pitanga trees

domynique starts with ...
hello; I am a proud mother of a baby black and white tegu; i would love to have a pitanga tree as that is what research shows my little baby tegu would love. can you all ship to the United States; i love my little baby tegu and i want him to feel like home with his pitanga tree; can you help me?? please?

Dekka says...
I'll interpret for you, John... Domynique wants a Surinam Cherry to create habitat for a lizard.

Pictures - Click to enlarge
Picture: 1

Peter says...
Amanda,
assuming it is a Surinam cherry = pitanga you'll need to wait for one more year to fruit (or two or three. Mine needed 5yrs.

amanda says...
Thanks John Mc/Peter - I didn't realise they may take that long to get it together! Flavour sounds like my cedar bay cherry next to it (which had lots of fruit this year too) bloody shame :-( Sour I like - but that resinous thing that stays on your tongue is not nice.

It's certainly putting on an awesome flower show this year though - even I am impressed! Would make a lovely landscape bush in tough climates..

Brad says...
you'd have to look up the tree which i don't know - but it might be temperature related. e.g. broadbeans will flower but not set in Perth if the winter temps are a bit funny (I'd give you details but I've forgotten what I read when this happened to me a couple years ago. they just flowered again and then set)

denise says...
I have surinams growing but the copious flowers wont set. The soil is too dry.Try planting were there is heaps of sun and a shallow water table. Perhaps bury some plastic bowls under it that will hold a puddle underneath and give a good watering every week that will fill the bowls. The surinams grow naturally on the edge of the mighty rivers of the amazon with a silty soil with plenty of moisture but also some drainage. I have seen in the cook islands a laden tree growing in coral sand near a beach. The roots had found the water table but otherwise in an apparent lack of fertility.The ground was not visible under the layers of fallen fruit. The tree about 5meters tall.

Peter says...
Hello Amanda,
unfortunately nobody bothers to graft them, which might reduce the waiting time. Just like with other seedlings, like litchi (to pick an extreme case) where waiting for the seed to produce can be anything between a few yrs to 20 yrs, this one has not'switched' from 'just flowering' to fruiting. Once the signal is there, fruit set increases year by year.
At least not as stubborn as a litchiseed. Keep going, your bush looks very healthy, and just a question of time you will see and taste them.

amanda says...
Thanks guys. It won't be coming with us when we eventually move - so I am hoping to at least try it b4 then (just in case it was a rare winner :)

The Cedar Bay cherry will be staying too...I find that too resinous as well...it's a flavour that's hard to take isn't it..

David says...
All i can say is thank goodness for, this forum, i have in my backyard a grafted black pitanga, hasnt fruited yet, also a seedling black pitanga,to hedge the bets as im told they are relatively true to seed. Fingers crossed.

BJ says...
I have a cutting grown black that Im growing as a screening tree. It set two small fruit this year, but both dissappeared at pea size. Its only 2 foot tall, but I'm hoping for more flowers/fruit soon when the heavens turn the tap on!

Daley's sell them (not on their Brazilian Cherry page though, strangely) - at a low price so I assume they are cutting grown? and so does Chester - grafted.

amanda says...
LOL! My tree finally set fruit and I got a taste today...It was truly awful!! :D Never tasted such a disguting "fruit" b4....a bit like dishwashing liquid.

What a waste of 4yrs..still...it's a very pretty plant and looks great with the fruit (even the birds, F.fly and mice haven't touched them... :)

amanda says...
I ate two (had to try a second just to make sure) that had fallen off already John Mc...they were very ripe and soft.

It took a heap of parsley to get the taste out of my mouth...and it stills feels like I can taste them...ughh..it was so bad. Like Phil said - they taste poisonous somehow...?
The 'memory' will stay with me for some time... ;-)

amanda says...
No such luck for me Perth Peter! Mine are red one's. It must be from an awful strain!?

Peter says...
What are purple guavas?

amanda says...
So true Mike...I have accumulated a few bludgers now that I really should pull out, given the cost of my water.

Not for my climate: apples, plums, apricot, african pride C.apple (8 trees)
Yukk fruit: Pitanga, cedar bay cherry, capulin cherry (3 trees)
Never fruit: feijoa (1)
6 mislabelled low chill dwarf peach and nectarine (are high chill)
2 passionfruit (1 virus and 1 mis-bred)

That's a grand total of 20 plants...I really should be more ruthless...it's kind of helpful to hear that experienced folk rip out non-performers though.

It's a bit heart breaking when I have spent 4 years work on them.. :-( It has made me a lot more discerning when choosing new varieties now though!

Mike says...
I think it is best to continually plant and axe the non-performers from the backyard team whether they were expensive or you are attached to them or not.If they are sickly,fruit is poor or cheap in the supermarket or a tree is not good enough just replace them after reasonable chances.Keep your trees well trimmed and eventually you'll have all good trees.I must have ditched 40 or so trees.

amanda says...
It happens MaryT - especially when u live in more marginal zones for what u are growing.

I appreciate Mikes honesty here - we don't talk about our failures as much as we should perhaps...and we all have them surely....?? ;-)

Eg: I love my minneola tangello....it performs beautifully here - but Mike has pulled his out...different climate, soils etc.

(ps - that's 20 out of an original 80 trees...does that sound better maybe? :)

amanda says...
Navels in Cairns probably as bad a choice as plums in Geraldton? :D They grow and fruit for sure...But..doesn't mean they will give u the fruit u are dreamin of? ;-)

amanda says...
We both know those cases are anomalies Mike...I have lived in that town too. It's worth a bash sometimes tho, I guess.

I see awesome mangoe trees full of fruit 10kms down the road...I know exactly why they can grow them and I can't :)

MaryT says...
Yes, Amanda. The joy ends after combing through tempting catalogues, buying the plants (cutting grown from Diggers), nurturing them into ungrateful trees that yield disappointments. You and Mike have convinced me to give them the chop!

Mike says...
John Mc I wonder if they taste any different from the red ones.Have you tried them?

MaryT says...
John Mc Brazillian cherries are classified as weeds up north (top half of oz) so there's been a movement to eradicate it. Probably not a problem around here.

Mike says...
Pitanga don't seem to go feral in NQ and northern Australia generally.Fruit trees that have gone feral are tropical guava,cherry guava,pond apple,cashew,stringy mango,coffee,indian jujube and passionfruit.They are extemely minor compared to pasture grasses and legumes that are being wilfully spread,change entire landscapes and will never make weed lists because cows eat them.There are also many ornamental garden escapees but few have the same level of infestation as the pasture species.

Mike says...
Mary there are dozens of 'green cane toads',many of which are considered amongst the worlds worst weeds only beginning their march.Their path into the country and dispersal is not subject to real scrutiny.It is enough to make you sceptical about biosecurity priorities,weed list and weed control.

Mike says...
One last highjack of the thread and I'll let the weeds go.Some of grasses in particular for Qld I was talking about are para,buffel,aleman,hymenachne,mission,guinea and grader with many more to follow in their footsteps.Weed problems posed by fruit trees are very modest by comparason.

MaryT says...
VF the question we're all asking in our heads on reading about this sweet tasty Pitanga is: can you you go back to that property and take cuttings off that tree?

MaryT says...
I wish you luck, VF. It's not easy to part with a favourite fruit tree. Good thing you have its seeds...