Miracle Fruit - Synsepalum dulcificum, anyone grow this before?
- Thread starter JADOZE
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Where did you get yours from? I have one from Pine Island Nurseries. It has it's first fruit on it now.
Miracle Fruit center & Barbados Cherry on right side
I forget the name but its from southern florida. Its four or five years old
I've only had it a couple months, but it's a few years old already.
Fruit can occur in as little as one year, if you are lucky. Generally, it is height that is used to measure to chance of fruiting. The beginning height being 12 inches.
Light
The scenario generally goes like this: This plant is from a forest biome. Now, there are many tall trees in the forest. The miracle fruit plant, being a shrub, is not nearly as tall as many of the trees. Therefore, it needs partially filtered or indirect sunlight. A south facing window, or under a tree does the job nicely.
Water
As with almost any container gardening, water when the top of the soil is ever so slightly dry. Another method to check is to weight the plant (pot and all) after watering, and to then water after the weight goes back down. They are very sensitive to chlorinated water, so you are going to want to use rainwater or at least filtered water. If nothing else, leave an open container of water out overnight, so that the chlorine can dissipate.
Fertilizers
An organic fertilizer usually works best. Avoid anything high in nitrogen, as it will prevent flowering and fruit production. Something with a balance of 15-15-15 works well. A lot of people use fish emulsion. Worm tea is supposed to work wonders for the plant.
Soil
Going back to our forest scenario, the soil of a forest is mostly lacking nutrients, except for the top layer. Something like peat and perlite is recommended. I've seen mixes of 50/50 to 60/40 (that's peat to perlite). Spreading a thin layer of well composted material across the top would be beneficial also.
You are going to want acidic soils. So if you do end up buying premixed, or make your own peat/perlite mix, check the pH. It should be around 4.5-5.5. If it is too high, the plant will suffer.
Air
The plant comes from a very humid climate, so a humidity rate of at least 60% is recommended. If you usually have a low humidity rate, you need to increase the humidity yourself. Some people place a clear bag over the pot, while some place it in a grow tent. If you want to go all out, you can construct a box with clear sides and a plant humidifier.
Temperature
They aren't very cold tolerant above 70° F (21.1° C). Anything around 38° F (3.30° C) on a well establish plant can be lethal to your plant. For younger plants, even 60° F (15.56° C) can be deadly.
Containers
They actually like to be ever so slightly root bound. Choose a pot that is about 2x as large as the root ball (1 gallon is usually the common size). A lot of people avoid plastic, claiming it has side effects. That choice is up to you.
An example of a grow tent for humidity:
That's a summary of what I know. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
I wouldn't mind growing the plant, sounds cool, but they were pretty expensive when I last looked. Apparently the fruit doesn't hold up long from what I read either. I have tried miracle fruit tablets though (still have some), and those things are awesome.
I have a very small one (about 4-5 inches tall) growing right now. Actually it's not really growing, it's just sitting outside chilling. It's in peat/perlite with a very small amount compost. It only has four leaves, the lower two turned a reddish soon after I planted it (about a month or so ago) but the top 2 are green still. Not sure what's going on with it, it isn't really growing and doesn't appear to be extremely happy, but it seems to be stabilized and not in immediate danger of croaking. The pH was a little high (5.5) despite being almost entirely in peat/perlite, so I added a little sulfur on top and watered. I might repot it in a smaller container (it's in a 1 gallon right now) with peat/perlite without any compost and see if that helps. I have it sitting under a chile pepper canopy to try to get some more humidity.
I ordered it from some guy on amazon, he ships small ones bare rooted in an envelope with moist paper towels on the roots. It was in very good shape when I got it. If you have the patience to start with a small one, they're fairly cheap. I think it was ~$10-11 shipped. Buying a larger one and having it shipped is usually more like $30-40 from what I've seen.
I ordered it from some guy on amazon, he ships small ones bare rooted in an envelope with moist paper towels on the roots. It was in very good shape when I got it. If you have the patience to start with a small one, they're fairly cheap. I think it was ~$10-11 shipped. Buying a larger one and having it shipped is usually more like $30-40 from what I've seen.
The first year will be VERY slow growth. After that, it should take off a bit. Red leaves generally come first and then they turn green. I would not know why that would become the opposite in your situation. What fertilizer, if any, are you using?
Just a very small amount of compost. I think I'm going to repot it in straight peat/perlite and then give it a very weak dilution of the fertilizer for acid loving plants that I use for my blueberries...
BTW, I just looked and the two reddish lower leaves have fallen off, so it's just the top two leaves left. One of the leaves is sticking straight up in the air and has been since I got it about 3-4 weeks ago.
Edit, here's a picture of it, sad little thing I know...
I would recommended a fertilizer, then. It seems like what you're planning on is fine. How's your heat and humidity? Light exposure? Such young plants can be very sensitive.
Heat has been ~85-90/60-65 for the last couple weeks, it gets quite a bit of light. I don't think it has been outside in under 60F temps. If it has, it was very slightly under 60F. The nighttime temps did dip below 60F a few times when I first got it but I tried to move it inside each time. The humidity, not sure but it should be fairly high since it usually stays pretty humid in Indiana in the summer. I've done a little reading on what conditions it likes but not a lot. I think I may have over watered it a bit a few times. I'm going to try to pay more attention to it because I want it to get a little size on it before I have to bring it inside for the fall/winter. I'm afraid if it's still really small it will be more likely to croak over the winter. When I repot I'm going to put it in a 5.5" deep pot and mulch it with some pine bark. Going to try to spray the leaves regularly to keep humidity up too.
A friend of mine gave me 3 berries of this miracle berry to try. I sowed it 2 weeks ago and still no signs of germination. I wonder if this fruit requires cold treatment.
To elaborate a bit on this. You want to remove the hard shell on one of the ends. I bite mine, but that's my way, not the only way. I then put in a plastic bag with a moist paper towel and place it somewhere warm. I usually see a small taproot within a few weeks. After the root has grown within .25 inches, I move it to soil.ChicosAStar said:
