The Grumichama a tropical cherry replacement also known as Brazil Cherry. It produces a mealy fruit, its most common variety’s skin turns a deep purple or black with a pale yellow flesh that has a flavor profile compared to cherries and plums. It can be preserved in jams, jellies and pies or eaten fresh.
Like other Eugenia profiled, it has a limited shelf life and will perish quickly once picked.
Grumichama can be shaped as attractive bushes and kept containerized, or planted where they’ll reach between 6-25 feet tall, if left unpruned. The trees have beautiful dark green and leathery foliage and stunning burgundy new growth.
Grumichama we planted at Paradiso 37 at Disney Springs in Orlando, FL
The fruit is variable and often grown from seed. In our experience over or under watering can cause decline in fruit quality and severe fruit drop in potted specimen.
Grumichama are considered endangered species and are thus still quite rare worldwide. The tree is very slow growing with 1-2 feet of new growth per year expected. It takes four years to bear fruit from seed.
The grumichama has gorgeous, small and delicate flowers, which create a sea of white throughout the tree, as is common with other Eugenia. The tree is said to handle slight frosts and is hardy to around 26° F.
Grumichama can fruit multiple times per year, but set heavily in Spring (March-May), with the largest yield in April.
The tree is fairly susceptible to the Caribbean Fruit Fly.
Due to their limited shelf life and rarity it is unlikely to ever find fruit available for sale in grocery stores or farmer’s markets.
Mature Height: 25-35 feet max (can be left in containers and kept smaller or pruned to smaller size)
Mature Width: 4-6 feet.
Sunlight Requirements: Prefer partial shade in Central Florida. They don’t fruit well when too shaded though.
Cold hardiness: Zone 9-11 outdoors. Patio growing Zone 4-11. Mature trees are said to be hardy to 26° F once established, small trees should be protected from frost.
Soil Requirements: Well Draining slightly acidic soil, pH 5.5-6.5. We recommend Premier Pro-Mix BX Mycorrhizae or our special soil mixture available at our farm.
Wind Tolerance: Low tolerance to wind, especially while small
Salt Tolerance: Low tolerance to salt spray
Growth Rate: Slow grower.
Pollination: Self-pollinating, with greater fruit set with additional trees.
Watering: Not drought tolerant, needs well draining soil
Fruit Season: Will fruit in March and can continue fruiting until May. Will fruit in 4 years from seed.
Pruning: Little pruning required, but can be shaped as a bush or grown as a tree.
Disease/Pest issues: Grumichama have no major disease issues.
Self-fertile: Yes, but yield is greatly increased with additional trees.
We grow Grumichama because we really enjoy the fruit and love how beautiful the trees can be (especially those with perfect, unblemished foliage and new growth). Eugenia also tend to have gorgeous flowers and quality fruit.
They’re a fantastic tree for the Central Florida landscape. We grow them in quantity on our farm in Christmas, FL.
We recommend Grumichama highly to anyone looking for a cherry replacement, especially those who have tried other tropical cherries and not preferred them for one reason or another (Surinam Cherry’s resinous properties, Barbados Cherries sourness, etc.). If you’d like to add a Grumichama to your landscape, or have us design and install a whole edible landscape, check out our availability list.
We offer delivery and installations around the greater Orlando area for large orders more information on delivery and installation.
We’re fully licensed and insured. We’ve completed installs at Disney Springs as well as up-scale neighborhoods including in Bayhill, Oviedo and Wedgefield, Florida.
Species: E. involucrata (formerly Eugenia aggregata)
Family: Myrtaceae
The Cherry of the Rio Grande is a rare tropical fruit tree native to Brazil, which is a cherry substitute for sub-tropical and tropical environments. The Cherry of the Rio Grande is a large shrub or small tree often staying around 15 feet tall in the Florida landscape, They can also be grown and fruited in pots, as they have a shallow root system. Under favorable conditions in-ground mature specimens in Florida can reach a max height of 20-25 feet if left unpruned.
Mature Cherry of the Rio Grande
The trees get a beautiful and smooth multi-colored trunk with age that slightly resembles a less showy Rainbow Eucalpytus.
Cherry of the Rio Grande are still pretty uncommon due to the expense of their seeds. Though, they’re a fantastic plant for the Florida landscape and come highly recommended. They’ve been grown in South Florida as early as the 1920s. Their cherry like fruit is incredibly sweet, with very little of the “funk” that’s common of other Eugenia fruits such as Grumichama (E. brazilensis), Pitomba (E. Luschnanthiana), Surinam Cherry (E. uniflora) or Araca-boi/Araza (E. stipitata).
In Florida, Cherry of the Rio Grande will typically begin flowering in March. Their solitary white flowers, which are similar to other Eugenia species, envelope the tree until late April or early May. From the initial bloom it takes 3-4 weeks to get ripened fruit.
The oblong fruit have a distinctive calyx at the end of their fruit. The fruit’s skin mature and ripen to a dark red-to-purple.
The flesh is deep red surrounded by 1-to-2 small seeds, with a juicy pulp and thin skin, perfect for eating out-of-hand. They spoil quickly and must be eaten within 2-3 days if left on the counter. It can be preserved in jams/jellies or juiced.
Cherry of the Rio Grande will produce fruit within 4-6 years from seed. Most are propagated from seeds. There are few named cultivars. Though, improved varieties can be grafted onto seedlings utilizing side-veneer grafts.
The longer and narrower Savannah Cherry (Eugenia calycina) is named, but often thought to be a sub-species of the Cherry of the Rio Grande (CORG). Savannah Cherry are said to be slightly less resinous than CORG, with longer leaves and are graft compatible due to their close relation.
The attractive evergreen trees need very little pruning, but can also be utilized as a hedge. The trees prefer slightly acidic soil and have occasionally experienced die-back on some limbs when approaching maturity. This die-back seldom kills the tree, but does have the potential to disfigure it.
The CORG is said to be self-fertile, but sets fruit much better with cross pollination.
Mature Cherry of the Rio Grande (old trunk damage present)
Due to their limited shelf life and rarity it is unlikely to ever find fruit available for sale in grocery stores or farmer’s markets.
Mature Height: 15-25 feet max (can be left in containers and kept smaller)
Mature Width: 5-10 feet.
Sunlight Requirements: Prefer partial shade in Florida, but can handle full sun when established, albeit with leaf burn.
Cold hardiness: Zone 9-11 outdoors. Patio growing Zone 4-11. Mature trees are said to be some of the most cold-hardy of their genus. They’re often said to be hardy to 20-22° F once established, small trees should be protected from frost.
Soil Requirements: Well Draining soil, pH 5.5-6.5. We recommend Premier Pro-Mix BX Mycorrhizae.
Wind Tolerance: Low tolerance to wind, especially while small
Salt Tolerance: Low tolerance to salt spray
Growth Rate: Slow grower.
Pollination: Self-pollinating, with greater fruit set with additional trees.
Watering: CORG love heavy watering, with well draining soil.
Fruit Season: Will fruit in March and can continue fruiting until May. Will fruit in 4-6 years from seed.
Pruning: CORG requires little pruning.
Disease/Pest issues: CORG have no major disease issues.
Self-fertile: Yes, but yield is greatly increased with additional trees.
We grow Cherry of the Rio Grande because they are incredibly gorgeous ornamental fruit trees, produce an abundance of fantastic fruit and require minimal maintenance outside of regular watering (though they can handle drought, albeit it with less fruit set). Like, Jaboticaba and some other tropical fruits from Brazil, as long as they’re planted in a proper soil and provided with some shade and plenty of water they grow into incredibly stunning specimens.
They’re a fantastic tree for the Central Florida landscape. We grow them in quantity on our farm in Christmas, FL.
We recommend CORG highly, especially for those that experience colder weather in zone 9, such as large open properties in 9b or those in 9a. If you’d like to add a Cherry of the Rio Grande to your landscape, or have us design and install a whole edible landscape, check out our availability list. We offer delivery and installations around the greater Orlando area for large orders.
Whether you’re a life-long Floridian like me, a new recruit to the state from up north, or have previously graced tropical islands one thing we likely have in common is a love of Mangoes (otherwise, you’re reading the wrong article).
Though, depending upon where you grew up, you might never have had truly fresh, perfectly ripened Mangoes. And before getting too much into it, Mangoes one finds in a grocery store aren’t even close to the caliper of Mangoes you could grow in your backyard here in Central Florida.
In Puerto Rico, where my wife was born, it is not uncommon to see Mango trees loaded with fruit lining the street like weeds, undeterred even by concrete jungles, growing out of any patch of available soil.
Though growing up in Florida, I never saw Mangoes like that. Oaks take their place here, lining the streets of old neighborhoods, while Mangoes are typically confined to backyards. Until I found my way to growing edible plants, I truly had no idea how diverse and delicious Mangoes can be.
I only saw what grocery stores had to offer: Tommy Atkins (large red blushed Mangoes) and Ataulfo (long yellow Mango). Both of which are picked early to allow greater shelf life and are bred with commercial conditions in mind. As well as sprayed with chemicals we wouldn’t use in our backyards.
If you haven’t had fresh Mangoes, you’re missing out. They’re phenomenal and showcase why Mangoes are one of the most popular fruits worldwide (several countries even list the Mango as their national fruit including Pakistan, India, and the Philippines; additionally, the Mango tree is the national tree in Bangladesh).
There are two main genetics in Mangoes depending on their origination: Indian and Southeast Asian.
Mangoes are refreshing and delicious fruit that span a massive flavor profile. Some Mangoes are eaten green and used for various culinary uses including in salads and chutneys and other varieties are preferred ripened.
Florida Mangoes
Some Mangoes have tropical coconut flavors and others have a slight spice and additional complexity to their flavor profile. The range is striking and can only easily be compared to citrus where a lemon and an orange are so clearly distinct as to render their uses entirely different.
The sheer number of Mango varieties available in Florida can be overwhelming, but the best thing to do is get connected to the local community to try a multitude of varieties before planting any tree.
In the Orlando area the Central Florida Fruit Society does an annual Mango Tango where members can try 20-30 varieties of Florida Mangos and rank their favorites.
When trying Mangoes, keep good records of which you loved. These will come in handy when you want to purchase a tree.
Mangoes can have either polyembriotic seeds or monoembriotic seeds. Monoembriotic seeds are cross-pollinated and will always produce fruit variable from the parent plant. Polyembriotic seeds have one embryo that contains 100% of the mother plant’s DNA and therefore will have identical fruit, while the other embryos are cross-pollinated.
Multi-grafted Mango on Turpentine Rootstock (‘Nam Doc Mai’ on left, ‘Lemon Zest’ on right)
However, most Mangoes are grafted. Grafted trees produce fruit quicker and reduces any potential variable fruit set. In the commercial industry in Florida, Mangoes are grafted to ‘Turpentine’ Mango rootstock.
Turpentine Mangoes are very stringy and not commonly preferred for fresh eating, but have favorable characteristics for soil tolerance, disease resistance and other factors that make them perfect for grafting onto for the Florida grower.
So, for the love of Mangoes, get a tree for your yard (once you’re ready)! Mango trees are beautiful with lush greens and can be pruned or grown into large specimens.
Mango New Growth
In Central Florida our cold can damage tender new growth and small branches. Young trees especially need to be protected and planted accordingly. Fruit trees can be protected using frost cloth and a teepee structure (making sure not to tie off the tree in a way which would separate the trunk from the ground as heat rises from the soil and insulates).
***One thing to note is Mangoes are in the same family as poison oak and poison ivy so the urushiols, particularly from the sap can cause contact dermatitis in individuals who have been exposed to poison oak, ivy or sumac as well as those with sensitive skin.
It’s that time of year again, not quite Fall yet, but the plants don’t know it. Shh… don’t tell them.
Fall officially starts tomorrow, but the recent drop in temperatures have given the plants (and us) a reprieve from the blistering summer heat. Additionally, we’ve gotten much needed rain after a horribly dry summer.
Everything’s growing. Gorgeous new leaves pop and flowers burst—filling the air with the sweet, marvelous perfume and welcoming new fruit to the garden. Dare I say, it’s nice out.
These are the months we crave in Central Florida (bask in their glory—they’ll be over sooner than we’d like them to be).
And with these flushes of beautiful new growth and budding tree comes another time of superb grafting (Spring is a great time to graft most fruit trees as well).
For those unfamiliar, grafting is the process of altering a plant’s genetics.
Looking like a mad scientist in a lab room mixed with a particularly gruesome coroner, in grafting season, plant nerds around the world slash away with their knives and pruners, decapitating their victims—leaving behind flushes of new growth, gorgeous green leaves, and several inches or even possibly feet of plant material on the ground.
Removed Branches to be discarded.
How awful! Though, fear not, these brutal plant massacres are for the pursuit of good, and the only victims are some seedlings that likely have a deficiency in some way anyways. They’ll be better now… If the graft takes.
As stated, grafting is a way of altering a plant’s genetics. There can be several reasons for this process.
Main Reasons to Graft:
The seedling, which we’ll call the ‘rootstock’ is of inferior quality (possibly not true to seed—more on that later—, or is a less preferred variety)
The tree takes an obscenely long time to fruit from seed (grafted trees can produce fruit much quicker as they share the genetic makeup of the tree they’re removed from, oftentimes a fruiting specimen)
Let’s start with an example. We go to the grocery store and eat the ripest, juiciest, and best Tangerine we’ve ever had.
We keep the seeds and plant the buggers into a small pot we have lying around the shed for some reason—there’s a bunch of them there, so we fill them with dirt.
There’s a high spot in the yard over there so we take a shovel to it and use this terrible, sandy junk, as the base for our new seed. Despite all odds, it grows!
In our native Florida soil, none-the-less. It’s a miracle!
We water it and grow it for countless years until it fruits and to our utter dismay, it is the most sour and nastiest thing we’ve ever eaten. How? Why is the world so cruel?
Unfortunately, not all edible plants grow true from seed, which means that the fruit quality and other characteristics may not match its mother plant’s genetics.
The reason being that the genetics are fertilized and crossed with another plant and therefore only share 50% of its DNA from the mother tree.
This makes the seeds variable and is quite necessary for finding and introducing new varieties.
Though, if we want a particular variety of any plant, it often can be grafted to ensure it is of the same fine genetics as the parent plant as a graft is 100% genetic clone to the mother tree.
Grafted ‘Trunciflora’ Jaboticaba
A tree can possess many forms which make it desirable.
In a fruit tree this could be incredibly large fruit, fruit that has a longer season, higher yields, longer shelf life, thicker skin, thinner skin, larger/prettier flowers, smaller leaves, bigger leaves, variegated leaves, and other physical characteristics, soil tolerances, cold hardiness (a powerful one for us in Central Florida) and a multitude of other factors.
Seriously it is impossible to list them all and there’s reasons for all of them. Some things are necessary for commercial production such as thicker skin and longer-shelf life while other factors may be more desirable to backyard growers—like flavor.
So, we take those Tangerine seeds and grow them.
Only, once they’re budding out and of the right caliper trunk, we graft onto them (in this reductionist example, we won’t go into that some trees are often grafted onto other species in the same family such as Trifoliata orange).
There are several methods of grafting, but for simplicity we’ll mention only cleft grafts, which requires cutting off the top of the canopy of the rootstock (or any terminal branches, whereas citrus and other like fruits can have multiple grafted varieties on one ‘cocktail’ tree allowing for lemons, limes, tangerines, etc. all on the same root system).
Aside: Trees must be grafted onto a compatible rootstock. We couldn’t say graft a Peach onto citrus rootstock, but we could graft a lemon onto a lime rootstock since they’re in the same family.
We then take a branch from an established tree which possesses some desirable characteristic, for example the exact tree that produced that Tangerine you loved. We check if it is creating new growth.
Right before new leaves shoot out (showing the hormone is in the plant’s cells), we remove a branch from the tree preferably one matching the diameter of the rootstock plant exactly. This branch, is now called a ‘scion.’
Aside: For our example we’ll say it is removed from the tree, though approach grafts can allow for branches to remain on the parent tree during the grafting process (only being cut after successful new growth).
Pruners
We then cut a slice down the center of the trunk of our rootstock, gently rocking our knife until the wood splits.
Grafting Knife
We’ll then wrap the scion with a stretchy material that seals in moisture, since the scion won’t receive any water from the rootstock for 7-10 days.
Parafilm (left, plastic, not something we use here) and Buddy Tape (right, bio-degradable and ultra stretchy)
After wrapping the scion, we’ll cut the base into a ‘V’ shape which will then be inserted the rootstock, matching the cambium layers (the layer right inside the bark) and we’ll seal the union of the two plants with more stretchy film such as the grafting tape ‘Buddy Tape.’
‘Vista White’ Loquat Graft
We may then place this plant in the shade and water it thoroughly. After a few weeks, if the graft is successful, the plant will heal, and new growth will appear above the graft union.
‘Trunciflora’ Jaboticaba First Graft Growth
The tree will now possess the desirable characteristics above the graft (any branches below the graft shall always be removed).
This process can also be particularly helpful for exotic plants such as Jaboticaba or Avocado which take a long time to fruit.
Avocado seedlings can take anywhere from 10-15 years to fruit, whereas grafted trees can fruit consistently within 2-3 years.
Taking scion branches from fruiting trees can thus shorten the time necessary for the plant to flower and produce the crop we’re growing it for.
Grafting takes some practice and not all grafts will succeed, but it’s a fun practice.
My first-time learning was a workshop put on by the Central Florida Fruit Society over two years ago. I grafted two Mango scions onto a forked rootstock.
One of my grafts succeeded. I cut off the other side of the tree and watched as the scion grew, as I trained it to straighten out. Now, I have much more success and have multi-grafted Loquat, Mango and Jaboticaba.
We can all grow more of the fruits we enjoy by grafting on those favored varieties that make our mouths water, our hearts race and excite us to continue growing fruit.
If you rather leave the grafting to the pros, we’d love to sell you grafted fruit trees that will yield abundant and delicious fruit for you and your family.
The Autumn Equinox is coming this Saturday September 23rd. The official start of Fall is therefore right around the corner and we’re really excited!
Fall is a beautiful time of year in Central Florida. Here in Florida we don’t see much of the change of scenery— the bright pop of leaves that turn from lush green to an assortment of yellows, orange and reds in Autumn like our Northern gardener friends.
Though, we do fortunately feel a relief from the rampant heat characteristic of Florida summers.
Fruiting ‘Arkin’ Carambola with flowers
There’s also a lot fruiting in our gardens: Carambola (also known as star fruit), Persimmons (yum!), and Figs are abundant. We also have some Sabara and Red Jaboticaba flowering and fruiting now (though certainly less than in Spring).
Furthermore, our Sapodilla are loaded, we cannot wait to try all the varieties that are new to our collection (Silas Wood, Morena, and Tikal) as we’ve only tried unknown/unlabeled variety Sapodilla from store bought fruit.
In fall our plants get the reprieve they need to shoot to the sky, branching out and flushing out with stunning new growth.
‘Brogdon’ Avocado Growth‘Red’ Jaboticaba Growth‘Lula’ Avocado GrowthMango New Growth
The beginning of fall is a great time to plant fruit trees and establish their root systems before the winter, especially evergreens (deciduous trees are best planted during winter, but can be planted in fall as well).
Additionally, with the summer heat dissipating we’re able to begin grafting again. We’re going to be grafting some Jaboticaba multi-grafted trees, with multiple varieties on one tree.
Early Growth on ‘Trunciflora’ Jaboticaba
This fall we’re planting more seed trays of Carambola, Persimmon and other plants we’ll use for rootstocks next year. We’re also planting out seed trays of some rare varieties of tropical edible plants such as Dwarf Mulchi Jaboticaba, Blue Velvet Jaboticaba, Peanut Butter Fruit, Rainforest Plum, Pitomba, White Jaboticaba, as well as some Eugenia and some less common Myrciaria species.
We’re also potting up a lot of the trees we had left over from Spring. Getting plants into new bigger pots will help them grow and establish so that they can be planted in your yards next Spring.
Right now our focus is on the rare tropicals we have in 6-inch pots that we’re moving to 3-gallon pots, but we also have a wide assortment of larger edibles we’re potting up as well.
What are you working on in the garden this Fall? Are you looking to add edible plants to your yard? If so, check out our nursery for a wide assortment of perennial edible plants, locally produced compost and honey from our apiary.
We’re minutes away from UCF, Orlando, Oviedo, Winter Park and other neighboring communities.
Avocados are incredible trees in the laurel family known for their oily and delicious fruit, which have numerous health benefits. Avocados are an excellent source of a multitude of vitamins. These super fruits (which are technically berries) have properties that can improve digestion, reduce depression and are good for heart health. These and other health benefits were examined on Medical News Today.
Avocado flowers are “complete” or “perfect” meaning their flowers are hermaphroditic (having both male and female parts) and therefore are technically self-fertile. Though, Avocados are only partially self-pollinating due to their unusual flowering known as protogynous dichogamy, which means that the male and female parts of the flower open and close at different times. Avocado flowers fall into two basic types: A and B. A-cultivar flowers open in the morning as female first and reopen the following afternoon as male. Type-B cultivar open first as female in the afternoon and reopen the following morning as male.
Due to this phenomenon having two varieties one of which is type-A and the second type-B, will produce a greater fruit set on each tree assuming their flowering and fruit season are the same. Protogynous dichogamy is a biological control to maximize the odds of cross-pollination. Though often trees will produce ample fruit with or without a cross-pollinator. Additionally cross-pollination is likely in heavily populated residential areas from neighboring properties.
Avocado trees do fantastic in Central Florida, as long as the correct varieties are grown. Avocados are often propagated by grafting in the nursery trade as to ensure consistent fruit set and greatly reduce the time to fruit set. Most Avocados prefer a hot climate, but a few varieties can withstand cold weather down to as low as 15°F. Avocados are endemic to Mexico, Central American and South America. Avocados fall into three categories: West Indian, Guatemalan and Mexican. Cold hardiness is a crucial factor in Central Florida as we can occasionally experience frost and below freezing temperatures, typically West Indian varieties are the least cold hardy and Mexican are the most cold hardy.
We’ve come up with a list of our favorite varieties for Central Florida. Factors that go into our decision are: mature tree height, cold hardiness, fruit quality and production/output. In no particular order:
Lila/Opal
Flower Type: A
Season: September-October
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small (6-8 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (can handle 15°F for a short time once established)
Outdoor Range: 8-11
Small semi-dwarf tree 10-15 feet tall (5ft in container) with a rich, creamy and oily medium-sized Avocado.
Brazos Belle/Wilma
Flower Type: B
Season: February to May
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small (6-8 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (can handle 15°F for a short time once established)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-11
Small semi-dwarf tree (mature height of 20-25 feet), smooth buttery texture and this variety fruits very early from graft and are vigorous growers. Prone to fungal infection anthracnose due to high humidity.
Fantastic/Del Rio/Pryor
Flower Type: A
Season: August-October
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small (6-8 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (can handle 15-18°F for a short time once established)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-11
Mature height of 25-30 feet, dark green, bumpy skin and nutty flavor.
Joey
Flower Type: B
Season: August-October
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small-Medium (6-10 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (can handle 15-18°F for a short time once established)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-11
Mature height of 25-30 feet (or up to 8ft in a container), dark purple-to-black skin and nutty flavor. This variety was founded in Uvalde, Texas by grower Joey Ricers.
Poncho
Flower Type: B
Season: August-October
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small (6-8 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (can handle 20°F for a short time once established)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-11
Mature height of 25-30 feet (or up to 8ft in a container), smooth, bright green skin and great flavor. Edible skin, like Brogdon.
Brogdon
Flower Type: B
Season: July-September
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Medium-Large (8-12 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (can handle 18-22°F for a short time once established)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-11
Mature height of 30+ feet, smooth dark, black skin, that’s thin enough to be edible. Great flavor and amazing eaten straight from the tree or made into guacamole.
Mexicola
Flower Type: A
Season: July-August
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small (4-7 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (20°F for short periods)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-11
Mature height of 15-20 feet the fruit are incredibly small and have smooth black skin.
Mexicola Grande
Flower Type: A
Season: July-August
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Small-Medium (6-10 oz)
Cold Hardiness: High (18°F for short periods)
Outdoor Range: Zone
Mature height of 30 feet the fruit are normally around 25% larger than Mexicola and have smooth, thin black skin and a delicious nutty flavor.
Winter Mexican
Flower Type:
Season: November-December
Origin: Mexican
Fruit Size: Large (12-18 oz)
Cold Hardiness: Medium (18-22°F for short periods)
Outdoor Range: Zone 8-10
Mature height of 40+ feet tall. This variety is known for being able to tolerant extreme cold and heat.
Wurtz/Little Cado
Flower Type: A
Season: October-January
Origin: Hybrid Guatamalan/Mexican
Fruit Size: Small-Medium (6-10 oz)
Cold Hardiness: Medium (28°F for short periods)
Outdoor Range: Zone 9-10
Mature height of 10-12 feet tall, with good size fruit considering its compact size. Rich and creamy flavor with lower oil content than other varieties, such as Hass. The fruit have thin, dark green skin.
Thanks so much for reading! We hope you decide to grow an Avocado tree in your home garden. Happy planting!
If you want to learn everything there is to know about Avocados check out the book The Avocado: botany, production and uses by B. Schaffer, B. N. Wolstenholme, and A.W. Whiley. You can also find more information on the University of Florida website.
If you need edible plants in the Central Florida please do stop by the nursery. We’d love to supply you with your edible plant needs. We also sell compost produced on our farm with food scraps diverted from the landfill by O-Town Compost as well as honey from our apiary.
45-gal ‘Super Hass’ Avocado we planted in Wedgefield, FL
If you need assistance with designing and installing your edible landscape project in the greater Orlando area please do ask us about our delivery and installation options as well. We’re a fully licensed and insured edible landscape contractor in the greater Orlando area.
Our Fruiting ‘Sabara’ Jaboticaba or Brazilian Tree Grape
Genus: Plinia
Species: P. cauliflora
Family: Myrtaceae
Jaboticaba (sometimes spelled Jabuticaba) are a rare tropical fruit tree native to Brazil, where it is called Jabuticabeira. The predominant variety found in Central Florida is ‘Sabara’ which is a tried-and-true variety that produces a thick skinned dark hued purple-to-black fruit with white pulp/flesh which surrounds and clings to 1-3 small seeds.
Jaboticaba are tasty, sweet, grape-like fruits which grow directly on the trunk of the tree, forming first as small white flowers before turning into tiny green fruits which will mature and ripen within 30-45 days. The fruit can be eaten fresh off the tree, preserved in jams/jellies or can be allowed to ferment for alcoholic consumption. Jaboticaba have a short shelf life and will ferment within 3-4 days after the fruit are separated from the tree.
Due to their limited shelf life Jaboticaba are quite uncommon to find in grocery stores. Jaboticaba are incredibly attractive evergreen trees which rarely grow to more than 10-15 feet tall in Central Florida. Their fibrous root systems and affinity for slightly acidic soil makes them perfect plants for container culture and they’ve been grown as Bonsai.
We love Jaboticaba. They’re such a tasty fruit and create an incredible abundance once established. In addition to ‘Sabara’ there are a plethora of other varieties that have differing characteristics including unique leaf structures, larger fruit, and quicker fruit set. Scarlet and Red Jaboticaba can fruit as early as 3-years-old, but fairly regularly fruit at 5-6 years old. Once established, Red Jaboticaba can also set fruit several times per year with near year-round fruit production outside of winter.
Below we’ll go over some characteristics of these extraordinary fruit and how to care for them:
Mature Height: 10-15 feet max typical in containers (30-40 feet in their native range, will likely stay a bit smaller in ground in Florida)
Mature Width: 15-20 feet.
Sunlight Requirements: Prefer partial shade in Florida, but can handle full sun when established, albeit with leaf burn.
Cold hardiness: Zone 9-11 outdoors. Patio growing Zone 4-11. Can handle short frosts when established, but don’t like temperatures below 25 degrees Fahrenheit and therefore should be protected, especially while young.
Soil Requirements: Well Draining soil, pH 5.5-6.5. We recommend Premier Pro-Mix BX Mycorrhizae.
Wind Tolerance: Low tolerance to wind, especially while small
Salt Tolerance: Low tolerance to salt spray
Growth Rate: Slow grower, which can take up to 12-15 years to fruit.
Pollination: Self-pollinating, with greater fruit set with additional trees.
Watering: Jaboticaba love heavy watering, with well draining soil.
Fruit Season: In Florida ‘Sabara’ Jaboticaba will fruit in March and can continue fruiting until May. Some years the trees produce additional crops in June to August. Typically Sabara set fruit twice per year, but can fruit up to 3-4 times per year. Other Jaboticaba varieties can set fruit even more prolifically such as Red Jaboticaba, which can set up to 5-6 crops per year.
Pruning: Jaboticaba can be pruned to reveal light to large branches and trunk as the tree flowers and fruits directly on those branches. Though pruning is not necessary and often container trees are left unpruned. Unpruned trees, in our experience, have less pressure from birds and other animals that enjoy the fruit.
Disease/Pest issues: Jaboticaba have no major disease issues. Though, we’ve had problems with Aphids, which we control with a mixture of water and leaves from the Lemon Bay Rum tree, which we spray on the foliage using a small garden sprayer. The trees can also experience rust and fungal problems.
We grow Jaboticaba because they are incredibly gorgeous ornamental fruit trees, produce an abundance of fantastic fruit and require minimal maintenance outside of regular watering. As long as they’re planted in a proper soil and provided with some shade and plenty of water they grow into incredibly stunning specimens.
They’re a fantastic tree for the Central Florida landscape. We grow them in quantity on our farm in Christmas, FL and graft rare varieties onto Sabara Jaboticaba rootstock. We’ve also grafted cocktail Jaboticaba trees that offer several varieties from our collection including Sapucaia (have gorgeous salmon-pink new growth), Restinga, Grimal (a large fruited variety), Scarlet, Paulista (another very large fruiting variety), and Spirito (have the coolest, dark, nearly black new growth).
We recommend Jaboticaba highly. If you’d like to add a Jaboticaba to your landscape, or have us design and install a whole edible landscape, check out our availability list. We offer delivery and installations around the greater Orlando area for large orders.
We’re approaching 3-years in business! Those 3-short years ago I stumbled upon a long last passion – growing plants. I loved my annual vegetable garden growing up, but after childhood I stopped playing in the dirt and resigned to a life in the office. Were it not for life throwing me back into it – by mere happenstance – I am not sure I would have realized how incredibly rewarding it is to grow your own food. As I look back, I am grateful that I left the comfort of my office to spend a few months helping start a new business on my family’s farm.
Andrew in front of the first Mango he planted
I never would have expected that a few months would turn into years or that the thought of returning to the office would never cross my mind. As I began developing the inventory management system, while creating protocols, procedures, hiring employees and performing numerous other tasks, I learned the difficulties of farming. Though, I also learned the joys, sense of accomplishment and euphoria that comes with working the land. Though I loved, and still love, our palm trees, I found my true calling when I began growing edible plants. There is nothing quite like tending to nature and reaping the rewards of creating and maintaining systems that benefit nature, the community and farmer alike. And I believe it is my mission to teach others the incredible benefits, happiness and tremendous health benefits of growing their own food.
I recently had an amazing conversation with a non-profit leader I’ve worked with about working together again to teach members in our county about growing their own food and working to eliminate food deserts in Orange County.
Food Deserts marked in green are defined by the USDA as urban areas which don’t have access to healthy foods within a mile or rural areas without healthy food access within ten miles. Think of areas that cater more to transient populations rather than to the residents – areas which have plenty of fast-food and convenience stores, but few, if any supermarkets.
Food Deserts in the greater Orlando area, areas in which low-income populations have limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables within 1-mile in urban areas or 10-miles in rural areas.
The limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, predominantly in lower-income communities, is troubling – and a major contributor to obesity and other health problems within these communities. This problem unfortunately spans nearly every major city within the United States. Teaching residents of these communities how to grow their own food as well as the numerous benefits of doing so is imperative. Orange County, Florida alone has at least 16 USDA-identified food deserts.
Solving huge problems can be daunting. However, when broken down in into smaller pieces can be much easier to chew. We have 16 areas to target within our county that could benefit from fresh local food. Focusing our efforts on providing resources and knowledge to those particularly vulnerable communities can lead to substantial change in the lives of folks that live within those communities.
Educating the masses within these communities about how to grow their own food on their own properties is the largest effort we see to solving these issues. One fantastic thing about growing food is that fruit and nut trees produce an abundant crop, oftentimes to the point of being able to provide for many more families with very few trees. My former neighbor shares his Avocados with the entire street – he gets around 800 Avocados a year from one medium sized tree, which he generously shares. His passion for his yard, which has been a food forest for many years, certainly inspired me with my own efforts.
While I no longer live there, we still occasionally share and trade the fruits of our respective labor and gardens. Trading out excess fruits allows residents to gain further nutritional output and variety in their diet even with constraints on their growing area. I had 23 edible plants on the quarter acre property I resided at and had the space and ability to plant so many more.
The front yard had four Barbados cherries, which have the highest Vitamin C concentration of any fruit. In fact, at one time they were used in multi-vitamins. One small cherry has as much Vitamin C as an orange. These super cherries are incredibly delicious, but don’t store well so aren’t typically seen even in communities that have access to supermarkets.
Barbados Cherry in bloom, with its pretty pink flowers
Anyone with access to a yard or outdoor space can create an abundant food forest. Many trees can even produce fruit in containers! Vacant land should also be utilized for growing food. The sub-tropical climate in Central Florida allows our community to grow a plethora of nutritious crops. Many plants can be vegetatively propagated, which allows for a cheap or even free method of growing more food for even the neediest citizens, if given the knowledge of how to do so. We could all have a health store in our backyard, we could all create an edible landscape that helps develop a communal barter system and a healthy food network.
Orlando’s former director of sustainability, Chris Castro, led the way laying the groundwork for sustainability and urban farms in Orlando. His initiatives, including the Parramore neighborhood leaders that have brought farming back to the urban neighborhood and developed a farmers’ market to provide fresh produce to residents, have transformed communities. Orlando received a grant The Farmer’s Market Promotion Program, which was received by 13 communities across the United States which aims to help address food insecurity issues. Orlando is also fortunate enough to have Fleet Farming, a fantastic organization that works at farming in urban environments, eliminating lawns and producing an abundance of food on previously underutilized lands.
We still have a long way to go, which is why we need YOU! We need each of us to work to grow our own food, to share our resources, to eliminate food deserts and ultimately to create a better, healthier, ecological, and more productive community.
