Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
Chong, all of those fruits are being grown by members of the California Rare Fruit Growers; like myself, Joe Real, and many other members here. I know one member who by himself is growing all of those in San Diego. You could join and start receiving their bimonthly publication with lots of sources in it, or just post on this site under "Other Plants" (one fruit at a time) and you'll start getting feedback.
To answer your second question: The cuttings I have discussed in this thread so far have come from ARS-Davis. I will also be receiving plant material from other sites this year (see GRIN Plant Collections and GRIN Taxonomy site). The mission of the entire USDA repository program is to provide plant material for R&D -- so you have to be willing to provide them with some plan of mutual interest: in my case an event log of experiences growing them, any breeding I may do, and eventually supplying any repository request for cuttings and seeds from the plants I've propagated.
Your third question about agricultural regulations: plants from the USDA repositories are shipped with a "Certificate of Quarantine Compliance". It is no cost to them (or the receiver) because they are the inspection agency. Most nurseries and individuals have to go through quite a bit of paperwork to produce a "Cert", and they either charge you for it, or don't bother to ship to areas where one is required, or just ship it and hope for the best. This has been discussed in several threads including International shipping requirement for bananas and Interstate shipment of plant material .
Your fourth question about conditions of materials received: For cuttings, if they are taken at the right growth stage, cleaned and treated with a light fungicide, moisture-wrapped, sealed, and shipped "next day" FedEx or similiar early in the week then you will have great plant material. In fact for any kind of plant material, shipping "next day" delivery early in the week is great. My experiences with the quality of material from USDA so far has been good. Once you start inquiring about specific plants, we can hopefully give you feedback on our experiences with them.
Unasked question #1: Why doesn't the CRFG have a site like Bananas.org? Answer: They have dismissed the idea many times stating that most CRFG members are not interested.
Unasked question #2: Are the popular fruits of Sweet Guanabana (Annona muricata, soursop) safe to eat? Answer: no, and neither is the drug "Graviola" or the drink "Guanabana juice" made from this fruit. |
Thank you, Richard. I used to be a member of CRFG between 1975 and 1982, but dropped out because my work took me all over the country, and had no time to read them, much less implement some of the things that I was interested in. I am considering joining again, if only for the seed exchange. I used to get more seed types than I ever sent.
Second question - I understood that.
Third question - The Inspector that I was referring to was the one in the third picture of your first post! Can't you guys take a joke?
Fourth question - That's exactly the type of answer I was looking for. I understand that with plants that are in dormancy will be able to last longer than evergreens for shipping time. But what about for plants like avocado, guava, and citrus, how long will they survive for shipment? I've brought avocados here but they were potted, and of course, they were okay. But what if I were to start rootstock now, and when they are ready, get some scionwood from FL or PR? I get plants from there in 2 days via Priority Mail and they go by weight. But if I were to get scionwood only, I'd get more cuttings in a Flat Rate Box than plants, and I could even use Express Mail.
Unasked #1: They were wrong, weren't they? Besides, I know of this group called Bananas.org, anyway. Only wished that I'd known about them since 2004 when I was in DelRay Beach for 10 months, then 6 months in L.A. in '05, 9 months in MS and LA in '05-'06.
Unasked #2: Unsafe to eat?????? Whoaaa . . . that's a big surprise to me!!!!! Maybe shocking, even. They make awesome ice cream. One of the houses we lived in for 5 years, in the Philippines, had 2 Guanabana (Guyabano in the Phils.) trees. Almost like shrubs, only 6-7 ft tall, you could pick the fruits without climbing up. Over those 5 years, I probably consumed over a dozen of them babies. And they're not small, either. Is the source of info for this, available on some website? It's a very popular fruit in the Philippines and most tropical countries, especially, Central and South America. Occasionally, I even see a half-gallon drink of them at Costco.