edible themselves. I’ve been looking for Giant Plume Grass for a while, I was glad they had it. I grabbed a hybrid Beautyberry that has white fruit as well.
I also got Barbados Gooseberry, a cactus plant that I have been looking for awhile. I was going to buy 3 of them, but the seller said you don’t need more than one. Very prolific and grows readily from cuttings. From the same guy I got some additional tumeric and ginger rhizomes, plus some tropical adapted summer squash and corn.
Round it out with Cuban Oregano, Sunchoke plants (since I can’t seem to get tubers to work) and Mugwort. Overall, pretty happy with what I got. The only thing I saw that I wanted but didn’t get was cacao. I got enough ultra-tropicals to take care of at the moment. Especially with alot of these needing help with recovery. Don’t need another plant to be babied right now.
Holy cow, that’s a nice haul! 
I had 3 very small PB fruit planted along the front porch. Amazingly, 2 of the 3 sprouted back from the base. I also had 3 seedlings still in pots that got protected during the freeze. I end up moving the 2 survivors and the 3 seedlings to the more wild back yard food forest where i won’t mind as much if they get knocked back by future cold events.
Also, my one golden star star fruit that I was sure didn’t make it actually is showing signs of life 2 months later!
Here are my peanut butter fruits. Both in ground and were unprotected, but coming back from the roots. They look pretty good, starting to color back in. I usually see the most growth from them in summer, so I am happy with where they are at in spring.
My local Lowe’s selling pink guavas for $20 I said I wasn’t buying anything this year but mine keeps dying to the ground (alive still) but my wife loves them so I’ll bring one home haha
My Barbie pink growing from the ground again.
Is anyone growing Spanish Lime? There’s a Puerto Rican Etsy seller with an absolutely fascinating and enticing array of tropical plants I am supposed to only dream about growing…
I would say the chances of growing one in a pot to fruit will be nearly zero. They are very cold sensitive, I think similar to breadfruit any temps below say 50* it will not grow at all and die below 40 degrees. My friends from Colombia do talk about it being a pleasant tasting fruit though. But even I don’t push the tropicals who can’t handle some cold.
I had a few seedlings i started from fruit i ate. More for the fun of seeing if i could get it to grow. I like them but I’m not sure i want to dedicate space to one in my small lot.
Not that cold sensitive, at least in my experience. I left one outside this winter (tucked in behind the greenhouse) and it didn’t die. It was sheltered and didn’t experience the brunt of the cold, but if it was the upper 30s where it dies it would have. The ones at work took damage in the greenhouse, but that just means they are either the same as mangos or mariginally less. That specific greenhouse, the large mangoes took alot of damage and the papayas died. The mamomcillos looked like crap, but didn’t defioliate until they started pushing new growth (all 3 survived).
However, they are ridiculously large trees and need cross pollination (and I think have male and female trees from seed). They are an okay fruit. Sweet, hard shell, big pit, not alot of flesh, you have to scrap em like a beaver to get the flesh. Cotton candy-esque flavor with some sourness.
Added picture. It does not look good, but its alive. Outside, protected, but not covered this winter (low 20s)
Still big difference between South Florida cold, and North Carolina cold and then the gap widens further to Maryland. I just think the extended time during those temps is what really affects most things, as opposed to brief moments of cold.
But who am I to say not to, I have a Jamun in a pot and to my knowledge I haven’t heard of anyone successfully fruiting one in a pot. But it would certainly die in the ground or at least die back to the ground annually.
Looks like we will be moving sooner (like offer on a house already soon) rather than later, so I have been inventorying my trees and larger seedlings. I did a quick mental plus visual walkthrough and I have roughly 76 different species. I didn’t do the best job with closely related species, so when I am fully done I expect to be around 100-110 unique species and probably 150 varieties (or from different varieties as technically all seedlings are there own variety). And after counting the very young seedlings maybe closer to 125 species.
I am probably going to have to leave my Sugarbelles behind, which sucks because it was there first year flowering. They aren’t very large (6x4 probably), but they’ve been in the ground for 3 years, so they probably have a good root base. My pawpaws will also probably be left behind, although I will be trying to dig out my native ones, especially the ones I just planted in late fall. Hopefully their roots aren’t 5 feet long yet. I can probably grab one loquat. The other one might be a little too big.
Since my peanut butter fruits died back so hard in the freeze, they should be easy to grab. I just debating if I should do it now and just shove them in some 15gals or leave them till its time to transplant them. My Passiflora malaformis unfortunately has exploded after the freeze. I guess if I cut way down, I might be able to dig it up with putting it into a killing shock. I also am attempting to root cuttings of it just in case. I also have a red Jaboticaba to grab from the ground.
I have decided that other than a select few species that I’ve wanted for a while, I am probably not buying any more seeds until we move and get settled. We are definitely downsizing landwise, and until I can get a really good lay of the land, I am not sure what will fit. We also have 3 buildings that are going with us, so its hard to judge space. I have enough things in the germination stage to keep me going (and like 150-200 rubus seeds in the fridge).
Godspeed, sounds like it will be a heck of a move.
Thanks, we’ll probably need it 
In more fruit tree related news, did some uppotting on my day off.
Cinnamon apple (Pouteria hypoglauca). Going into year 2 with these guys (I have 2) growing nice a steady.
“Maher” Black Sapote (Diospyros nigra). Flowered profusely with no fruit set, so I put it in a bigger pot. Maybe next year.
Pouteria salicifolia (which I call Willow-leaved Sapote since thats what salicifolia means). I think this is also heading into its second year, I can’t imagine it was any more than a couple months old when I bought it.
Gin Berry (Glycosmis pentaphylla) aka Orange Berry. I think I have 6 of these, all doing very well. They seem to have been stunted some, so hopefully this uppot with help.
Some seedling star apples (Chrysophyllum cainito). I’ve planted seeds from both purple and green so no way to tell. But they are growing very well.
Also have some reports since I am taking inventory. Had some losses through the drought season (its started raining every day already). Lost my “Escarlate” Jaboticaba seedlings, Red Grumichama seedling, an American Persimmon seedling, a vanilla vine, some Curry Leaf plants, a black pepper cutting and I think my last Lingonberry seedling is going to bite the dust soon (but hasn’t yet). I have some cuttings of passiflora malaformis, peanut butter fruit, Dovyalis herbacarpa (Ceylon gooseberry), Ketcot (a Dovyalis hybrid) and some herbs in water to root out. I will probably be taking more cuttings of both the passiflora and PBF today and maybe put 1 or 2 in soil to see if it takes better. I was also able to divide up my katuk to make 3 or 4 pots of it. Can never get it to grow from cuttings, but it seems to sucker easily and root divide well.
Does anyone have experience with Ketcot/Tropical Apricot (Dovyalis hybrid)? I have a rooted cutting off one that has been growing for maybe 6 months now. It once when in decline on its main branch, which I ended up trimming. Multiple months later, the rest of it has gotten weepy and in decline. I’m not really sure whats happening? I was worried about it getting too much water, so I moved it to hand water only. But it isn’t getting better, so I uppoted it. Now I am wondering if it wasn’t getting enough water (although it happened after a few rainy days). I didn’t smell or see root rot while uppotting, and it does have a pretty big root system, so I’m just not sure what could be the issue.
I know @Richard has the most experience on the forum (I think?) with Dovyalis. Did you ever experience anything similar? A rapid sudden decline, especially from a cutting.
@sharq
Dovyalis are willows. They thrive on minimal water and do not perform well in rich soils. The Dovyalis species I’ve observed develop tap roots.
It is probably too much water than. That was my intial thought. I’ll let it dry out slowly in the greenhouse and see if it recovers.
It did not recover. I took the two branches (which were still green) and put then in water as a last ditch chance to root them. Not very hopeful though.
First flower on my Blackberry Jam! Probably won’t fruit as it was raining when it opened, so no pollinators. Signs for the future though!
Two different Manila Tamarind/guamuchil (Pithecellobium dulce). My larger, in ground one has red new growth while the smaller potted one has green new growth. They are both the same age from the same seed packet, the larger one was just put into larger pots and eventually the ground first. Mass wise its probably triple the size (I just cut the main leader about 2 feet shorter), and it even went through this winter’s cold unprotected in a pot. I am excited that they have different new growth, I am hopefully that means one will have pink fleshed fruit and the other white.
So jealous, I think my cinnamon apple bit the dust in greenhouse due to lack of water(moved it over to get around then the next time i was in it I missed it), have bought so many seeds/cuttings trying to get another one going. Pretty bummed about it
No pictures, but I have put some Java plums, a sugar apple, a pond apple, a cherimoya, a jackfruit and some mulberries (one seedling the other Australian Turkey) to see how some of these guys do in the ground. Fron my experience last year, I think Java Plum will be fine in ground. My potted ones were mostly unprotected and while the majority died back to the roots, they all came back. The jackfruit is probably the most experimental, but its a seedling and I don’t really like jackfruit anyways, more of just a climate test.
I have also realized that alot of my Eugenias and friends die because my potting mix doesn’t have enough inorganic material in it. So I am currently experimenting with a perlite/peat moss mix (with some garden soil) like everyone else, at least for the early seedling stage. Hopefully that helps.
Otherwise, not much to report. Slowly uppoting tropicals, running out of 7gal pots. Trying to decide what should go into my 2 15 gallons, probably my Ross Sapote and my Dovyalis hebecarpa. They are both getting large and would apperciate the root space. Oh, also Peanut Butter Fruit will root from cuttings in water pretty easily. Did 4, got 3 to root and to are still alive. Same with Passiflora malaformis and Dovyalis hebecarpa.
From what I understand, once there are no more little bananas appearing on the flower, you can cut it off, right? It’s got like two more hands of little bananas to plump up, but nothing after that. These are Blue Javas.
My miracle fruit survived! It’s started resprouting from the roots about a month ago and finally has 1 leaf. I don’t know if will regrow faster then it originally grew. They are very slow.