beautiful Rambutan

how did the Marang taste, heres my specimen, should be fruiting any day now ;)

MK...now THAT was pretty dam& funny!

Nice pics there Ethan...don't remember the wooley abui, guarana, kwai muk, or eugenia victoriana. Do you have pics of these?

Hi Ethan,
Just curious, what was your opinion on the quenepa? Any comparison to the lychee? P.R. is a great place to go and visit. I also found the people to be very friendly.
Andrew

Jay,

I gave Ethan the Kwai Muk at the airport. He ate the whole darn thing and didn't save you a bite. And, btw, Andrew....not meaning to answer for Ethan (even though I am answering for him) but I think this is what he'll say...., the Quenepas Ethan bought were great...for Quenepas. They were still pretty tart, scant fleshed (with the limited flesh which adheres to the seed entirely too much), large seeded fruits that causes some level of gummy mouth. Lychees have nothing to fear from them as far as world wide popularity in my opinion. An opinion I think that was shared by each and every one of us on the trip. That means more fruits for you though......so good news.

Harry

MK, your marang specimen is further along than mine which are freshly planted seeds. The marang was one of the better fruits IMO. From memory alone it had melting texture and hints of banana, pineapple, guava and maybe melon??? These descriptions really dont do the flavor justice, it tastes just like marang. It is a toss up now whether marang or kwai muk are my favorite artocarpus.

Sorry J, no photos, the kwai muk was from Harry (excellent and eaten quickly), the guarana was from our first stop, I think Stress might have a photo of it. The wooly abiu and E. vic were on the table at our second stop. Flavor wise, the guarana very bitter, the woolly abiu under ripe, E. vic nice and sour.

Andrew, Harry sums it up pretty well. It was the first fruit from PR that we tried, there were people on the roadside selling clusters of fruit. They did have a nice taste but the texture was something else. When we had no fruit, they were being eaten, once we had better fruit, they were forgotten about. By the end of the trip I tossed the remainder into the forest. Lychees can breathe a sigh of relief, they are safe.

-Ethan

Sounds like a great, I am sorry I was unable to meet up with you guys.
I heard you all made some wonderful purchases- Did the plants get home without incident?

We are waiting for Earl to pass us by tonight. I hope my fruit hang on tight! My jackfruit, avocados, and rambutan should be ripe next week.

Thanks for sharing the pictures and glad you had a good time. I've never heard of 2XDurian before, is it like a Durian that is twice as stinky, LOL!

my 2 cents on the fruit I tasted during the trip

tried 2 durian - fech yuch gross.

rambutan- not worth the effort to get to the flesh.

Pulsan- only marginally better than rambutan- except for the fruit from a seedling tree which everyone went crazy over- has a beautiful sugar-acid balance (the other pulsan had no acid) and a distinct blackcurrant flavor)- one of the best fruits I ever ate.

marang- incredible combination of guava/banana flavor. loved it.

achachario- very good when ripe but hampered by small flesh to seed ratio- but i would buy these on a regular basis if available.

mangosteen- fricken fantastic.

maha chinook mango- not a PR fruit but supplied by Harry. Amazing.

ice cream bean- mediocre.

everything else I tried there was very forgetable.

In sum- 3 amazing native fruits. mangosteen, Juan's pulsan and marang.

people- really friendly. ocean water at the rincon hotel was literally warm-hot and completely calm. amazing beach/swimming.

Here is a link that might be useful: my pics

ROTFL, Mango_kush. That was really funny! :0) Your marang specimen is very cute. :-)

Sounds like a fun and delicious trip you guys had. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Gwenn, I believe everyone's plants made it home just fine. Bryan is an expert packer and his assistance was invaluable. As I mentioned, it sounds as if the packing ability from Jardines Eneida leaves a lot to be desired. Gerry mentioned his plants got banged around.

Bare rooting is tough on a plant. To make the odds stacked even higher against me, I actually grafted a few pulasan before leaving PR. I had several seedlings and wanted to see what might work out better...super fresh cuttings grafted right away even on top of the stress of bare rooting and shipping followed by potting up, or waiting till everything arrived and grafting then...which I did also with another pulasan, rambutan, and one durian. All of the plants have lost most of the leaves but still are nice and green beneath the bark so I'm not getting excited just yet. However...my confidence is quite low with any of the grafts succeeding after the stress they went thru. Fingers are crossed!

My plants made it home fine but all I did was bare root them and pack them well, plus mangoes are tough plants.

2XDurian could definitely describe the first one we tried Simon, it was rough. I tried 3 bites of it, the first so overwhelmed and confused my taste buds that it made the second bite taste good, but I waited too long for the 3rd bite and it was too much again. The 2nd durian we tried, very good, easily ate multiple bites would eat more now if I had it.

-Ethan (thinking about durian)

Better tasting than the others I've had.

Mammea americana at Montoso Gardens (The seeds are available from his website)

Not sure what variety of pulasan but it was quite good.

I liked the yellow rambutan better than some of the reds.

Ping pong longan. (Not full sized)

Durian and maprang. The maprang was rotten.

Calathea allouia. The tubers from this plant taste very good when boiled.

Hi lycheeluva,

You wrote this about achachairu: "very good when ripe but hampered by small flesh to seed ratio- but i would buy these on a regular basis if available.". I am not sure if you know that there is a rare Mexican Garcinia that's about 4 times as big as achachairu and according to my friend even tastier than achachairu:

Tomas

wow very cool boson- is that a stock pic or is that a personal pic of yours?

Hello,

My First question is why was I not invited on this trip? Ethan, I would have thought that at the very least you would have taken your own Team Mate?

Come on you guys, I am pretty tall and could have picked the fruit that is growing on the higher branches. What do I have to do to be included in the next trip?

Did I mention I can carry large amounts of luggage?

Also, my father was a Chipmunk so I would be able to smuggle back huge amounts of seeds in my cheeks.

Jacob

Tomas, could you share some more info concerning this larger, Mexican garcinia? Latin and common name for starters? Thanks

Hi lycheeluva,

That's a picture he gave me of his own achachairu and Mexican Garcinia for a comparison.

Tomas

Hello ohiojay,

There has been some discussion about this Mexican Garcinia on the rarefruit mailing list (I great place to learn about tropical fruits), I think the conclusion was that this Garcinia doesn't match any existing Garcinia species. I will not be surprised if it gets its own latin name eventually. Talking about Puerto Rico, I want the Mexican Garcinia to be spread so I actually donated a few seeds to Sherry Bellester (Vivero Anones).

Tomas

if you have anymore seeds i would be happy to help your cause, Johnny Madronoseed

Luc labels the mexican variety Garcinia lateriflora (pending the garcinia's all get straightened out) but calls it Limoncillo.

It would be nice to try Luc's limoncillo, looks and sounds like an excellent garcinia. If you (or Luc) have more seeds to donate, I'd be happy to test them here.

cheers,
-Ethan

Hi Ethan,

Sorry I don't have any more seeds. You would have to wait until next year.

Tomas

Awesome trip guys and a fantastic job providing photo's and commentary. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It was an interesting and fun read. Ray

veru interesting thread. i'll be in PR next year. does pulasan come true from seed?

I don't believe pulasan comes true from seed....but the best pulasan we had was a seedling.

Harry

Great photos and stories! Thanks for sharing, many of the fruit names are totally foreign to me. So much to learn. This tropical fruit hobby is like an addiction, the more you know, the less you know you know. I could eat durian all day.

This is definitely a place we want to go. When are you guys going again? Can we join next time? How did you get the trees back home?

I want to go anyplace tropical.. I have a couple of lychee seeds germinated..2 for 2 as the wife tossed all the others I put aside. And it was rare fresh lychee.

murahilin,

how would you rate/describe that mammea americana? the ones i've tasted so far were not good.

felipe

It was definitely a lot of fun, will it happen again, who knows? But Puerto Rico is always there, barring a few hurricanes and I'd be willing to bet that most of the places we went would allow small groups to visit them. It was mostly hiking straight up and down muddy terrain, through tall grass, etc. for me as good as or better than camping (just needed some fishing).

Mailing back bare rooted plants and clean seeds is the best way to go.

Felipe, I'm not 100% sure Murahilin tried the mammea, I think the seeds may have been from fallen fruit, it was a large tree. Perhaps he can offer a different response?

-Ethan

Here is a link that might be useful: More info and photos about the PR trip

Felipe,
I didn't get to try that Mammea americana not because the fruit wasn't ready but because I don't care much for the fruit. The one in my hand in that pic was actually ready to eat but I just used it for the pic and chucked it. I have tried a few different ones and they all seem to taste pretty much the same. I do have about 8 different grafted cultivars of it though.

Good Day
We are making a booklet for small farmers in the State of Amazonas - Brazil and would like to use your picture: Calathea allouia. The tubers from this plant taste very good when boiled.
Can we?
Gratefully,

Yes you can use it. I think I have a few more pictures of the plant and flower. Email me and I can send them to you.