Author Topic: Name That Fruit.... (Read 2815 times)

Mikey · « **on:** October 20, 2008, 02:27:26 PM »

Here's a couple of somewhat unusual fruit we have growing. Anyone recognize them?

Jerry · « **Reply #1 on:** October 20, 2008, 04:23:52 PM »

Top is Cherimoya Bottom No idea! Looks like a euphorbia plant though.

landey1230 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 20, 2008, 04:24:45 PM »

It's an asian fruit. They sell it at the Vietnamese store down the street and it is expensive. Can't think of the name, but has little seeds in it and it tastes great. The last pic looks like passion fruit.

MikeW · « **Reply #3 on:** October 20, 2008, 05:38:29 PM »

Top one looks like a fig growing in a plumeria tree - and you don't get more unusual than that!

Mike

Jerry · « **Reply #4 on:** October 20, 2008, 06:43:38 PM »

I am sticking with Cheramoya!

Jonna · « **Reply #5 on:** October 20, 2008, 07:04:01 PM »

Yes, the top one is definitely Cherimoya, scrumptious! Is the second one a cactus fruit, we call them 'tunas'?

Mikey · « **Reply #6 on:** October 20, 2008, 11:53:04 PM »

Jerry and Jonna identified the top two photos correctly as Cherimoya.

Jonna is pretty much correct on the last photo. The plant is an epi (epiphyllum). The fruit is very similar in color, texture and fragrance to what is commonly called Dragon Fruit (Hylocereus undatus), a plant common down in Central America and one that one will often see growing over the wall of many Vietnamese homes here locally. We also have some Dragon Fruit plants growing but they are still too immature to produce fruit. Below is a photo of the Epiphyllum flower. It's pretty cool that it not only produces a pretty flower but fruit as well....

Jerry · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2008, 07:01:27 AM »

It looks so much like Orchid Cactus. I meant epiphyllum, the leavs and the flower are so similar.
Just beautiful!

Mikey · « **Reply #8 on:** October 21, 2008, 08:54:20 AM »

Jerry: The flower above is from the Epi, not the dragon fruit.

Sunbeam56 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 21, 2008, 01:11:10 PM »

Its edible?
We have tunas on the native prickly pear - taste like a cross between a watermelon and a strawberry.
Turtles love them.

Jonna · « **Reply #10 on:** October 21, 2008, 06:07:03 PM »

I think they call any fruit on a cactus like plant a tuna.

If that is a Pitaya then it looks different than the ones we have here, or it's really immature.

Here's a pic I took in June of some fruit for my blog. The Pitaha are the 2 at the top, bottom left is a Mamey and right is Mango Paraiso.

This is what it looks like cut open. There are red fleshed ones in Costa Rica but we have the white ones here. The taste is sweet and tart and crunchy, you eat the tiny seeds. My friend told me that if I want to grow some just take a spoonful of a pitaya that is good and sweet and rub it on the stone wall. It will sprout and grow on the rock. She showed me some tiny ones she had planted that way this year.

I just put them in the refrigerator to get cold, cut in half and eat with a spoon. Recently I read that you can put cut halves in the freezer and they taste like a sorbet.

Jerry · « **Reply #11 on:** October 21, 2008, 06:31:51 PM »

Jonna I like the last one, Nice desert too. Will it make it in zone 10?

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #12 on:** October 21, 2008, 07:40:23 PM »

I tasted my first dragon fruit about 5 years ago in China at a hotel we were staying at on our tour. Definitely very different looking but tasty. I noticed they are in the local markets now too. Very expensive though!

Cool that you can grow them Mike.

Jonna · « **Reply #13 on:** October 21, 2008, 07:46:27 PM »

I think it should make it in zone 10, your orchid cactus make it right? It's a relative. They won't take frost, I've heard that.

We seem to be getting to the end of the pitaya season here, there are less of them in the stores and I haven't seen anyone out selling them from their yards on the street for several weeks. I bought 2 the other day anyway, they looked a little bigger than usual. I opened one and it was really sour, not as refreshing as usual, too tangy. I tossed the rest of it. Perhaps it just wasn't fully ripe. I've heard that they are best when the curling pieces on the outside are turning brown, this one was still brightly colored all over.

It's been cool here the last few weeks, probably 85f in the afternoons but rain later and cool nights. Perhaps that is why, I just haven't been here long enough to be sure.

Mikey · « **Reply #14 on:** October 21, 2008, 10:34:32 PM »

Jerry: The dragon fruit is grown quite a bit here in SoCal. Here's a link: http://www.forestmulch.com/dragon.htm I can start a cutting if you like. There is a house in Westminster or Garden Grove that a friend took me to that had lots of dragon fruit plant/trees growing. My friend drove me there and I wasn't paying attention to where we were. I'll ask him where it was and drive out and take some photos because I think this is the time of the year they are producing fruit.

Savannah: The fruit of the epi is edible but more tart than dragon fruit. It's grown for its flower more than for its fruit. It has a nice fragrant odor when you cut it open. I think it actually smells better than it tastes.......sort of like perfume.

It's more elongated than dragon fruit and the inside is very similar to dragon fruit with all those tiny seeds but the interior is a pretty light purple color.

cc · « **Reply #15 on:** October 22, 2008, 05:00:40 AM »

I was going to order some dragon fruit seeds until I saw this post and did some poking around the net, may be I should just buy the fruit in Chia town here and try to grow it. Probably better chance when the seeds are fresh, or I could just pray that Mikey would let me have one of his cuttings.
Here is a dragon fruit tree pic I found on Wikipedia.

Jerry · « **Reply #16 on:** October 22, 2008, 07:29:57 AM »

Sounds good Mike, maybe it will spur us into a party as well?
Thanks

landey1230 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 22, 2008, 11:52:02 AM »

Smells better than it tastes...like perfume...

Mikey · « **Reply #18 on:** October 22, 2008, 12:21:58 PM »

Here's that house I spoke of with all the dragon fruit. He has several dragon fruit vines tied to a 4x4 and he probably has a dozen or so of these 4x4s covered with the dragon fruit vines. He has no lawn. Everything is either fruit or vegetables. These folks live off their land.

He has several tropical fruit trees that I didn't recognize. I'm sure one was likely jujube since that seems to be a popular fruit among the Vietnamese here. He likely has a lot of theft of the dragon fruit because many of his plants are within reach of the sidewalk. I noticed that once I showed up he immediately came outside and started watering.........while keeping a close eye on the weirdo taking photos.....

I tried speaking with him but he feigned not to be able to understand me....

Here's one corner of his front yard...

He has some growing up this palm tree as well.

I initially planted my dragon fruit next to the garage and in a year's time it grew up the side of the stucco wall to beneath the eaves. They send out aerial roots that grab a hold of whatever they are climbing on. After seeing how the man in these photos planted his I removed mine from wall and took cuttings and planted them around a pole.

Jonna · « **Reply #19 on:** October 22, 2008, 02:17:12 PM »

Cool pictures! I've seen pictures from Asia with them on a pole and crosstie similar to that. Someone said you could put a round cake pan or something on top of the pole. What I'm wondering is how he got them to branch so well. I am guessing that if you cut the end of the stem it branches? I am probably going to put some on the wall but I don't really want it taking over the whole wall. Plus, they like to grow to the top of something and then fall back and bloom. Chances are the fruit will end up in your neighbors yard that way.

Jerry · « **Reply #20 on:** October 22, 2008, 04:59:13 PM »

some of my orchid cactus are tri angular like that, but no fruit ever. His planting is impressive

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #21 on:** October 22, 2008, 05:04:36 PM »

Thanks Mike! Cool photos of the dragon fruit garden. 1st time seeing how the fruit is grown! That garden makes the neighbors one palm like tree look....

Mikey · « **Reply #22 on:** October 26, 2008, 11:32:00 AM »

We ate the epi fruit this morning. It was sweeter than last year's fruit. Perhaps it cross pollinated with a different epi.... I don't know, but we both really enjoyed it. It was sweet with a bit of a tang to it. The tiny little seeds pop as you eat them, much like poppy seeds. There are several more smaller epi fruit growing on the stems but I don't know if they will mature because the weather is getting cooler.