Who can identify these?

Ok here are the answers.
1.
Jambu fruit. Also called Java apple.

Pruned tea plants

Middle- curry leaves
Right - black pepper
Left - pruned tea plants

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I’m claiming “amazing success” here - as the only person to get anything at all right. :grinning:

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Too bad there wasn’t any prize. :smile:
I have more photos, and will make another similar thread soon.

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If only our old friend Tom was still alive, he’d be able to ID them for me. Tom (his anglicised name) was Sri Lankan. His family paid for him to come to the UK for medical treatment when he was a young man and he decided to stay. He worked with my life companion for many years until retirement.

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That’s nice to hear. I too wanted so badly to come to England when I was young but I had nobody to lend or even to consider lending money to make it. I wanted to study English literature and classics in England. I loved reading Shakespeare, Dickens, Brontes, Wilde… the list is endless. I finally got a BA in English here in Sri Lanka but I know they are worlds apart in quality. I wanted to live in that civilized culture but it didn’t happen. lol.

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Refrigerator keeps people away from research. lol
But it’s good to know such stuff.

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tea pruned shooting
Pruned tea bushes growing again.

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I’ve got a couple Curry leaf (Murraya koenigii) growing in pots. I can try to root a cutting, if interested.

Curry leaf is one of those strange-smelling seasonings, like Hing/Asafoetida, which doesn’t smell like a good flavor. It sort of smells like burnt gunpowder. Yet, when mixed with other flavors, it really adds a delicious component.

If you look on Etsy, RKfarmsUS ships plants from South Carolina. There’s a fellow nearby, from India, where I got my plants; he sells a lot of potted ones and has some beautifully pruned older plants in pots.

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That seems like an insanely generous offer, but (after thinking about it for hours,) I realize I am no longer obsessed with curry leaves. Today it is whole wheat grains!

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@bogman I’m not sure where you are, but I would be extremely interested in a cutting!

I think I ordered seeds several times last year, but none of them actually arrived…

I’m in Virginia, USA, and can only ship within this country. My gmail account is the best way to contact me: rob.botanique@ (etc.). I make cuttings often, but not for curry leaf; I’m rooting tropical pitcher plants, Nepenthes. My guess is curry leaf should root under the same conditions: rooting hormone, bottom heat, high humidity. If you’re in the US, please email me your info and I’ll give the cutting a whirl by putting one or two in a Nepenthes rooting tent. It’ll likely be next year before any plant is stable, unless it roots super quickly.

Curry leaf doesn’t grow when it’s cool, needing tropical warm temperatures to grow well. It’s also a plant that is surprisingly intolerant of drying out; I’ve lost several that way. You’d think a plant which grows in India would shed leaves and grow new ones when watered…nope! If it gets really dry, it’s really dead.

Since we’re running a greenhouse and nursery, making cuttings isn’t hard, though I haven’t tried the curry leaf plant yet.

Whole wheat grains eh? I buy Golden 86, which gets ground as needed into bread flour. It’s much cleaner tasting than most other whole wheat “berries”. Golden 86 is a more modern variety classed as a “white wheat”. Yoder’s market isn’t far from here, so I get it in 50 lb. bulk bags and pack it into smaller storage mylar bags, with oxygen absorbers to keep fresh; then, into a cool basement. Email me if interested in a few pounds (depends on how many pounds are in the mylar pouches). I may need to ask for postage, since it’s heavier than seeds or bare-root plants. I just got a 50 lb. bag this spring, so have a lot on hand. It’s really cheap the way I get it, 52 cents/pound!

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Thanks! I’m in NYC. I’ll email you.

Yes, I understand it’s pretty finicky, but I thought I’d just keep it indoors.

I’ve seen postings for nurseries in NJ selling plants, but I never make it out there, and they don’t ship. Normally I just use leaves from the Indian store stuck in the freezer, or an old stash of leaves my mom dried for me, which are just fine once they’ve been introduced into hot oil.

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Looking up Golden 86! Are those "wheatberries "? Here’s my whole grain wheat obsession thread.

But I think I’ve moved on. Now it’s winter squash, and off course fall gardening; seeding and clean up, and planning to use the green house again. . But I will take you up on the curry leaf plant, if it won’t keep you from your non-gardening endeavors.

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Curry leaves grow well where there’s a lot of fallen leaves, mulch, and humidity. It needs water but not boggy soil. However, when they grow several inches thick, maybe after five or more years, they don’t actually care getting less water.

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Just another (very vague) data point: my parents in Northern California (near-ish Sacramento but still Central Valley, not foothills) also have a curry leaf plant I didn’t know about. I don’t know how they got it established but they say it’s unkillable.

It’s planted in the ground, not irrigated (I think) and the weather swings from well over 100F in the summer and just above freezing in the winter with quite a bit of rain. Humidity levels tend towards dry but with some variation depending on the season

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@bogman I see you said that. Sorry I missed it!

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