I understand that w/ carambola sour or sweet is due to variety, not culture. here are 2 URLs for more info....

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

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg269

Seedlings are almost always sour. Get a grafted one as they are sweet and not at all like the one's in the store that were picked early( they do not ripen further once picked).

Kasima - As previously mentioned, carambola seedlings do not come true to seed. Some people actually do desire the sour varieties. The juice is used to make "lemonade". With greening causing a lot of citrus death now, I wouldn't be surprised if sour carambola became much more popular in the future.

Christine

Thanks, everyone, but if it's going to be sour, she will just get rid of it, as she wanted a sweet one. Variety really has nothing to do with it, as it was grown from seed of a sweet variety. She doesn't want to make lemonade from it, so I'm sure that tree is not long for this world. Sad, because it's a beautiful tree that is always laden with fruit during season.

Hmmmm.....read on this thread that they DO come true from seed, and are usually propagated from seed, so maybe we'll try to alkalize the soil and see what happens. I guess a soil test is in order.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb Thread on Starfruit

Might she be harvesting too early?