Miracle Fruit Harvest

11 years ago

I bought this Miracle Fruit this Spring when it was a little over 2
ft tall. Now it's about 2.5 ft and I'm growing it in a pot. I
didn't expect it to fruit because I bought another Miracle Fruit some
years ago. That one didn't grow much over all these years and never
fruited once. So, I thought hmm ... I wonder about this new one. A
miracle happened ... it sent out many blooms shortly after I bought it
and is now producing some fruit. The blooms don't seem to develop into
fruit too easily, but I was able to get 4 of them.

Now the tasting part. The fruit doesn't have much flesh to it has a
faint hint of sweetness to it, but nothing much of a taste as far as
fruit goes. However, it did live up to its name. When I took a tea
spoon of lemon in my mouth, the lemon tasted like it had been flavored
with a load of sugar. Then I tried a tea spoon of apple cider vinegar
... It too had a pleasant and sweet tasting to it in the mouth like a
heavily sugared apple cider drink, but when I swallowed it down, I could
feel the sourish taste burning in the throat.

Other than the "magical" thing that it's performing, I don't know
what this fruit is used for as far as nutrition goes, or if it has any
medicinal properties. What do some of you who grow it do with your
fruit?

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Comments (5)

dangermouse01 (coastal central FL 9B)
11 years ago
The fruit off either of my two Miracle Fruit plant have a tart taste. This is the taller of the two at 3' the other is just under 2' tall, have had both for about 3 years. While in Home Depot over the weekend, I picked two fruits off a nice MF plant that they had, neither of those had really any taste at all. But they where large sized fruits.

When there are flowers on mine, I will reach in and give the plant a shake (got that from Logee's plants care page)

When I have plenty I bring some into work and eat them through out the day, instead of chewing gum I work the flesh from the seed. For lunch I only have fresh fruit so eating the miracle fruit earlier makes what ever type of fruit I am having that day taste amazing. Apples or watermelon so far, not sure if I want to try it with mangoes.

DM
bananafan2
Original Author
11 years ago
DM,

I'm wowed by your MF. It has red tiny fruit all over--a beautiful sight indeed. It reminds me so much of my Holly tree except that it produced inedible fruit for humans. The birds love them though. It was removed to give room for more of my tropical fruit trees collection .. lol. I see that yours is planted in the ground. I wonder if that's the reason you have so much fruit on it, or perhaps you've been feeding it with some special fert? Do you need to trim it after fruiting? I also wonder how tall it will get.

I like your idea of eating it with your favorite fruit to enhance the taste. I have been thinking of trying it with some herbal tea. Thanks for sharing the beautiful picture of your MF.
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dangermouse01 (coastal central FL 9B)
11 years ago
Actually both mine are still in pots not in the ground. You can just make it out in the bottom center of my photo. Sometime the birds will get at my MF fruits, catbirds, mocking birds and the cardinals are the usual suspects.

For feeding them I use Espoma Holly-tone, probably lighter doses than what is on the package.

I know of some MF plants that are in the 6'-plus range, both in ground and potted.

DM
TheNewLandscape.com
11 years ago
Your MF pics look lovely. I've read about it and thinking about growing one in a pot for my mother in law (who is diabetic) on a few occasions that she is here visiting - but debating if the plant is worth growing (knowing I will have the plant for the whole year, while she will only be here for a few weeks a year LOL). It looks like a nice plant - but does it stay green throughout most of the year? any leave yellowing, dropping, etc. issues? Basically, is it suitable to use as a nice shrub in some nice decorative pot for the porch/patio?
a
11 years ago
Newlandscape,

It sounds good to me to use the fruit for a diabetic diet for you MIL. That is so thoughtful for you to have come up with that idea. I see that you're in zone 10, so there shouldn't be any threat of a freeze in the winter. I'm in 9b and I left my plant out in my patio all through the winter. It doesn't seem to have shown any yellowing or dropping of he leaves, so this makes me think that it should be ok for you too.

There is another plant I have in my patio and that is Stevia which produces sweet flavored leaves that can be used in tea or for flavoring food. I plant it more for fun and then buy Stevia extract from Whole Food for a low sugar diet. Although I'm not diabetic, Stevia is a good sugar alternative for those who wish to have a zero calorie sweetener and its all a natural herb.

When you go out to buy a MF plant, try to get one that is a bit taller, say about 2-3 ft. I got one years back which is hardly a foot tall. It did not increase in height over the years and hardly ever flowered or produced any fruit there. Then I got one that is almost 3 ft this year and it sent out lots of blooms although I didn't get much fruit from it yet. I'm looking into the fert that DM is using for his.

I hope you'll able to get one MF to grow soon. Have fun!