Hello All,

Here is my Purple Caimito - About 7' Feet tall in the Pot. New Experimental Variety with only a Handful in the US. Got it from a guy in the Tropics that is doing an experimental Breeding Program. Suppose to be Superior in everyway, the taste is Excellent and Sweet, Large as a Tennis Ball and Fruit Profusely. This is a Graft out of that Program. When I remember or find the name of this new and rare Variety, I will be sure to let you all know.

Grafted Purple Caimito - About 7' Feet tall in the Pot

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Grafted Malay Apple - About 3' Feet Tall

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Grafted Rollinia Deliciosa - About 6' Feet tall in Pot

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I will keep you updated.

Thanks,

Jacob

Nice looking plants, Jacob. However, your grafted Malay Apple doesn't look like a Malay apple to me. Looks more like a Rose Apple. That would be Syzyygium Jambos as opposed to Syzygium Malaccense. Hard to tell for sure, but I am pretty sure it is not Malay Apple. Unless there is just confused use of the term Malay Apple....that happens frequently. Do you have the latin name for what you are growing?

Harry

Hey Harry,

Thanks for the Compliments. As for the Malay Apple vs. the Rose Apple......I actually have both and yes they do look very similar. The one in the Picture is in fact a Malay Apple (Syzygium malaccense), and my Rose Apple is the (Syzygium jambos) which has more slender leaves and are almost blood red when they are newly sprouted. Whereas in the picture, you can see that the new leaves are quite a bit wider, larger, and as you can see, the new leaves are more of a brownish orangish in color rather than the blood red color of the new leaves on the Rose Apple.

I can't believe it, I got one over on the "Great One" Harry. HAHAHA Just kidding, What do you think Harry? Does what I said, and from what you can gather from the pictures, does what I said sound right?

Pretty nice Caimito don't you think? Supppose to have Tennis Ball Sized fruit, and Superior Flavor, and only about 5 in the United States. I'll tell you the name when I remember it or find where I wrote it down.

Jacob

The trees are pretty tall. I would remove the branches at the lower end of the caimito. I also recommend you pinch of the tip of the Rollinia to induce branching.

I have the seed grown caimito. My tree will take forever to fruit. :(.

Nice trees- yes, get rid of the lower branches on the caimito as they are probably below the graft. My caimitos are about tennis ball sized...is that unusual? My real complaint with caimitos is the sticky resin. If they can breed that out of the fruit, that would be a winner!

I have rose apples...do people actually like them? I think they are an oddity fruit- like eating a rose perfumed sponge. The tree is pretty though.

Hey Jacob,
Your caimito is really nice. I have an sir layered green caimito. I bought it from Top and paid around $80.00 for a tree that is a little over 2ft tall. I only got a couple inches of new growth last year. I did get it around August though so it really didn't have a lot of time to grow. I put it out this spring and did not gradually introduce it to the full sun. As a result, I lost every leaf on it and was very tempted to just throw it in the garbage. I decided to hold on to it and I am glad I did. It has since grown leaf buds everywhere. Now it is actually more full then what it was before. I just hope I can get it to grow faster this year. Your rollinia is really nice. I hope to be able to try the fruit some day but I won't grow it in a pot. Good luck with y our trees. I can't wait for my jackfruit!
Andrew

Jacob:

Here is a shot of my Malay Apple Tree's leaf. I strongly suspect that one of us has a mis-labeled tree. I know who I am betting on to have the correctly labeled plant. But, what do I know??

And while this is a huge example of my tree's leaves, the shape of the leaf is totally different than the one you have. Maybe you have a culitvar that I am unfamiliar with. New leaves can be various colors even in the same species. I guess time will tell. Good luck with it, in any case.

Harry

Harry, how old is that tree? if i remember correct, you have never gotten fruit from it.

the leaves do not look like the ones in the picture below
wonder if its a different variety

from the link at the bottom:

Apel
Syzygium malaccense

Syzygium malaccense (formerly Eugenia malaccensis). Identification based on a drawing done by J.J. Ochse in 1931, information from Maurice Kong, and Chris Rollins.

Apel en wai (laud)
Syzygium jambos

Syzygium jambos. Identification based on a drawing done by J.J. Ochse in 1931, information from Maurice Kong, and Chris Rollins.

Apel en wai (tikitik)

Referred to as "appel en katik," (Elias Thomas) or "sour apple." Also called "Apel en wai" on Pohnpei but is recognized as being different. Referred to as "foreign apple, small." This fruit is consistenty smaller and is sour. A favorite with soy sauce and salt.

When placed in the same shot, the three apples appear as seen below:

Left to right: Apel, apel en wai (laud), apel en wai (tikitik). Each is sitting on its own leaf.

Kirek en wel
Syzygium stelecantha

Identification based on Bill Raynor's plants of Pohnpei spreadsheet. On 16 October 1999 Dr. Don Buden and Brian Lynch photographed the above "wild" apple (kirek en wel) on a hike into the mountains of Pohnpei. This apple is found only in the mountains. The apple is bourne on the trunk of the tree and is the "fourth" type of "wax apple" that exists on Pohnpei.
(yes i want it)

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/botany/1998/vhp/syzygium.html

Bryan:

No, I have never had fruit but did have bloom. The bloom dropped the typical layer of color on the ground under the tree as malay appples do. The leaf in the picture is a very large leaf, obviously, but if you look in the background of the picture you will see more normally sized leaves....smaller anyway. The point is that all of the malay apples I have seen do not have the narrow, tapered leaf that Jacob's tree has. I am sticking with my prediction that he has either a wax jambu or rose apple. That's my final answer! I will be happy to be advised that I am wrong in a few years....if such is the case. But I think it will be me with the "I told you so." Calling Murahilin for an opinion on the subject.

Harry

Hello All,

As for the Caimito, the lower branches are in fact above the Graft line so the branches can stay, at least for now, because they won't be posing any compatibility problems if they stay. Also, I meant to say that the fruit will be at least the size of Baseballs, not Tennis Balls, like I incorrectly stated before. At least I hope they will be that large.

As for the Rollinia, I am so torn about trimming/toppoing the Rollinia to help induce and promote lower branching and bushing. We will see what directions I will go eventually. I think that I will wait at least a few months to see if it starts to fill out on its own. If not, then I will most probably Top the tree to induce lower branching and filling in.

As for the Malay Apple, Yes I am 100% sure that it is in fact just that - a "Malay Apple", and not a Rose Apple. I have both and they are clearly different and I am easily able to discern between the 2, and definitely know the difference between the 2 trees and know that this is in fact a "Malay Apple". Thanks anayways Harry......I almost fell as though I have sinned, LOL.

Anyways, thanks for all the compliments and I will keep you updated this summer as they continue to grow.

Jacob

jacob,

congratulations on your acquisitions, those plants look great! is the rollina grafted with a named cultivar? i've eaten a few ones in peru. they were not that good, like a huge watery a. squamosa, but i've heard of people eating great tasting ones..

i'm not familiar with malay apple, but i know well (i own) s. jambos and s. cumini, so i'm not the best person to identify your tree. what i can say, is that your syzygium does not look like s. jambos. just take a look at these pictures of a s. malaccense in the peruvian amazon and a small s. jambos seedling i planted recently:

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syzygium jambos:

pikorazi, hard to tell scale on your pics, are the leaves of your Malay Apple as large as the ones in Harrys pic?

bryan,

the thing is the exterior leaves were much bigger than the leaves in the inner part of the tree, where you found the flowers and fruits. i would say the bigger leaves of the malay apple trees i found in the area were not as big as the one in harry's pic! i guess there are cultivar differences concerning size and shape of the leaves..

Jacob:

OK, after further study, consideration and consultation, I am prepared to apologize for impugning the good name of your Malay Apple. You see my frame of reference.....all very rounded leaves on my tree....never mind the size. Apparently there is some considerable variability in the foliage amongst different Malay Apples. Please accept my humble apology for accusing your tree of not being authentic......I was trying to be helpful but in this case, I let my ignorance get the better of me. One should never forget that in all categories of intellectual endeavors, the more you know, the more you should know that you don't know.

Harry

Really..................What do we all know aferall? All we can do is make the best educated guesses with the information we have at the time. Thanks everyone for their pictures and their input, especially once again Harry.

Let's all be honest, where would we be without Harry, his knowledge, his generosity, and most of all his Kindness.

From me to you Harry, Thanks for all the little things you do, all the information you offer and share, your opinions and observations, your sharing, your absolutely Georgous pictures, and most of all, your Love for a hobby that has spurned and motivated us all to hopefully at one point in the future and in our lives, to reach a level of even half of what you have achieved...............and let me tell you my friend. you have a reached the pinnacle, which only most of us dream of.

I know that I speak for all of us when I say "YOU HAVE BEEN A TRUE SCHOLAR AND A GENTELEMAN, AND WE THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO FOR US, OUR COMMUNITY, AND THIS FORUM MY FRIEND"

JACOB

Yes, thanks Jacob for speaking for us. I have to say not just to Harry but thanks to everyone else as well. This is a great forum and a great way to exchange experiences and knowledge. I enjoy being here. :)

Jacob- I do think you will need to prune the lower branches of the caimito soon or later. I mean the branches will grow big and will cover your pot. I do not dear to keep any lower branches because no sunlight can reach the soil. Plus, if you remove the lower branches then all the energy can go to the top branches. My caimito push out lower branches all the time and as soon as I see, I removed them all. You do not want to remove the branches too late as it will leave larger marks on your tree. Just a thought...:)