I have up for trade Sugar Apple seeds from my tree. I am willing to trade them for any fruit seeds/seedlings/plants/budwood that grows in zone 10b (South Florida) Description: Annona squamosa (also called sugar-apple or sweetsop) is a species of Annona native to the tropical Americas and widely grown in Colombia, El Salvador, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines. Its exact native range is unknown due to extensive cultivation, but thought to be in the Caribbean; the species was described from Jamaica. It is a semi-evergreen shrub or small tree reaching 6 - 8 meters (20- 26 ft) tall. The leaves are alternate, simple, oblong-lanceolate, 5 - 17 cm (2.0 - 6.7 in) long and 2 - 5 centimeters (0.79 - 2.0 in) broad. The flowers are produced in clusters of 3-4, each flower 1.5 - 3 cm (0.59 - 1.2 in) across, with three large petals and three minute ones, yellow-green spotted purple at the base. The fruit is usually round, slightly pine cone-like, 6 - 10 cm (2.4 - 3.9 in) diameter and weighing 100 - 230 g (3.5 - 8.1 oz), with a scaly or lumpy skin. There are variations in shape and size. The fruit flesh is sweet, white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. The edible portion coats the seeds generously; a bit like the gooey portion of a tomato seed. Sugar-apple has a very distinct, sweet-smelling fragrance. The texture of the flesh that coats the seeds is a bit like the center of a very ripe guava (excluding the seeds). It is slightly grainy, a bit slippery, very sweet and very soft. The seeds are scattered through the fruit flesh; the seed coats are blackish-brown, 12 - 18 mm (0.47 - 0.71 in) long, and hard and shiny.

"theaceofspades whats your method for choosing cultivars to trial?" I try them all, LOL. I graft and buy a dozen or more new varieties each year. Most of the modern west coast bred stone fruits do very poorly in humid climates and they will get cut off. I am cutting down Emerald Beaut and will plant the 3 in 1 pluot there. Flavor King has a complex fruit punch flavor but I am lucky to get a small bowl full due to pollination issues. I keep the tree because it is off patent and I trial the seedlings grafted back onto the mother tree. This season I have several FK seedlings which will bloom and hopefully grow fruit. This close relation may improve FK fruit set and may produce a new more reliable pluot. Time will tell. Dapple Dandy, Flavor Grenade and Flavor Supreme are the pluots most adapted for east coast growers that I have trialed. Pollination is the biggest issue with pluots. I have a feeling Geo Pride will be another winner.

There were early pears developed by monks but nearly all the varieties still around today were bred in the ~1800s by more scientifically-minded people who figured out a huge number of crosses was needed to get good new varieties. van Mons is probably the most famous, he bred Bosc and d'Anjou for example. See the Wikipedia article on him. There were dozens of big-time pear breeders in Belgium and France in this period. Scott

Hi everyone, here is a picture of my SugarBelle.She has the same parentage as Page which is minelleo x clementine. From what I learned on the web, the fruits should look like minneleo but a little bit smaller and sweeter! I give her a little bit of support because she is so thin and is very windy here (it is not a vey good summer). I will remove the stake once she will be inside for winter. Brian... yes temptation is very, very strong! The first time I went to floraexotica I just bought the Dekopon because well, I have to stop somewhere. I couldn t buy to big trees it seems too much at that tome. After I went home, I was not able to forget about the SugarBelle and I am pretty sure that all that thinking and missing shouldn t be good for my health so I went back to buy the SugarBelle! I talked to David from greenscape yesterday and he is ok to put aside a valentine pummelo for me!!! I am very excite!! After that, I will stop for sure!! No more thinking. I will repeat Junk4us everynight: I don t need more trees. I don t need more trees.