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Brendo

Babaco 'Champagne Fruit'

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Have any of you tried this fruit?

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Holy shit.

It's like something from Avatar.. Tastes like a mix between Passionfruit, Strawberries and Kiwifruit. Even the skin smells beautiful, and when you cut it open, the guts sparkle and smell like bubbly champagne.. I can't believe I'd never seen or heard of this plant / fruit before..

Mind b l o w n .

It's apparently from Ecuador and is a kind of Papaya hybrid and doesn't set seed. I got my plant on Ebay about 2 years ago. It started fruiting a year ago and I've only just had my first two ripen. Very long fruiting period but absolutely worth it imo :)

I can try and make cuttings if anyone's interested, will be a little while though. Either way I highly recommed you search out this plant.

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Edited by Brendo
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Put me down for a cutting mate, i keep missing my chance to get one of these amazing plants.

They do grow easily from cuttings, short lengths of stem do best from memory. I'll dig up my notes for you.

I'll swap you for one of these if you like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_ligularis

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Keep me in mind as well when they become available :)

Ps keep camels away from them :BANGHEAD2:

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yeah they all get snapped up within days of becomng available at most nurseries.. i'm super keen on trying these too.. they should do ok here in the frost with a bit of microclimate.

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I would be happy to trade or buy a cutting from you if they become available please. I had some plants a while ago but they got crushed under a falling tree

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Put me down for a cutting mate, i keep missing my chance to get one of these amazing plants.

They do grow easily from cuttings, short lengths of stem do best from memory. I'll dig up my notes for you.

I'll swap you for one of these if you like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_ligularis

Good trade - done. I'll update this thread come Spring and post a pic of the tree to ask for advice on where to cut.

Do the passionfruit fruit on their own also? Or would I need two plants?

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Hah, beat me to it, I was gonna suggest Daley's too - they've also got a "notify me when new stock available" button for grafted trees (using papaya rootstock) on their webstore.

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Good trade - done. I'll update this thread come Spring and post a pic of the tree to ask for advice on where to cut.

Do the passionfruit fruit on their own also? Or would I need two plants?

Just one, but I'll send you a couple anyway. They can even pop up around the place, so once you have one you'll always have them (until you move house :( ) I favour them over panama passionfruit any day and the flavour is completely unique in the fruit world IMO. I can't rate them highly enough, Sugarfruit are the bomb.

I'm hoping to plant out a number of healthy yearlings very soon, so I should have a heap of seed to go 'round by Christmas. Don't worry I'll spread them far and wide this time.

I think doublebenno got some nice ones cranking from one of my early seed swaps.

Cheers for sharing the love Brendo

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I got a tree but I've never really gotten into it, too sloppy for my liking. Looks pretty cool in the garden though. They hate wind and the fruit need to be thinned so the plant doesn't collapse under its own weight, I suspect the ancestors of these plants evolved from herbaceous weeds not so long ago...complete lack of lignified wood it seems....probably great for biofuel/methanol production though.

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So what's the best way to take cuttings of this plant? Do I pull off individual leaves and plant these, or chop the plant in half, root the top etc and wait for new heads from the plant left in the pot? *confused*

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Edited by Brendo
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Propagation: Since babacos are seedless, they must be propagated asexually. Wood for propagation is taken from the parent plant by cutting the entire trunk diagonally about 1 foot from the ground (or back to the second shoot), and making 1 foot cutting lengths from it. This should be done after fruiting but before the next flush of growth. The cuttings are then dipped in a fungicide bath and the rooting end dipped in a rooting hormone. The cuttings are then set vertically in a low-moisture medium such as sand or sandy loam to form callouses. With the first sign of roots and the beginnings of new leaves, they can be planted out, about 8 inches below ground level. Within 15 months these new plants are producing fruit. (source)

So yeah, sounds like you want to do the second thing. But wait until it finishes fruiting. If you were feeling real adventurous (& had some spare papaya plants around) you could try grafting onto papaya stock like nurseries do.

These things sound great, can't wait until I'm living somewhere with a bigger garden! Thanks for the pic. :)

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Hey guys,

 

I decided not to chop the tree down for cuttings, it did however sprout a pup a few months back so I'm going to cut & root it.

 

If anyone is interested in this plant shoot me a PM :)

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babaco

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