GrumiChama time again!

[ClissAT]

On my rounds of the orchard the other evening I saw to my horror that the flying foxes had found the grumichamas.
Most were almost ripe with about 1/3 the crop still quite green.
But I had to pick right then in the failing light or there would be none left the next day.
I grabbed 4lt ice cream container & just dragged as much fruit off the tree as I could see in the half dark until the container was over flowing.

For a funny thing to do, I plonked the partly full container on the table with my dinner.
All I can manage to eat at any one time is a handful of these luscious fruit.
The rest went into the fridge.

So dinner on 28November2017 consisted of some salad items wrapped in freshly picked lettuce leaves, followed by as many grumichamas as I could stuff in!

They are fairly big this season & I realise when adding this photo to my folder on the pc that the previous season was in late January. So it has cropped very early this year or perhaps there'll be another crop in the coming January.

 

[Letsgokate]

Yum, the flying foxes seem worst this year. We have ha stop bring mangoes in early than we would like as the foxes were eating around the outside of unripe mangoes.

 

[ClissAT]

Yum, the flying foxes seem worst this year. We have ha stop bring mangoes in early than we would like as the foxes were eating around the outside of unripe mangoes.

Yes Letsgo, they are doing that here too. So disheartening to see all my hard work being smashed by bl@@dy pesky critters.
I lost half the crop in a hail storm couple weeks ago, now the bats are working their way through the rest.
Just eating the skin off the half grown fruit & dropping the innards to the ground all over the place.
Lots of back breaking work for me to go round the 5 trees daily to pick up all the potential mowing day missiles before they get lost in the fast growing grass.

 

[Kasalia]

Picked mine just now, first really big crop this year.

Now what to do with it?

 

[ClissAT]

Now what to do with it?

Eat 'em!

 

[Ash]

Amazing fruit!
Thanks for sharing these. They look so healthy and a fantastic alternative to cherry.

 

[Robyn67]

yum - perhaps some yummy jam. We have native birds eating our fruit - I will net them next year, but this year hasn't been good for anything except the apples.

 

[Letsgokate]

Yum looks great.

 

[Sharann]

Yum, the flying foxes seem worst this year. We have ha stop bring mangoes in early than we would like as the foxes were eating around the outside of unripe mangoes.

Is the grumichama related to cherries? Flying squirels must be a pest, are you able to do pest control for them?

 

[Letsgokate]

Flying foxes are protected. Since they are high in the trees there doesn’t seem to be a lot people can do. Have heard of people going out and making noises and bashing etc to scare them off but I don’t think much really works. Smaller trees of course can be netted and also bag individual fruits.

 

[Mark]

We have ha stop bring mangoes in early than we would like as the foxes were eating around the outside of unripe mangoes.

Same here...

had found the grumichamas.

Our biggest issue is the fruit fly. I got a shock after I harvested about 50 and then put them in the fridge overnight for safekeeping before making jam only to find a heap of fruit fly maggots in the base of the container the next day - they had burrowed out of the fruit due to the cold! Yuk... There was no sign of sting on the berries.

 

[ClissAT]

I must keep an eye out for that now Mark.
I have been thinking GC's didn't get attacked by FF.

 

[Mark]

I have been thinking GC's didn't get attacked by FF.

I wish that was the case... Our GC is growing really well at the moment too - it seems to have established well after years of slow growth.

 

[Mark]

Almost to the day, our grumichama is fruiting again this year but the fruit fly is decimating them! Do you guys net yours?

It's hard to tell if they have been stung but if you place the whole fruits in the fridge for a few hours the maggots burrow out - disgusting things

 

[ClissAT]

Mine are colouring up already.
Mostly I don't have a problem with stung grumi-charma but I will put some in the fridge to check.
But I also always bait for fruit fly, both male and female baits from July to February.
I see the little blighters flying around but rarely get stung fruit.
Mostly I bait to save the mangoes, but of course all the orchard and vegie garden benefits.

 

[Letsgokate]

I only planted my grumichama a few months ago and they are flowering, wasn't expecting that so nice surprise, Beautiful flowers. Mine are planted near my blueberry and up to this point, touch wood, the fruit fly don't seem to bother the blueberry. Like ClissAt I have baits around the place.

 

[Mark]

So the baits work for you guys then?

I must have not set mine up good enough (or enough of them) because in the past certain fruits still get stung like our stones, large tomatoes, and grumichamas...

 

[ClissAT]

I use a combo of natural for the females and commercial male bait (because its so complex).
My trees are generally 4-5m apart with a smaller teee between every large tree so plenty of air space.
Every tree taller than 2m gets either a female or male bait hung in it.

Kate you said your GC is near your blueberry. I hope not too close!
GCs get very big and very dense. As wide as they are high too. They change the microclimate around them.
2yrs ago I experimented with a particular form of fertilizer regime for my GC. I threw a whole bag of cow manure under the tree with just a couple small holes on the soil side of the plastic bag. Worked a treat. Planning to try that with other low hanging trees such as my citrus. The bag contents need to get moist and stay that way. Feeder roots come up into the cool shaded bag. I do also add some other prilled fertilizer with nutrients specially for fruiting trees at certain times of year.

 

[ClissAT]

It just occurred to me that the insect maybe a fruit gnat rather than a fruit fly.
Very confusing names because gnats look like very small flies while fruit flies look like yellow stripped wasps!
Both lay eggs in fruit but fruit gnats only use ripe fruit, while fruit flies will 'sting' (lay in very green fruit still on the tree as well.)
Both produce grubs around the same size but fruit flies take a lot longer to mature.
While the life cycle of a gnat is as short as 3 days.
There are two types of gnats. Very small and minute! The minute ones swarm (fly) around a ripe fruit bowl and are very hard to see.
The larger gnats that look like very small flies tend to stay close to the ripe fruit, preferring to crawl on the fruit or hide down under the pile of fruit in the bowl.

 

[ClissAT]

So a whole year has gone by and its now grumi-chama time 2018!

But my tree has not produced the large succulent fruit it made last year.
Instead there are millions of smaller slightly dry and a little tart fruit.
But I didn't give it much love this past year and certainly very little water during the dry season.
So I'm harvesting what I sewed!!

But today I sat on a tree trunk that now resides under the dripline on one side of the tree with the 4lt ice cream container between my knees and stripped bulk bunches of fruit off the thickly leaved branches like milking a cow.
Hopefully the fruit will make nice jam.

Might time to give the tree a good hard prune and thinning out. I guess it should be done right after fruiting is over. The branches are numerous and pendulous. The tree looks lovely as a decorative garden species and would be spectacular as an xmas tree with its large bright shiny green leaves hanging right to the ground.