Things are normally pretty slow during winter in the greenhouse. The weather sucks outside and there usually isn't a lot going on inside during this period. I did manage to keep busy with some interesting projects though.
Update from Thailand
Luc's garcinias. After a terribly slow start, the trees are beginning to show some signs of life. Wasn't sure they were going to snap out of it. They have been steadily increasing in girth and putting out a few flushes. I'll take it!
Ahhh...one of the plants that sparked last year's trip in the first place. Grafted pulasan. As you all know...if you've been keeping up with my blogs...the two air layered plants were lost thanks to the airline fumble. Might have some company for this plant down the road. More on that later.
First pic is the rollinia after being pruned. Second is the Garcinia madrono...which is looking really stellar. Everything seems to be doing well. Don't have pics of the achachairus and some others. A few of the mango grafts are still going, but not really thriving I guess. I'm guessing it could be due to the lack of pruning of the rest of the plant and growing more aggressively. Oh well. We'll see how it goes.
January - Back in the greenhouse
While normally a very lazy period, I must say that some of the plants were still a bit busy. The top left pic is my Redlands white sapote. It is just loaded with fruit right now. Unfortunately, the taste/flavor was hit and miss...mostly miss. The potential for a great fruit is there, but it just wasn't as consistent as I hoped. I did learn that not all white sapote fruit get more sweet and flavorful the riper it gets. It's still considered a young plant though. This was also the first major fruit hold it has had. Regardless, I do plan on grafting other varieties onto it.
Top right pic is the Sabara jaboticaba. I can always count on it having fruit or being in bloom almost non-stop. It is a very tasty fruit...similar to a grape but with a very distinct, tropical flavor. The skin can be eaten but is not tasty at all. The flesh clings to the seeds with a death grip as well. So I get what flesh I can after breaking the skin and then spit skin and seeds out...not even trying to get the flesh off.
Middle left pic are the Surinam Cherry trees. They are in their largest bloom to date. Most of the time, the fruit is very sweet and tasty. However, every couple fruit will be terribly bitter and acidic.
Top right pic is the Sabara jaboticaba. I can always count on it having fruit or being in bloom almost non-stop. It is a very tasty fruit...similar to a grape but with a very distinct, tropical flavor. The skin can be eaten but is not tasty at all. The flesh clings to the seeds with a death grip as well. So I get what flesh I can after breaking the skin and then spit skin and seeds out...not even trying to get the flesh off.
Middle left pic are the Surinam Cherry trees. They are in their largest bloom to date. Most of the time, the fruit is very sweet and tasty. However, every couple fruit will be terribly bitter and acidic.
February - A time to fig
Continue to pull Redlands white sapote fruit for a while and a few more cherimoya. This provided plenty of seeds to start for later grafting. Again...sapotes were hit and miss.
Surinam Cherries. Here are a couple of my Zill Dark grafts. Some of the fruit has been very good tasting and some has been, well, far from good. So Adam, Flying Fox Fruits, sent me some nice scions back in December and I grafted them onto my trees. As you can see, they are pushing out very well. So looking forward to these. I did up around six of them. They should provide scions for a bunch of seedlings I have started as well.
Figs. They are figging delicious! And they are relatively simple to grow. The plant in the top left pic is my Petite Negra. My buddy Gerry from New York sent me a small, air layered plant over ten years ago and it has been a winner. It's a competition between the dogs and my wife and I to see who gets the ripe figs first. I'll look up and find their heads buried inside the plant sniffing out the ripe fruits(the dogs, not my wife!)...and yes, they help themselves without asking.
The cuttings from the plants have also provided gifts for friends and on occasion, a little extra money from selling them locally. It's a great plant for anyone wanting to start off growing a fruit tree outside of our climate. Figs can handle colder temps much better than our rare fruits and can be grown in more areas of the country and/or have less stringent winter requirements.
So as tasty as this variety as been, I wanted to step up my game a bit and see what some top tier figs really tasted like. I thought myself and my piers in the rare fruit hobby were pretty fanatical, but after delving into the fig world, I don't think we hold a candle to many of these folks! This is quite the hobby and these people are crazy about figs and even crazier about growing them.
Fig trees can be started from cuttings and this is normally the most popular method of propagating them. There are tons of Ebay listings for cuttings as well as a dedicated online auction site www.figbid.com selling cuttings and plants. Let me tell you, some of these varieties are expensive!! I've seen single cuttings bid for several hundred dollars and more.
I checked out some fig forums and bloggers and determined that the following top tier varieties were mentioned quite a bit: Black Medeira, Itailian-258, Smith, Col de Dame Blanc. So after some research on what Ebay sellers to avoid and which to seek, I got my cuttings. To hedge my bets with the pieces I received, I not only potted up some of the cuttings, I also grafted Black Medeira, Smith, and CDDB to my Petite Negra plant. I was pretty confident the cuttings would do well since I've done them before with my current plant, but grafted a few just in case. This turned out to be a good call since later, all of the CDDB cuttings failed, but the graft took.
So hopefully all will grow into fine, productive plants providing lots of tasty fruit. Thumbs up from the dogs!
The cuttings from the plants have also provided gifts for friends and on occasion, a little extra money from selling them locally. It's a great plant for anyone wanting to start off growing a fruit tree outside of our climate. Figs can handle colder temps much better than our rare fruits and can be grown in more areas of the country and/or have less stringent winter requirements.
So as tasty as this variety as been, I wanted to step up my game a bit and see what some top tier figs really tasted like. I thought myself and my piers in the rare fruit hobby were pretty fanatical, but after delving into the fig world, I don't think we hold a candle to many of these folks! This is quite the hobby and these people are crazy about figs and even crazier about growing them.
Fig trees can be started from cuttings and this is normally the most popular method of propagating them. There are tons of Ebay listings for cuttings as well as a dedicated online auction site www.figbid.com selling cuttings and plants. Let me tell you, some of these varieties are expensive!! I've seen single cuttings bid for several hundred dollars and more.
I checked out some fig forums and bloggers and determined that the following top tier varieties were mentioned quite a bit: Black Medeira, Itailian-258, Smith, Col de Dame Blanc. So after some research on what Ebay sellers to avoid and which to seek, I got my cuttings. To hedge my bets with the pieces I received, I not only potted up some of the cuttings, I also grafted Black Medeira, Smith, and CDDB to my Petite Negra plant. I was pretty confident the cuttings would do well since I've done them before with my current plant, but grafted a few just in case. This turned out to be a good call since later, all of the CDDB cuttings failed, but the graft took.
So hopefully all will grow into fine, productive plants providing lots of tasty fruit. Thumbs up from the dogs!
March - Things are moving.
Surinam Cherry trees were loaded with blooms and the fruit is starting to mature. Jaboticaba seems to always be either in bloom or with fruit.
The Surinam Cherries have been mostly really good. A nice, sweet/tart mix with not too much of the aftertaste they are known for. Then there are some that get immediately spit out. I hope I have the source plants identified because these are the ones I grafted the Zill Dark onto.
Bottom left pic is my Kaffir Lime. The branch in the pic is a Tango mandarin I grafted on. Very delicious. I've just recently grafted some Persian limes onto the plant as well. Might as well. We can't possibly use all the leaves for cooking.
Bottom right is my little pitangatuba. Always get lots of blooms, but may only set one fruit. A bit disappointing. Hopefully this will improve with maturity. The fruit has a fantastic flavor, but needs miracle fruit to appreciate it.
The Surinam Cherries have been mostly really good. A nice, sweet/tart mix with not too much of the aftertaste they are known for. Then there are some that get immediately spit out. I hope I have the source plants identified because these are the ones I grafted the Zill Dark onto.
Bottom left pic is my Kaffir Lime. The branch in the pic is a Tango mandarin I grafted on. Very delicious. I've just recently grafted some Persian limes onto the plant as well. Might as well. We can't possibly use all the leaves for cooking.
Bottom right is my little pitangatuba. Always get lots of blooms, but may only set one fruit. A bit disappointing. Hopefully this will improve with maturity. The fruit has a fantastic flavor, but needs miracle fruit to appreciate it.
Remember my jackfruit project? Here is the Cristella and the unnamed orange fleshed seedling I grafted onto the cut down Gold Nugget I had. Both are now taller than I am and the branches are starting to get some girth and strength finally. The male blooms above are from the orange seedling.
Speaking of the orange seedling, it is no longer unnamed. Brandon and I have finally settled on a name. If you recall, this seedling was grown and discovered by my bud Brandon down in Florida. Everyone who ate this fruit just loved it. Brandon sent me scions of this and Cristella for me to try grafting onto my Gold Nugget. Unfortunately for all, soon after my grafts succeeded, Brandon's tree died due to phytophthora. After many attempts, I was eventually successful in grafting a couple seedlings that I sent back to Brandon. We decided on the name Jack Frost. "Frost" representing the cold, northern weather of Ohio where the plant was resurrected. I will be trying to graft a bunch of seedlings later to keep this variety going...except so far, I've proved to be a really shitty jackfruit grafter...at least onto seedlings!
Speaking of the orange seedling, it is no longer unnamed. Brandon and I have finally settled on a name. If you recall, this seedling was grown and discovered by my bud Brandon down in Florida. Everyone who ate this fruit just loved it. Brandon sent me scions of this and Cristella for me to try grafting onto my Gold Nugget. Unfortunately for all, soon after my grafts succeeded, Brandon's tree died due to phytophthora. After many attempts, I was eventually successful in grafting a couple seedlings that I sent back to Brandon. We decided on the name Jack Frost. "Frost" representing the cold, northern weather of Ohio where the plant was resurrected. I will be trying to graft a bunch of seedlings later to keep this variety going...except so far, I've proved to be a really shitty jackfruit grafter...at least onto seedlings!
The fig grafts are pushing well. This was my first attempt at grafting figs. So far so good. The cuttings are all pushing as well. Although as mentioned, I do eventually lose all of the CDDB cuttings. Never fear! I recently ordered some more from a grower in Greece. So this will be my first international fig purchase. Curious whether USDA will insert their nose in the package.
Now you see it. Now you don't! First two pics is my cherimoya before pruning and after. Also defoliated the plant. Same with my little sugar apple forest shown in the far right pic. I do this to induce blooming. I think I finally have the timing down for this. What I should have done was to bring the cherimoya down at least another 2-3 feet and knock off a couple feet from the sides and front. Next time.
April - Getting warmer.
Finally starting to get warmer here. It is still Ohio though. It could be 75 today and 29 tomorrow. This sucks because I want all of the container plants the hell out of the greenhouse so I can begin to straighten up and clean. I do not look forward to power washing inside there, but it is long over due. All of the moisture as a byproduct from the heaters cause algae to grow on all of the surfaces. Looks like hell. This is where electric heat would be nice.
Back in February/March, I grafted several cherimoya varieties onto some seedlings I had left from last year. Again, timing is everything and each one of them are pushing like crazy. I have these slated for local sales...spreading the tropical fruit gospel far and wide!
The Zill Dark grafts are going crazy. Very happy about this. Looking forward to trying this variety. I just pruned the hell out of these plants as well.
Cherimoya and sugar apples a little over a month after pruning/defoliating. Both are loaded with blooms and I've been busy hand pollinating. I check the trees several times a day looking for male blooms to collect pollen from and female blooms to try and pollinate. I'm getting some take from the cherimoya but nothing like I hoped. So once again this will most likely be a disappointing result. The sugar apple on the other hand, shows quite a few small fruitlets forming. So hopefully we will have another good haul from these.
Wrap it up.
Most of the container plants are outside now. Will get the rest out soon and then do the power washing. Man...I hate that shit. Just a miserable effing day when I do this.
Will have several plants that need repotted and/or root pruned. I'm sure the hoist will be needed. I've got a bunch of seedling starts: Surnam Cherry, cherimoya, sugar apple, sapodilla, tamarind, jackfruit, guava, white sapote. Many of these will have to be grafted eventually. All will also have to be potted before that. So lots of work to do. Can't forget the garden either. I've already got it tilled. Will need to spread some manure and get the veggies in the ground in the next week or so.
I've also got a few plants that just have to go. My big, old Kohala longan is first up. It requires some very cool weather to get it to eventually bloom. Unfortunately, our nights can be freezing and days could be 60's and 70's. So more often than not, the plant will get freeze damage and produce no blooms. When it did, man, it would be loaded! But just not consistent and to me, the fruit is just not good enough to justify the space it takes up.
The avocados are another...especially the big Haas. Too wet inside the greenhouse and the plants are continuously fighting off disease. This causes massive die back as well. The plants will kick out a huge flush and full bloom, but then steadily die off. Just not worth the aggravation and the space it occupies.
Well..until next time!
Will have several plants that need repotted and/or root pruned. I'm sure the hoist will be needed. I've got a bunch of seedling starts: Surnam Cherry, cherimoya, sugar apple, sapodilla, tamarind, jackfruit, guava, white sapote. Many of these will have to be grafted eventually. All will also have to be potted before that. So lots of work to do. Can't forget the garden either. I've already got it tilled. Will need to spread some manure and get the veggies in the ground in the next week or so.
I've also got a few plants that just have to go. My big, old Kohala longan is first up. It requires some very cool weather to get it to eventually bloom. Unfortunately, our nights can be freezing and days could be 60's and 70's. So more often than not, the plant will get freeze damage and produce no blooms. When it did, man, it would be loaded! But just not consistent and to me, the fruit is just not good enough to justify the space it takes up.
The avocados are another...especially the big Haas. Too wet inside the greenhouse and the plants are continuously fighting off disease. This causes massive die back as well. The plants will kick out a huge flush and full bloom, but then steadily die off. Just not worth the aggravation and the space it occupies.
Well..until next time!
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