Miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is a bugger to grow. I know it needs a soil pH of 4-5. that's hard enough to supply. Does it want good drainage -as well -with that? I managed to get one though the winter this year but it looks half dead. Any tips, clues, web resources? Where does it grow naturally? tar
http://www.magicalfruit.com/grow.html shows a small bit of growing info just a quick search did not have time to do any more searching
Thanks thats interesting. It seems others have similar proplems with this very particular plant I noticed the Japanese have just made a transgenic lettuce with the same properties as the miracle fruit, fruit!
I have 2 Miracle fruit trees in fairly large pots and they are doing extremely well - they flower throughout the year and I lose many of the red fruits to birds! The trees do not appear to be fussy over the type of soil (pH and medium). I manure them regularly and have no trouble with insect pests. When I got them 2 yrs ago they were about 5 inches tall - now they stand under 6 ft! I suppose if I plonk them in the ground they would turn into giants. Your problem could be the climatic conditions - I live in the lowlands of Malaysia, which would make Synsepatum dulcificum very much at home as they originate from Ghana (I think!)
Yes, I live in a sub tropical area (north of Sydney Australia). I may be at its limits- climate wise, but you would think it would try harder :) I put the large tree in a small hot house over winter and am keeping it as humid as possible- fairly humid here during warm months anyway. Interesting about the pH. Are your trees well drained?
Very well drained. I placed crocks at the bottom of the pots before dumping in the growing medium and now that the trees have established themselves, I water them everyday (twice a day during the "hot" season). My trees get full sun (from morning to late afternoon) and I have never pampered them.
