I wish I could keep me neighbors 30 foot tree from fruiting, it smells like a dumpster at a produce stand! Maybe it has to do with size, the stuff grows wild here in Palm Beach, I have some at my job that has spread everywhere and its covered with tons of "pumpkins" from green to dark red. What do people do with the fruit?

I thought you were talking about the Surinam Cherry, which if you live in FL 9a, you probably have at a neighbors too!

No problem with overproduction here - I'm in 9b, and they are marginal here. So it will remain as a small potted specimen. Even if it sets heavily, it is just a small bush=)

Thanks for the account of your experience Tomas. This is a new plant, so that could be the case. I got it last summer. It produced flowers last fall, with no fruit, and I thought it was probably because repotting had triggered an out of season bloom. But had hoped that this spring's flowering would set fruits. I'll keep watching it and see what happens. Even if there isn't fruit, the flowers are delicate and smell wonderful.

I own a strawberry guava and a barbados cherry - both of them flowered heavily this spring for the first time but none of them set a single fruit. So Tomas may be correct that they won't fruit in the first season. Thanks Tomas for sharing that your strawberry guava didn't fruit the first year as well coz I was losing my mind over this.

This is my barbados cherry plant.

I have mine for the kast 10 years. It blossoms every year and no fruit ever.

I have a nice acerola tree for the last 6 yeras, inzone 9b. It flowers abundantly, in various occasions but no fruit. My guess is that the right pollinator does not exist in my region or it needs a second tree...