They certainly grow slow (my first lemondrop has only put on 2 sets of leaves since its sprouted) but I didn’t wait long for germination. It was one of my first non-annuals to sprout from seed. If it didn’t pop up as fast as it did, I would probably have been very disheartened about growing stuff from seed. I do love how they slowly push out new leaves, taking like days to open up, and then boom, two big new leaves. Very fun when they have a new set.
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I hear ya. Growing from seed is much different than rooting cuttings and grafting. I have had many failures with papaya of all things, but have a bunch going now.
I agree with the garcinia’s leaves. Those two big leaves are really quite a spectacle, especially after months of just sitting there with 2 leaves 
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Nagami getting into full swing finally. Marumi and Meiwa were months ago, Fukushu also finally putting on its first ever blooms
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Made it home for a weekend, so I finally get to see my chaotic garden in full swing after some rain. Unfortunately my aquaponics system, got out of wack and the plants died (probably due to a few 100+ days), but at least the fish are fine. The real reason I came back was to fill that up with some temporary plants to last till September so the water doesn’t get too saturated.
Overall, super happy with how everything looks, even when I haven’t been around to mantain constantly. Gives me a lot of hope for the future.
I have pictures of some of my highlights:
Pigeon Pea as tall as me. I trimed it down after this to bush it out.
Cinnamon Apple with multiple sprouts. Glad it had multiple sprouts, because my other seed rotted (I guess, I checked all my empty pots and couldn’t even find it).
Longevity Spinach, Jamican Sorrel, some cowpeas and Mullaca. Took out some of the mullaca because it tasted bad. Kept two for some chicken treats. My Sorrels aren’t flowering anymore, I don’t know if thats a heat/rain thing or if they are done.
Tamarillo! Out of like 15 seeds, 1 sprouted. As long as I don’t need two for fruit, I don’t really need more than one (unless they are like super delicious, but then I’ll just get another).
No pictures, but a bunch of my eugenias and jaboticabas sprouted, very excited for them. Taking some back with me because they keep sprouting and dying. I think they are too wet or too much sun, either way, I’ll feel better if I’m taking care of them myself.
Somethings didn’t make it (my strawberry guava sapling died, I transplanted them too early, and all my squash/melons died save the midget melon), but overall summer has been better than spring.
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My two white sapote seeds rotted or were eaten also, a blue Jay dug out a bunch of my Pacuri seeds after they had sprouted. However they seem to have not been affected too much
My longan and Lychee seedlings putting on a small flush that makes me pretty happy
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Picture of my up potted seedlings. Top to bottom: 5 sugar apples (unknown variety from the fruit) and two still pushing out the seed, 2 blue guarri (Euclea Crispa), 1 Giant Grandilla passionvine (p. Quadragularis), amber Tree Tomato (Cyphimanddra betacea), lemondrop mangosteen (g. Intermedia), and the last one is unknown. I think its phalsa, since it looks like my little phalsa, but inaturalist says its a nettle, so who knows.
Some of the sugar apples and the blue guarri are going out in the sun. I got extras, so its time to test that full sun tolerence. Everything else is going back in the protection of the greenhouse.
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Anyone growing mysore raspberries? Are they worth it? How different is the taste to a regular raspberry? I know they are crazy thorny, but are probably the closest thing I’m gonna get to a raspberry in Florida unless I can get my hands on one of the neotropical ones.
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I am also curious about that @sharq, the golden raspberries I have are on year 2 or 3 and haven’t done much. I think they need shade here. I’d prefer a good raspberry that can handle the heat and sun also
I have a Formosan carpet raspberry that has taken forever to get established but with it on irrigation it’s finally done well. I could send you some cuttings or rooted cuttings if you’d like to try that. I’ve yet to taste the fruit but it’s raspberry-ish I’ve heard
How do the carpet raspberries do in full hot sun? I saw them before and was really interested, but my shadey spots are accounted for until some of my trees get big enough to produce there own.
If you put them with water I think they will be ok. Mines in full sun but it says they like dry but I had two die in dry areas (all my areas are dry) until I added irrigation it didn’t grow or bloom.
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I planted Mysore raspberry last year. After 17 F, they froze to the ground but survived and grew back from the roots. One of the three plants sent up a root sucker as well, which I’ve potted up with the intention of protecting over the winter so I can taste these things and maybe make some crosses.
They are very upright, moreso than most “upright” blackberries. The thorns are intense, but not as bad as a lot of other Rubus species, especially since they don’t need much training. They have a gorgeous glaucous color and decent vigor. They take full sun without any problem, though they do seem a little less drought tolerant than blackberries.
So far they’ve been disease and pest free. I suspect the berries are probably just ok, but I won’t know until I get one to actually overwinter.
Now, if you have a bit of space and don’t mind a trailing, extremely thorny plant that’ll need training, Tayberry is an awesome hot weather raspberry.
They are half blackberry, but the flavor is definitely more raspberry than blackberry. They take sun well enough for a raspberry, and are surprisingly drought tolerant. The berries have great size for a raspberry and are sweet even when a bit underripe. Unlike most blackberry-raspberry hybrids they are not crazy acidic. Rather, they have a very mild tartness. The only issue I have with them are that the fruit are hard to pick unless dead ripe, the vines are trailing, and the occasional stem dieback which I suspect is borers. Otherwise, a great raspberry for the South.
This year I bought some bababerry raspberries. They’re supposed to also be good in the heat, though I don’t know how they’ll tolerate the humidity. I’ll report on them next year I guess.
I’m really, really hoping I can get some Tayberry x Mysore hybrids going eventually. It might take a few tries, especially considering the ploidy levels involved (6X x 2X).
Tayberry. These things taste so freaking good!
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Definitely interesting. Unfortunately my yard is very dry, but I do water alot (outside of the rainy season). I’ve been looking for more ground covers, so I might take you up on those cuttings.
Those are super upright. That makes those thorns more bearable. I thought they grew in a nasty bramble bush, but those look easy to handle. Not that anything is worse than our native smilax thats everywhere.
I have plenty of space for a thorny plant, especially if it tastes good! Do they spread by runners? I’m always hesitant with runners because our ground is so easy for them to spread. I’ve ripped up muscadine runners half a foot under the soil running 50+feet. Like ripping up a wire.
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I think if you tipped the Mysore canes early to encourage bushy growth, they’d be very easy to manage as just a big blue column for each plant with minimal trellising. They don’t send up many root suckers either, which makes things easy.
Granted, I’ve not seen what a fully established Mysore that made it through the winter looks like, so perhaps they’re less upright once the fruiting laterals start growing. I’ll find out next year.
Tayberry send up a little more, but still nothing like pure raspberries. Tayberry do need a good trellis though, the canes get really, really long. They don’t tip root much, at least compared to freaking wineberries. Avoid wineberries at all cost!
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Don’t have to worry about wineberries, its supposedly not cold enough here for them. Probably gonna pick up 2 Mysores in September. Maybe a Tayberry, you’ve convinced me somewhat. Internet says they both need 0 chill hours, which is good because we are regularly sub 150.
Are these Golden Himalayan Raspberries (Rubus ellipticus) or just golden Raspberries (yellow Rubus idaeus)? I heard the Himalayan ones are supposed to really well in the heat. Of course, I’ve learned that the term full sun means “6-8 hours” and not “sun all day”. Even on our winter days, my plants are still getting 7-9 hours of sun in the field.
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Zero chill-hours would surprise me for Tayberries. But I guess it doesn’t hurt to try them out. I only just realized you are in 9b. Your experience with these things will probably be pretty different. Your 9b is definitely more different from my 8b than my 8b is from others’ 7b, for example, especially since yours is a humid sub-tropical 9b.
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Biggest issue I usually have is our dry winters and early springs (and sometimes all spring like this year). Hard to plant out bare roots when its dry as a bone out. It isn’t usually so hot so early like it was this year though.
I do think that the dry season while the berries are blooming stunts their summer growth alot. My blueberries, blackberries and mulberry have put on essentially 0 new growth. They all fruited (mulberry is an everbearing, but I don’t think it’ll fruit again this year unless its in the fall), but very little growth afterwards, even after its started raining. The one exception is my UF blueberry thats pumped out a fair bit of new leaves. No dieback (other than the fruiting canes on the blackberry), but little growth.
I assume tayberries or any other related berry plant will have the same issues (and probably most early spring harvested plants).
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Sorry yeah yellow raspberries “double gold” “fall gold” and “Anne”
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Guavas are loading up. I’m hoping they fruit faster with the warm weather. The last ones took about four to five months.
Two of the hybrid passion fruit vines are covered with fruit, the other two have dropped must of their flowers. I don’t know if it’s interior genetics, or if they just are slightly drier where they are (we had effectively no rain for 6+ weeks…).
Some citrus grafts that took. Apologies for the blur.
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The citrus are poncirus+ on US-942, mature Dunstan on seedling Dunstan, and ichang papeda on US-897.
Also worth noting that the guavas were “pollinated” by japanese beetles that came and ate all the stamens. I thought for sure I’d lost every one, but I guess the pistils got what they needed and the ovaries were unharmed somehow, because pretty much every flower set fruit despite being completely denuded by the beetles.
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