I find the fruit tasty, but very seedy. Do I just have a bad cultivar? Are some less seedy than others? I grew som from seed last year, hoping to get a better quality fruit this year.

here is a pic of one of my plants, love the purple,
-Ethan

My hairy funny little plants just suddenly sprouted from seed many, many weeks after they were sown. Hope they follow the Florida poster and actually produce fruit!

Last year, I had the highly spiked variety, that I believe is hardier in the wild but makes fruit with many seeds that is inferior to the spineless variety, which I am growing this year.

I started them inside under a 600 watt metal halide light around mid-October, as it can take 6-9 months for them to start flowering from seed. Mine took 6 this year.

A late april frost damaged and eventually defoliated them, but they recovered. The stem did not die.

I live in Northwest Arkansas, and its been 105 for a couple weeks previous, but now it has begun to cool down. They have shown heat damage along the veins starting from the petiole but maintained growth, albeit malformed. With the cooler weather they have begun to come around.

Flea beetles are a major problem for me. They love these more than anything else in the garden. Next year I plan to build a shade tent to combat them and heat.

I believe some may not set fruit, if the proper pollinator is not present. I have only seen Carpenter Bees pollinating mine. However, with the late frost that my land had this spring, I believe the carpenter bees were effected, as I saw them almost daily in my yard pre-April-frost, and none post-April-frost. So this year I have pollinated by hand with little avail, I managed to set 6 fruit among 9 plants, because it is difficult, at least for me, to find and separate the pollen grains from the poricidal (pollen released through pores) anthers, and, furthermore, Naranjillas are andromonoecious, meaning only some of the flowers are female and will make fruit. These are the ones with longer styles. Typically, I find 1 or 2 in an inflorescence of 10 to 14 .

The fruit takes around 2 months to ripen from set. My 6 have about another 2 weeks.

I believe in addition to carpenter bees, bumblebees might work, if they can be attracted to the flowers, by pruning the plants heavily to make it more wide open, otherwise I don't think the bumble bees would want to fly into the plants interior.

Last year, with the carpenter bees pollinating, 2 plants set 40+ fruit, of the seedy kind from spiky plants. It had an alright taste though, just couldn't consume the seeds with any pleasure. I believe the spineless kind is different; there is a evident difference even in the appearance of the fruit : Spiky Lulo fruit (note that hairs begin on both but rub easily off) - http://topdfetropicals.com/pics/garden/04/5000/4652.jpg YOU MUST REMOVE THE dfe from the image location (apparently, TopdfeTropicals, a nursey I will never buy from again for many reasons, spams garden sites like this and so this site wont let me use its name. I dont like or promote them just trying to show the difference in cultivar selection) Spineless Lulo fruit - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Lulo.jpg/626px-Lulo.jpg

The pollinator information can be referenced at http://www.tieroekologie.uni-bonn.de/Projects/Lulo.htm. Note that the "Lulo needs specialized pollinators which are able to shake the flower so that pollen is released from poricidal anthers"

Good Growing,
Motes

I am hoping the heat and sun won't prevent the fruit from growing. I like Michael Motes' information. Maybe I should build a shade barrier to block them from the sun also.

I have been to Ecuador many times and love the fruit. I would also like to go see where they are grown over there. In Quito it is quite chilly. Hopefully I will not be wasting all my effort trying to grow them in South Florida.