Description
Aloha from Big Island.
These delicious, juicy, cherry-like fruits are a great addition to your homescape. These seeds are harvested fresh to order from our organic Big Island exotic farm and shipped the same day. Packed in plastic bags in moist vermiculite and send in padded envelopes.
Native to South Brazil, Grumichama, also called Brazil cherry and Spanish cherry. The berries are sweet with juicy flesh and here in lowland wet-tropical Hawaii they fruit several times a year. A member of the Myrtaceae family, grumichama is related to guava, jaboticaba, mountain apple, and other members of the genus Eugenia.
Grumichama is generally eaten fresh. The taste has been described as a cross between black cherry and jaboticaba with a hint of Concord grape. Grumichama jelly and syrup can be found at some of Hawai‘i’s farmers’ markets. In the Caribbean, a reduction made from the juice of the fruit is used to accompany fish dishes. It can also be used as base for hot sauces.
Whole pitted fruits can be used in pies, cakes, and fruit salads. Processed puree is used in jam and jelly or in sauces. The pulp is juicy with a dry “grape like” skin.
The long-stemmed fruit is 1⁄2–1 inch in diameter and turns from green to red to dark purple and black as it ripens.
Planting environment: Grumichama is a subtropical plant that grows best in partial shade but will produce fruit in full sun. Fruit production is best when annual rainfall is above 70 inches; supplemental irrigation can be used where rainfall is lower.
It is also is an attractive tree that can grow up to 45 feet tall or The tree can be pruned as a shrub and kept at 6-foot heights to facilitate harvesting. In Hawai‘i it produces fruit from 300 to 2000 feet elevation.The tree prefers deep soils but will survive shal- low sandy soils when given enough moisture. Fruit pro- duction generally begins in the fourth year from seedling trees that are about 4 feet tall. The trees will grow about 1 foot per year but can be kept pruned as a hedge and still produce abundant fruit.
Planting seeds: Generally grown from seeds, there are no known cultivars. But airlayering and grafting is possible. The fresh seeds remain viable for up to 6 weeks.
description courtesy of UH HAWAII
https://gms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/gs/handler/getmedia.ashx?moid=3050&dt=3&g=12
