Well, okay, I looked into the loquats. I have never tasted one, but I really don't want to grow an apple-type plant. I hesitate to go into details, but I have been low-carbing for a gazillion years now, and apples and a few other fruits just don't fit into that scheme of things. Other fruits, like berries and cherries and strawberries are fine, and others take some calculation. Since loquat is in the apple family, and I don't eat apples, I probably couldn't eat it very freely. The acerola (Barbados Cherry) idea sounded great. I definitely want to try that, now and am going to go hunting for one. I have never had them fresh, but I have tasted them before, dried. I thought it was a little bit cranberry-ish. I looked into the Eugenia dombeia. Some of the other comments about it on the forum and on the web weren't all that flattering about the fruit. It takes a while to grow, so I think I will pass on that one. At least until I get to actually taste one! About Zaiger patented cherries... I have looked into them before! There has been talk on the forum, here, and other places on the web about the Zaiger. I have read some mixed reviews on their actual "low-chill" abilities when grown here in southern California. I guess there are micro-micro-climates within our larger and very mild climate that will let people grow almost anything if they're lucky, but I don't want to screw around with it that much. That's why I was interested in the Mexican capulin cherries. I'm a little put off by the news that they have a gamey flavor to them. I'll have to put that in the "maybe, someday" category, until I can actually see and taste one. Okay, one thing I did read about since I started this thread -- Muntingia, the so-called Panama Cherry or Strawberry Tree. This is, supposedly, a very fast growing tree that gets along fine with alkaline-ish clay-ish soils, so it sounds almost ideal for my neighborhood. The fruits are small, the fruiting season is very long, and it produces just a few every day for a long time. Best of all, it can be up to fruiting size in a year in some cases, which means it might be a very good choice to experiment with. Any thoughts on all that?

Scale or fungus, will it kill my pitanga? Is there something besides cutting it down to the nubs to heal it? Have I identified it correctly? Should I ask on the tropical fruit forum? Sorry about all the questions but Spring is on the way and it should be flowering time soon. Thanks for your help. Batya

This thread is a year and a half old and is about a seed offer that is no longer active. You may want to actually start a new thread on your question. It would be more appropriate and far less confusing. Just a suggestion. I would have just sent you an e-mail but you didn't seem to have one on your member page.

looks like nice parkland! are those fruit trees or just ornamental? by the way, some growers from thailand ship internationally - it all depends on agro import rules where you are and how fast the plants can ship so as not to die! may be better selection/shipping from australia? rainy Hilo on big island in hawaii /carribbean/thai/philippines/aussi tropics - would be similar to your area somewhat. there are subsets of garden web for australia/europe/etc i'll poke around to find some links for seed/fruit shippers in asia. i like learning and reading about tropical anything :). by the way you should have some incredible alocasia/colocasias (elephant ears) locally - are you familiar at all with them? colocasias are edible. prime example is taro - traditional hawaiian crop. not that i like it myself. but there are various kinds of very tasty tropical sweet potatoes that you might grow instead: yams, batatas, boniatos (cuban white sweet potato). also you should be able to grow monstera deliciosa - it produces an edible large fruit (cousin of swiss cheese houseplant). peas like it cool, but some beans can def take hot/humid like lima beans and some you can eat fresh from the pod. and all are available as seeds. e.g. from australia but shipping only locally - see tropical beans at the end. http://www.greenharvest.com.au/SeedOrganic/VegetableSeeds/Beans.html it's worth looking into indian stuff (which i know very little about, except i can see it in the freezer in the supermarket!). they grow all sorts of beans/long squashes in the steamy south. oh, you might be able to get some seeds/info/sites thru UK on that! found what i think is a good place in philippines (at list to start looking, not sure about international shipping) - info on fruit trees.ships nursery trees. http://www.dizonexoticfruittrees.com/index2.htm it was referenced last year - Q on shipping/visting with recommendation on http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=3111.0 seems to be a very active and useful forum too! here some useful links info/growing hawaii/fl/china http://www.lycheesonline.com/links.cfm this is Caribbean puerto rican site(us territory): they ship internationally. even just getting familiar with names can take time:) http://www.montosogardens.com/tropical_fruit_trees.htm