Another nice GH setup - how's big's the "house", S-Baby?

Boy those structures sure come in handy in those colder climates - you got an oasis started - should be good for your stress....

mangowiley

I am envious.
I could show you pics of my brand new greenhouse, but everybody would say "Why the pics of the soil with nothing growing?"

I just received my seeds from Tradewinds. Not being sure what to try here in Louisiana, I bought baby kiwi, banana, red passion fruit, red strawberry guava, and cassabanana (sican odifera). I'm hoping something out of this will stay alive and may even produce fruit someday.

I bought one of those Harbor freight 10X12 greenhouses that I have seen here.

I'm looking to grow some fruit instead of buying it. If anybody has suggestions of 'must haves and will definitely grow" let me know. I am more or less clueless..

Mangodog, this is a 20x23 Grand Hideaway GH. You can see that I hang a layer of plastic inside in the winter.

pjames, you have a nice start. I removed the passionfruit, got tired of pruning. Strawberry guavas are nice out of hand, never could figure out what to do with them after that. [They make a fair martini, but cloudy. I'm gonna try just pouring the vodka over them like they do with the lychees.]

I'm afraid the plants in the first two pics will never bear any fruit but what the hell, who knows?

Robert:

Nice looking plants....especially that jaboticaba. Is yours the one that fruits differently, or has this tree not fruited as of yet? Also, your Sweetheart panicles are somewhat different than mine. Mine seem to have a much higher mix of leaves in the growth spurt that contains the flower buds. Your bloom panicles look a lot more like my Hak Ip bloom panicles. I wonder if that is a lighting, temperature, or other issue? Are your trees from Pine Island?

Harry

Wow Stress the GH is looking great! Dont give up hope on your PR seedlings, yours are doing better than a particular person in FL. After about 5 months, my myrciara vexator are finally starting to sprout, kwai muk and herrania are painfully slow growing. On the plus side, the achachairu and mangosteen are growing moderately well for me.

keep up the good work,
-Ethan

lov the jab robert- that was from bryan in pr?

Impressive as always Robert. The plastic looks like it took a lot of work.

Thanks guys.

Harry, this is the jab that fruits out toward the tips. I have gotten fruit, but she's pretty shy about it, 1-4/year. Gerry, the jab from Bryan is right behind it, but hidden in this pic. The June Plum from the nursery never recovered.

The bloom spikes on the Sweetheart (from PI) may be a little atypical. I'll tell you, guys, I was desperate. I dropped the temps to chill the trees in November. This tree pushed out vegetative growth about a week later. I pruned it all back while it was small, knowing if I let this growth go, then IF I did get the tree to bloom it would be so late in the year the fruit would not hold. Then it immediately pushed another flush of vegetative growth. I pruned that off as well. Then it did this. :P

There are/were some small leaves mixed in there, Harry, but they are dropping off. In the past, the blooms on this tree have been shorter and more compact. I'll take what I can get!

Jay, this is year 3 and I just about have my system down. It takes me a 2-3 hours but boy is it a lot warmer in there as compared to my previous methods. Last summer I left the south wall plastic up, just to diffuse the light a little, that helped.

The internets say that you can fruit Abiu in a container, and that it will fruit in as little as 3 years. Ever heard of that? That little guy is starting to grow on me.

Robert,
Your trees look great. What variety of sapodilla is that? I'll be comparing your leaves with every other sweetheart and hak ip I see the next few weeks.

Regarding abiu fruiting in 3 years I think it is quite possible. I recently saw a tree that fruited after 4 years in ground and was told that was not atypical so I guess no reason why it wouldn't fruit after 3 in a container. If you would like some budwood though let me know and I'll send you up a bunch.

A 3 year old abiu fruiting, maybe grafted and in a perfect environment? I have a few going that we got and some I purchased previously. They are all potted, so far no blooms but I have hope. They are strong growers and seem to handle root pruning ok, it will be interesting to find out if and how long before any blooms and fruit come my way. Woolly abiu seems to have similar growth pattern.

good luck,
-Ethan

Fruiting an abiu in a container may be possible....but doing it in three years....I'd like to see that. I don't know, maybe I'm doing something wrong by I haven't been able to get an in ground abiu to set fruit after 15 years. Actually I do have one that set fruit (a total of two fruits one particular year ) once at about 10 years of age....but the other.....nada, nothing, zilch despite mulitple bloomings each year. Good luck with yours.

Harry

Harry,
Have you ever seen Noel's abiu trees? He said they fruited for him around 4 years from seed. Maybe you should try one of his "Jeff" seedlings.

Noel keeps threatening to give me one of those....but so far, I have not received one. I'll have to check with him again....but, truth be told, I am about at the limit of my abiu space alotment in my yard.

Harry

"abiu space allotment"

Funny.

I have an abiu space allotment, too, you know.

I really liked the flavor of that abui we tried at Ians.

Abiu is one of those fruits that is decent, but the flavor can range from fairly sweet to absolutely insipid. Even the best of them, however, have no complexity.....no real zing. That's why I have some preconceived space limitations for it. The fact that it is also a magnet for lobate lac scale here in Florida is also another reason to limit its growing area.

Harry

I have to agree with Jay, I was smitten with it after the visit to Ian's.

Oh you guys from the frigid northland are suckers for anything tropical!

Harry