Carambola

Does anyone grow them?

I am looking for a new fruiting tree, and stumbled on this.

I have found a grower with two cultivars -- Fwang Tung and Sri Kembanqan.

I want the one with the sweetest fruit.

Any suggestions?

: )

Quite a few members of the California Rare Fruit Growers have them. Here is an article from their publication:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/carambola.html

And this one from the University of Florida:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG269

Yuska

This message was edited Nov 21, 2006 3:00 PM

Yuska~

Thank you. I've downloaded and printed both -- and am reading like mad.

Brad

Flyboy I live in Bradenton and have a Sri Kembangan tree. It is a couple of years old and is very vigorous. It flowers and produces fruit in spring, summer and fall. Right now my tree is full of all size fruits and blooms as well. The fruit is very sweet and quite large. The fruit is usually 4 to 6 inches and very juicy. I am very happy with the tree and recommend it highly. The picture was taken last weekend.

Dale

dwallace, Plantfiles need comments and pictures http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/148882/index.html

dwallace~

dale:

That is the one I finally ordered. It'll be installed tomorrow -- I hope.

It is loaded with fruit -- as you described yours is. How large is yours? This one is in a fifteen gallon pot -- and is already about six feet high. I plan to prune it in order to keep it low and bushy. I'll post a photo or two.

Brad
: )

This message was edited Nov 24, 2006 4:38 PM

It finally arrived. I counted sixteen fruits. We picked four -- and had one for lunch.

Here is the tree:

A clump of fruits.

A couple of green ones

A pair of ripe ones

We had this one for lunch. Yummmmmm.

These are in the refrigerator -- waiting.

Hi Flyboy

Sorry for the delay but I have been staying out on Bradenton Beach this week and a little out of touch.

Mine was a relatively small tree when I got it three or four years ago. It was maybe 4 feet tall with a caliper of maybe 1 inch. I have pruned it several times due to space limitations and because it is near a walkway. The branches want to droop over and touch the ground. My tree now is only 10 feet tall since I cut the central leader out and is maybe 8 – 10 feet wide. I have a friend who has a Carambola tree that is 10 - 12 high but 20 plus feet across. So you can make it a bush as you have planned.

We get 3 – 4 crops a year from this tree and enjoy all the fruit. The fruit is best when allowed to ripen on the tree.

Good luck

Dale

P.S. Farmerdill... When I get home I will go through my photos and will be glad to post them to Plant Detail Section.

S'funny.

Four fruits were knocked off when we planted it (they were fully ripe). Since then one fell off, and we've picked a half-dozen more. They are delicious.

But, right now there are two teeny-weeny green ones, growing. They do grow fast. But I hadn't noticed them when I selected this plant. Nor were they blossoms.

Brad