On Growing Yumberries

[blueadzuki]

Hi all,
This is a long backstory so bear with me

About 2 weeks ago while wandering around Chinatown, I happened to find amongst the offerings of one of the little street vendors, a packet of fuit (marked as "wax plums") which I reconized as whole preseved Yumberries (Myrica Rubra) somewhat curios (and in need of a quick snack) I purcased said package and later, opened it. Inside were indeed preserved yumberries, more to the point what was iside were preserved unpitted yumberries. Therfore, of course, once I had finished the fruit, I put the pits to the side to give a stab at growing them (I determine that the fruit had be cold preserved, not hot and the picking medium did not penetrate the pits, so they should still be viable, or at least, as viable as they were when the came off the tree). I've got 4 or five seeds to start (I had something like 40 to being with, but stupid me tried to remove the seeds from the pits to speed up germination as I would for a peach or plum and it turns out that you can't (and pressure that will crack the stones automatically crushes the seed) So it looks like I'm goign to have to plant them as is and be patient. The only thing that really worries me is that Myrica pits turn out to be hairy so I can't get all of the fruit pulp off of them I tried but it can't be done so I'll give them a quick dip in Hydrogen Peroxide befor they go in the ground and hope that keeps the mold of them. Wish me luck!

[plantsnobin]

I've never heard of yumberries, you have given me something else to look up. Good luck with germination.

[blueadzuki]

Mar 14, 2010 19:06:57 GMT -5 @plantsnobin said:

I've never heard of yumberries, you have given me something else to look up. Good luck with germination.

I'm actually mildly suprised about that as they have been one of the big name "hot trend" fruits recently (like pomegranate, acai, noni and all those other "particularly rich in something or other that is good for you, so we're going to make a lot of media noise about them to convince you that buying our marked up "health drinks" is better than simply eating more ACTUAL fresh fruits and vegetables). That's part of the real irony actually. I'm planting the pits just to see if I can grown them, based on the tastes of the juice, I HATE yumberries (to me they taste like cranberries, which I also don't much like (plus all of the jiuces are sweetened, so the real fruit straight probably tastes even worse) I'm not sure how far hunting around will get you with regards to finding a source, from what I understand, while the juice has become big news and a new hot commodity, no one, as yet has made much effort to either import the fresh fruit from china (which likey will occur some time in the future) or try cultivating the trees here (which is marginally less likely) That's why I was willing to try with pits that had a real chance of being destroyed by whatever was done to the fruit; it's likey the only way, for the present that pits will arrive in this country. I'm probaby just lucky that whatever was done didn't destroy the seeds (one of the side benefits of all those ones I lost trying to shell them, is that I was able to confirm that the seeds inside are neither browned (which woud indicate that the product had been heat treated, or dyed (which would indicate that whatever has gone into the picking syrup has penetrated to the seed itslef, probaby destroying it. well the pits are in the planter now, so now its just waiting.

Icidentally the week after I found the berries, I managed to snag some fresh jackfruit(which I do like) so I shoud have a few Jackfruit trees for inside as well. Unlike the ablove these shoud be really easy (I've done Jackfruit from seed plucked out of roadside stand fruit before, so I know the seed is viable)