One cherry makes two beans, about 1/10th of a cup of coffee.
I always wanted to try it, and now that I have I will ditch the plant. The fruit has little flesh and little flavor, and the seeds are rock hard even fresh and have no typical coffee taste. The plant looks nice enough at least
These clone themselves, no need for seeds. I have given away dozens of the babies. Good for Indian cooking
This was from last spring. The robins have since grown up and have their own families now in "the big evergreen bush", while the peach tree is looking like a bumper crop this year!
poor production, meh fruit quality, poor "blood" coloration. This was an 8ft tall tree in my greenhouse. It was replaced with some mandarins. Blood oranges are overrated :-/
I'm not sure what type this is, at it was labelled as a white guava, but it is really tasty and large fruited. Grows and produces well in a container
This praying mantis must have just hatched. I leave my container trees outside during the warm months and always end up with a few mantis egg sacks, the babies emerge in the greenhouse in mid winter (its hot in greenhouse)
picture taken ~feb 2023
This guy is the likely replacement for the cherimoya if it isn't up to snuff
They call it 'eggfruit' or yellow sapote, I think taste & texture is similar to undercooked white cake
I figure I'll give some context... my brother and I (and father-in-law and some friends) built this from a kit. I hired a guy on Craigslist to excavate, and I bought ready-mix-concrete delivery, but literally everything else we did ourselves. Building concrete forms, managing the pour, insulating foundation, stucco on foundation, assembling the structure, the glazing, running electric+water+gas service, wiring everything, installing heater, fans, thermostats, lighting, evaporative cooling (fogger), etc.
It was the most difficult thing I've ever done but incredibly rewarding. Now I just mess around with plants and stuff.
Again these pictures are from ~2018, I'll post a recent picture soon, now that I have large in-ground trees
This in-ground grafted 'El Bumpo' tree is 3-4 years old and requires regular pruning to avoid hitting the greenhouse ceiling, but has yet to produce any fruitlets until now. Cherimoya unfortunately requires hand-pollination to set fruit, and even worse the flowers & pollen are only viable for a few hours... and I only even bother to try paintbrush pollination when I am already out there and see some fresh flowers.
If this fruit is not fantastic I'm digging this whole tree up and replacing with a Geffner atemoya I already have in a pot that is a better producer, without any hand pollination.
This in-ground grafted 'El Bumpo' tree is 3-4 years old and requires regular pruning to avoid hitting the greenhouse ceiling, but has yet to produce any fruitlets until now. Cherimoya unfortunately requires hand-pollination to set fruit, and even worse the flowers & pollen are only viable for a few hours... and I only even bother to try paintbrush pollination when I am already out there and see some fresh flowers.
If this fruit is not fantastic I'm digging this whole tree up and replacing with a Geffner atemoya I already have in a pot that is a better producer, without any hand pollination.
cherimoya requires hand pollination, an I am really lazy. For years I have had flowers but not fruit set despite my half-assed attempts at paintbrush pollination, but this is the first time I have had a fruit set. Hopefully it stays, it is currently the size of my thumb
You may have heard that cherimoyas require hand-pollination, as they are only naturally pollinated by some beetle that clearly does not exist in my greenhouse in Pennsylvania. Not only do they require hand pollination, but the flowers and pollen are only viable for half a day or so. I am pretty lazy and only half-ass pollinate when I happen to be out there, so for three years I have had hundreds of flowers but no fruit. For the first time this year my 'El Bumpo' has a fruitlet, it is about the size of my thumb now. I hope it holds, and it better taste AMAZING or I am digging it up and replacing with my Geffner atemoya that sets fruit just fine on its own.
I went out to my greenhouse today and heard the peeping of baby quails. It seems my button quails had a few clutches hatch overnight and my wife and I counted at least eleven babies. A robin seems to have flown in then open door and seems really interested in the babies. I always remember the "birds are dinosaurs" trope and spenta solid half hour chasing him out... the robin really did not want to leave.
