Richard

Wow, that would be really unusual if the variation occurs among seeds from a single fruit. Julia Morton took copious notes on the thorniness of this plant. Another interesting source of information are the curators notes from TARS.

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mbfirey

Both of my seedlings have lots of thorns- does anyone think that I could get fruit overwintering them inside my sunroom?

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Richard

One of Julia Morton's observations was that the plants in the wild are thorny, while after a few years of cultivation and seed harvesting the thorns (except on leaf spines) all but disappear. I have also read about a close relative of S. quitoense that is inherently thorny.

Growing and fruiting it in your sun room is a real possibility, especially if there is both side and some overhead exposure to the sun. If you give it a large container to grow in and year-round tropical environs it is a little shop of horrors.

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mbfirey

Mine were "Smoothie Collected" seeds in Costa Rica- I always eat (drink actually) them when we're in Colombia, where they they call it Lulo.

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Iochroma

I have grown this plant a few times, in the S.F. Bay area; I find it a frustrating species. The plant is super thirsty and prone to pests ( esp. spidermites). When it is happy it can grow quickly and have stunningly gorgeous leaves. When it isn't happy, it can look like death is certain, only to rebound and then decline, seemingly at random. Maybe they are prone to viruses...
When you do get fruit it can be fantastically good, or kind of weird and not worth eating.
Some strains have wicked thorns, others are soft, fuzzy, and charming.
I would be very interested to hear from people who have success with this.

Brian

I am also in the SF Bay Area and while I have heard of someone very close to me with the spider mite issue. Mine seem to be problem free for now minus the massive water requirement. I am actually getting more fruit set this year so hopefully I actually get seeds this time and not a few seedless fruit.

I do have a massive amount of preditory insects and spiders in my yard that pick clean some of my plants of pests. Jumping spiders seem to be the best at it.

RogerEvenBove

Fascinating!! I have two Quitoenses sharing a pot that wintered over in my greenhouse and a tamarillo sitting in my garden in their pots. So far no blossoms. Any suggestions on what to use to get them going. I'm in SE Pennsylvania, so they will have to go back to jail in October.

Brian

Just curious, but what sized pots? What really triggered mine to start blooming was an upgrade to a larger size. I think it was 5 gallons, but let me check. Now I put them straight into that size and get quicker blooming.

mbfirey

Found my Naranjilla half-gone today- apparently those giant green worms like more than just Tomatoes!

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Richard

These plants become big shrubs. A 15-gallon is about right for the 1st 5 years. Expect 2-4 inch diameter trunks.

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Brian

Oh, wow they get even bigger. . .

Maybe my first three are just duds. I have a fourth plant I picked up from a different source that has an abundance of fruit on it at the moment.

Those tomato worms by the way seem to go for anything in the nightshade family. So watch you Cape Gooseberries and Tree Tomatos too.

sandy0225

The tomato worms like tobacco too. If you keep the naranjillas fertilized well and hydrated, they will grow in smaller pots. You can prune it back, and keep it a more manageable size. I seem to have two different breeding lines. One is super thorny with a fruit that's not tasty at all. The other is variable thorny, some will be very thorny and some not at all, and those fruits are bigger and taste good. The super thorny ones I have like drier and hotter conditions than the better fruit ones.But I think anyone could get fruit On them If they're growing them in pots because we get fruit every year on ours without fail on each kind. You have to bring them in for the fall to ripen them because the season is too short. Also if you get spider mites too bad, you can pull off all the leaves and spray the trunk real well with a shampoo and water and oil solution and the leaves grow back. They are pretty tough plants really.

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Richard

Sandy, it might be that you have two species from Solanum sect. Lasiocarpa

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nullzero

Growing Solanum pseudolulo in mostly full sun, South Orange county, Sunset Zone 21. Seems to be very happy despite the temps ranging in the 80s-90s. I recently transplanted it from a 5 gal plastic container to a 10 gal fabric.

It started to flower around august 1st, this photo is from august 6th.

mbfirey

That's really funny because naranjilla in Colombia is known as Lulo- so the name Pseudolulo would mean "false lulo"

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nullzero

Here is where I got it from.
Sweet Naranjilla (Solanum pseudolulo)-Logee's Greenhouses

mbfirey

Funny because wikipedia has much less nice thing to say about it:
Solanum pseudolulo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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nullzero

Logees claims its sweeter then Solanum quitoense. The plant is grafted, I want to grow Solanum quitoense as well. Just need some seeds.

CGameProgrammer

Bumping this thread because I have two of these from Logee's, the older one is flowering though not yet fruiting, but it's young. Have you guys had fruit set from a pseudolulo? Did you have to hand-pollinate it? And how was the fruit quality?

venturabananas

I have S. quitoense grown from seed not S. pseudolulo, but some observations might be relevant. Mine flowered for several months before ever setting fruit, which coincided with it getting warmer in spring. The fruit did take several months to ripen. The plant is very attractive and exotic in appearance. Even though it is only about 18 months old, it is already 8' high, with a spread nearly as wide, and much bigger than I want it to be. It now has perhaps 100 fruit set, many of which are ripening, but the fruit my plant produces are not spectacular in flavor, sweetness, or texture. The best description I can come up with for the flavor is to imagine a very sour kiwi. It definitely has the kiwi smell to me. I'm sure some seedlings are better than others, so I wouldn't judge all Naranjilla by my experience. But I'll probably remove mine to make room for something that makes fruit I enjoy more.

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