I want to start growing some Jaboticabas. Advice?

[Harborseal]

I don't want to start out with 500 or even 5 Jabos. I've been told that Grimal, Red, coronata "restinga", and spiritosantensis are good choices to start out with. I want fruit that tastes good and is easy to grow in containers. I want to get ones with different flavors. I'd like to buy older plants so that they fruit more quickly. I've heard that the yellows are good but have very little pulp. I don't know anything about the white or green one(s).

Do you think the above are good choices? Are any so similar that I don't need them? Does anyone know of a good source?

Thanks.

[don_sanders]

I've never heard of them before. They sound very interesting but a pita to grow. It looks like they are tropical evergreens. What will you do with them during the winter?

I find it ironic that fast-growing-trees.com sells seedlings

[Backyard_Fig]

I got some for both my grandfather and wife's grandfather and all I can tell you is they are slow growers and also take a long time to fruit. They live in South Florida and I know that you can make a very good wine out of them.

[Harborseal]

The red hybrids take 3-4 years from seed and I'm buying a 2 yr old plant. The others can take 5 - 6 years but once they start flowering production on all of them will increase. They are self-fertile but bear much better with a different variety around.

I have a 1000 W HID grow room for Winter.

[binbin9]

I bought one last year and a yellow jaboticaba. Both have been fairly hardy here in Seattle. I put them in the greenhouse for the winter where we've had several snowdays and they've seem to endure the cold with no leaf drop.

[Fruitaddict]

I have all of the ones you listed, plus some others, from 1 gallon up to 25 gallon. I plan to put a few dozen in the ground over the next couple of months. The primary guy in the U.S. to buy plants from is Adam Saffron at FlyingFoxFruits.com, his email is in the about us section.

Some will handle down to the low 20's, whereas others such as the Restinga are supposedly only hardy down to 27 degrees F. I have tasted Grimal, Red, Yellow, Sabara, and the White. Grimal has the largest fruit that I have seen. Remember they need lots of water at the root surface and like acidic soil, so lots or chelated iron or Sequestrene if your soil pH is above neutral.

Also, the red and a few others fruit numerous times per year. My hybrids aka Reds, in 15 gallon size and up, fruit 4 to 6 times per year.

[Harborseal]

Thanks, Andre! I got mine from Adam. Information on taste, texture and proper culture is sparse and if it exists at all is very scattered and often contradictory. What do you think of the 4 I mentioned? Do they taste different from each other? Are there other container grown versions that I should be considering? Thanks.

[Gina]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabuticaba

[Fruitaddict]

Sorry for the delayed response. I have eaten Grimals from containerized trees in Adam's greenhouse and numerous containerized reds. The Restinga is supposed to fruit from seed in 4 to 5 years from what I read. Not sure about the spirito. There is a guy on the tropical fruit forum with the member name of Jabomano, who has many different jabos planted in ground at his Fort Meyers home. Do a search on that site and you can watch a bunch of his YouTube videos of him doing yard tours. He might be the 1st guy in the U.S. with fruiting Restingas.

[Fruitaddict]

If you want solid info on the trees themselves Harry Lorenzi has several fruit tree books which index Brazilian fruit trees, but they are fairly expensive, and his latest and best "No Frutas Brazil," is only available in Portuguese. I bought mine from Oscar at fruitlovers.com. Oscar specializes in tropical fruit tree seeds, and is one of the best seedsmen worldwide.

[Fruitaddict]

What cultivation methods are you curious about? There should be some material talked about on the old tropical forum part of gardenweb, and Adam has voiced a bunch of info on the tropicalfruitforum. I can tell you what I have learned, but it's really just nutritional. Whatever you do, do not ever use any type of liquid or granular conventional fertilizer on jaboticabas. They are very sensitive and I found they prefer lower dosages of organic fertilizer or time release. As far as media goes, any type of bark/peat based mixes should work just fine. Also they will fruit quite well in part shade. Hope that helps, PM me if you want, I can talk Jabo all day.