Very nice and attractive. Thanks for sharing. Has your santol fruited yet?

Just one tiny fruit earlier this year, it had only a single segment. Hopefully next time will have more fruit of normal size.

How old is your Abiu? I just sowed 10 seeds a couple weeks ago and it looks like I will end up with 4 that sprouted. I have read that they are fast growing. Have you ever got any fruit off of yours? If so could you describe the taste? I have heard a wide variety of fruit descriptions for abiu's

I think the abiu is about 5 years old. The top was cut back slightly last year after it was pushed over by a storm, you can see where there is the new vertical growth.

It has continued to blossom profusely but still has not held any fruit. I have never tasted abiu myself, but a friend seems to like them. He has a seedling that only produces one or two fruit per year, so I guess there is hope for me.

what unbelievable property you have Ronald, absolutely beautiful. Except for the hurricane thing it looks like paradise. Lychees and longans from the other posts looks outstanding too.

What is your most difficult tree to grow?

thanks for posting,
-Ethan

Difficult to grow? Not sure about that, most things here don't give much trouble after putting in the ground. But lychees are definitely the hardest to fruit where I am.

Remember that I am probably borderline as to cooling hours most years here. It took a long while before i got into what was good for them to flower and what was not.

It is like almost a year round schedule, you are planning 6, 10 months in advance, then hoping that nature responds favorably.

Rambutan does not seem to do well where I am too.
hope that helps

santol beginning to flower.
I had girdled tree in the summer, we will see how much flowering we get.

rollinia flowers

gefner atemoyas

Amazing! Please take some pics of the santol when the flowers are opening.

(sigh) I could look at these pictures all day,.......... so lovely, thank you for sharing!

No problem, will post some pictures when blossoms open.

Wow....very nice. I hope my santol will flower one day. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks all, here are some tiny abiu blossoms emerging. Will not get excited its been doing this for years.

malay apple blosssoms, we call it otaheiti apple

(gasp) that Otaheite apple blossom is beautiful!

The fruit we grew up with we take for granted and of course are not "rare" for us. So I have to remind myself that others may be interested in them.
otaheiti apple, june plum, rose apple, star apple, sugar apple and others grow wild here.

another shot of the view trough the santol canopy, with the sun blaring down from the left

Atemoya that had been pruned back starting to flush.

That's a cool looking atemoya tree! Oh, i wish they sell the fruit here.

Jay here are some pictures of santol blossoms starting to open, not the most exciting flowers.

Nice pics though...as always. Thanks. Tooling around on the web today, instead of working, I came across a website that referred to santol as "the poor man's mangosteen". I thought that statement a bit harsh.

I've tried santol once...it was a LOT of work and a lot of chewing! The taste was very good but it really was almost too much work. The taste did hint of mangosteen.

I think the term Lolly fruit is perfect, the seed seemingly keeping the flavor for a very long time.
I am hoping for a crop so I can try the santol 'juice'.

Ok- help me with this one. I tried Santol and it was terrible- really tart! What did I do wrong?

Ronald- you said Lolly fruit- I assume you mean that you suck the seed (which I did). It was sweet for you? How did you know it was ripe?
Ohiojay- what do you mean by " a lot of work"? How did you eat it?

Well as far as I understand it there are two types, the one whose leaves turn red like mine and the yellow one. The red one is supposed to be more tart than the yellow.

My tiny fruit was tart but I didn't mind the flavor.
I think the red one will fall when ripe, however I didn't wait on that, so maybe it could have been riper.

To tell the truth was wondering about Jay saying "a lot of chewing" too. Jay?

The one I tried in Thailand was sweet and tasted pretty good. When I said that it was a lot of work, I meant that trying to get any flesh off of one of those seeds WAS FREAKING WORK MAN!! Damn near impossible. That is probably what you are referring to as a "lolly" fruit. You either "lollygag" around with eating it or it is like eating one of those incredibly hard lollipops. I ate one of these fruit. Too much work to start another! I don't recall seeing many red-leaved plants while at Suphattra Land. And the one I ate was more sweet than tart.

Yup I think it would be impossible. The lolly term wasn't my idea, I remember reading it somewhere that some people called it that. Did you try the 'juice' when you were there? Supposedly you simply soak the pealed flesh for a couple hours and sweeten.

wonderful pics!!!!!!!! Ronald . Thanks for sharing

Thanks Maureen.

Never tried the juice. My wife says that they would remove the flesh, boil, add some sugar and they have a nice dessert.

My wife found this blog that shows step by step pics of how the Thai's prepare santol for their dessert. You can follow the pics with the directions below. It really sounds good and I hope to get to try it next time I head over.

I believe the person in the pics used 4-5 santol for this.
1. Peel and let soak in salted water.
2. Prepare very hot water with a lot of salt. Keep hot.
3. Slice santol very thin and let soak in hot salt water mix for 1/2 to 1 hour. The idea here is to remove the aftertaste that the outer flesh can have. The length of soaking depends upon the taste of the santol to begin with.
4. Make a simple syrup of sugar and water. Bring to a boil until sofball stage...getting sticky I believe.
5. Remove syrup from heat and let cool completely.
6. Squeeze salt water from santol slices till most of the water is out...not all...still want a hint of the salt. NO rinsing!
7. Pour syrup over santol slices and refridgerate for 1-2 hours.
8. Serve with crushed ice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recipe pics

interesting, thanks

Short cut to juice recipe
http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/santol-juice-a-la-san-mateo