Have you heard of Synsepalum dulcificum, the miracle fruit that turns sour into sweet!

(http://online.wsj.com/article_email/S...)

Family: Sapotaceae

Native to Ghana (Tropical West Africa)

a.k.a. Miracle Berry

  You are bidding on * small live seedlings with vigorous root systems 3-5 inches tall with * leaves born and grown in Hawaii.

 Ships as shown in pot.

FAMILY : Sapotaceae
TYPE/USES : evergreen shrub
SIZE : 6' - 12'
LIGHT REQUIREMENTS : filtered light
WATER REQUIREMENTS : average
MIN. TEMP. : low 30's
FLOWER : warmer months

photo of similar item

Miracle fruit is difficult plant to locate and is usually found only in a collector’s garden.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html?ex=1213156800&en=a731f257c7cedbd7&ei=5070&emc=eta1

A relatively tasteless berry with an amazing side-effect. After eating one miracle fruit, sour things will instantly taste sweet. Eating even the sourest of lemons, one will taste only sugary sweetness. The effect lasts an hour or two. The miracle fruit is a remarkable natural sweetener that is virtually unknown to much of the world.

       Miracle Fruit thrives best in partial shade. When plants are small they are subject to frost damage, so they should be container-grown and kept indoors or moved to protected locations when frost or freeze threatens. Older plants may sustain some leaf and minor twig damage, but may sustain cooler temperatures without being killed. Although not thought to be frost tolerant, the synsepalum plants have been observed growing in Florida in protected from wind locations as far north as Tampa.

 

       There are 2 known species of synsepalum that carry miracle fruits. Synsepalum dulcificum is a smaller-leaf version (leaves are narrow), and is somewhat slower growing plant. Synsepalum subcordatum (Giant Miracle Fruit) is a larger leaf variety, and grows into a small tree. The fruit are slightly bigger than those of s. dulcificum, and are produced more profusely, especially in first years. With age, the fruit crop amounts of these two species become about the same.

 

    This small, evergreen shrub grows very slowly to a height of 4-6 ft in container, and 10-15 ft in natural habitat. Eventual size depends on where the plant is grown; a 10 years old plant might be easily only 4-5 feet tall. It forms an oval to pyramidal shaped bush or small tree.

Inconspicuous brown-and-white 1/2 inch flowers are followed by bright scarlet, 1 inch football-shaped fruit, sweet and pleasant tasting. Most of the fruit is taken up by a single large seed, but the pulp around it can be nibbled off and then for the next hour or so, anything one eats that is sour has a sweet flavor. The plant starts fruiting when only 1 ft tall. It produces fruit practically year around. In native habitat, two large crops are available yearly, each after a rainy season. The mature bushes usually have a few fruits hanging around all year. Seed to fruit in 2 to 3 years. Flower to fruit in 30 to 45 days.

One of the many virtues of miracle fruit is its ease of cultivation, although, like with any plant, it would be nice if you learn its likes and dislikes before inviting it into your home or garden.

THE PLANT

      A slow growing bush or small tree to 15ft. Needs acidic soil and is intolerant to alkaline conditions. Will tolerate minimal frost when full grown, but needs lots of water year round. The miracle fruit cannot be grown outside in the United States except Southern Florida, but it makes an easy house plant. Fruit is produced throughout the year and hundreds of berries can be harvested from a single plant. Fruit is produced throughout the year and hundreds of berries can be harvested from a single plant.

        Small berry with tasteless flesh but an amazing side effect that will make sour things taste sweet. The effect lasts for an hour or two. After eating a single miracle fruit, you can eat a lemon raw without puckering! Small bush or tree, tropical, will survive slight frosts. Easily container grown. Filtered light with some direct sun is good. Fertilize it once a month with liquid fertilizer. Miracle fruit is not an indoor plant. A.C. and heaters dry out the air too much for them. If you don't have experience growing tropical plants indoors do some research on the internet for tips.

Avoid freezing temperatures.

THE FUN, THE TRICKS AND RECIPES

               Many people are still unaware of this rare fruit and the effect it could have on enhancing the quality of their lifestyle.

• Invite your guest to taste the small Miracle Fruit berry, which is usually liked for its own sweet taste. Then offer them to taste a sour fruit from your garden collection: lemon, calamondin, key lime, eugenia, amla or any other sour fruit. They will be amazed at the "new variety’s" taste and will be begging you for a cutting!
  

  • Offer the fruit and then a beer. It could kill beer appetite for more than an hour and makes beer taste like a lemonade. Heavy beer drinkers can take a brake!
    

  • Try to enhance the quality of other fruit. Enjoy the delights of a bowl of tart strawberries! Lemons taste like lemon sherbet.
    

  • Miracle Fruit enhances flavor of grapefruit. A heavenly breakfast will be provided by a single Miracle Fruit berry before your morning grapefruit!
    

  • Organic acids - especially citric acid - are the substances that are modified to the greatest degree. Battery acid will NOT become a tasty drink.

Miracle Fruit is a great sweet enhancement for dieters.

The unique properties of miracle fruit have been used for an appetite stimulation of persons taking chemotherapy medicines to help them to remove the metallic taste and return the desire for food.

            There are no artificial sweeteners proven absolutely safe. Sugar and other "natural" sweeteners are hardly to be considered as food with no ill effects. Miracle fruit is a natural, healthy and harmless sweetener! Due to its safety, it may have a great potential and practical use in everyday life and become a gift to humanity, a way to improve our diets and our health.

           Unfortunately heat destroys the active principle, so that canning, jams, preserves, baking, drying, etc. are impossible. The fruits can be held for a short period of time by refrigeration or freezing.

           The fruits themselves are of interest as a commercial source of artificial sweetener; however, large quantities of berries are needed to collect a substantial amount of the sweetener. The problem is how to increase the shelf life of the product. The berries are perishable, and once picked, last only a few days. Methods of shipment are not conducive to marketing the fruits and commercial cultivation of the plants was unsuccessful so far.

Miracle fruit is one of the strangest tropical fruits. The most unusual thing about it is the effect it has on one's taste after this miraculous berry has been consumed. The “miracle” is that if lemon or other sour food is eaten after the miracle fruit, the sour tastes sweet, as if sugar has been added. That kind of magical experience is unforgettable! The interest in this plant is so high that anyone who has a plant always finds eager volunteers to test its sweetening properties. A natural chemical in the fruit masks the tongue’s sour taste buds so that lemons taste like lemonade or lemon pie, or lemon candy. What causes the miracle? The fruit has a unique taste changing glycoprotein that inhibits taste buds' perception of sour taste. The sweet sensation lasts for half an hour to a few hours...

A BIT OF HISTORY

         The plant was discovered in West Africa, where the native diet revolved around a few basic foods, mostly of sour taste. Just imagine the delight of the people when someone ate a few red berries and later ate a meal of sour foods, to find everything suddenly sweet! The West African natives use the fruit to sweeten sour palm wine (beer) - Pito, and fermented maize bread - Kenkey.

         This West African wonder was not botanically identified and named until the middle of the 19th century as Synsepalum dulcificum, a member of the family Sapotaceae, relative of the sapodilla (Manilkara zapota).

Miracle Berry

       If planted in alkaline limestone based soils, the plant may die. These plants seem to live for acid, thriving in it, and then converting it! They must have rich, well-drained soils that are acid in pH, with lots of peat moss, and require constant supply of micronutrients. On alkaline soils they often are grown in large containers with generous amounts of peat moss for sustained success in fruiting.

      Miracle fruit makes an excellent container tree, which gives it the added benefit of mobility. Since it is so easily containerized, almost anyone can grow this plant whether they have an outside planting area or not.

     Miracle fruit can be a rewarding indoor plant. It is not a fast growing plant, which is another benefit for those who would like to grow it in their house or greenhouse. It thrives under warm temperatures, and high humidity. A 10 inch plant is happy in a one gallon pot. One that size will flower and fruit at least twice a year, probably more frequently.

Synsepalum dulcificum

Family: Sapotaceae

Native to Ghana (Tropical West Africa)

 

    

   Shipping    

ATTENTION USA BIDDERS!

     All live plants are shipped bare-root wrapped in moist sphagnum moss to ensure the plant’s healthy transit to you. All live plants are Inspected By USDA Plant Inspectors before they are shipped to insure you get healthy pest free plants and seeds.

We ship via USPS Mondays-Wednesday with Delivery confirmation.

  All plant materials are required by LAW to inspected and certified by USDA prior to export Hawaii to the US Mainland.

 After Inspection, USDA stamps released for export Hawaii to the US Mainland. All items are delivered to USDA Inspection Station at Honolulu International airport.

USDA Certification charge is included in Shipping and Handling @ $5 fee per item/species.

There is a packing & custom boxing fee.

Last and usually least is USPS postage (shipping).

 

ATTENTION INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS!

  We can ship certified live plants to the US only. Only Domestic Shipping and Handling includes USDA Certification.

We ship Seeds Internationally.

  All International shipments are at Buyer's Risk. Please spend no more more than you can lose!

Proper Permits and Documents are the BUYER's responsibility. Please request any documents prior to shipping.

For foreign customers, please check your laws concerning permitting and customs, additional shipping and handling costs may apply.

 The additional charge for any Phytosanitary Certificate is not included in this offer.

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING ON LIVE PLANTS is available only under these conditions!

All international orders are shipped at the BUYER's RISK  (shipped with or without documents) and no refunds or replacements are offered for Dead On Arrival, loss, confiscation, Customs Seizure, unanticipated charges, etc.

 

   Payment

            We accept online payments only through PayPal, Cash payments are only acceptable for in-person payments and cash-on-delivery (COD). Cash payment can not be sent through the mail.

      Please only one Paypal payment. SO THE COMBINED SHIPPING RULE WILL CAN BE USED. Multiple paypal payments are NOT eligible for discounts.

        We will ship once a week - ON or BEFORE WEDNESDAYS, because of the special stamps needed to ship plants and cuttings to you.  This can only be done at the Dept. of Agriculture.  If payments are not met before that MONDAY, your items will be shipped the following week and lose the combined discount opportunity.

         Non-paying bidders may receive negative feedback and will be reported as an unpaid item to eBay.

 

COMBINED SHIPPING POLICY

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING is not included in this offer.   INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING ON LIVE PLANTS on a case by case basis.

We will combine shipping for auctions won on the same week paid with same PayPal payment.

   This policy is good for auction items bought and paid for in the week ending MONDAY.

We ship on Tuesdays.

Payment must be received within 4 days of the auction ending. 

Combined Discounts Won Auctions

     For 2-3 winning auctions, the combined discount is 10% of the total Shipping and Handling charges.

For 4-7 winning auctions, the combined discount is 20% of the total Shipping and Handling charges.

For 7+ winning auctions, the combined discount is 30% of the total Shipping and Handling charges.

 

         As each order is packed and prepared separately you will pay the quoted S/H charges individually per item. If you buy the same species in that item it does calculate out the discount (i.e.: additional item $7.61). My stores' combined shipping is built in for same items rather than a varied selection. S/H includes postage, USDA certification and inspection, proper packing and delivery to Airport for prompt delivery. I can't really change any of these. If you want one of this and one of that, it is hard to discount much as each different species requires it's own prep, packing, then at USDA each has to be unwrapped and inspected then repacked. USDA requires me to clean and prepare every last piece before we drive them to the Inspection Station on the other side of the island. It takes my wife and I, a day to pack items and get ready to ship. The whole next day we drive around the island and get inspected (2-3 hours), then drive to the Airport Post Office to drop off. It takes the same work with the same type item if you can understand.

 

LIVE PLANTS ARE PERISHABLE.

For this reason uninsurable.

        When you order a plant we assume you are prepared to care for it. Please have potting media and a container prepared for your plant before it arrives. Shipping can be stressful on a plant, and any mistakes that you make upon arrival can stress the plant further, which is not good. Proper care is critical upon arrival. It is your responsibility to know how to care for the plant.

Not every plant that I order through the mail survives, and I am aware of that and accept the risk when I order. This is the risk that you as the buyer accept, because there is no way to know what kind of conditions it will endure in the trip to your door. My responsibility ends when a live plant is delivered to your door. Live arrival is guaranteed, eternal survival is up to you.

Please Do NOT email me a week after potting your plant, and make a claim it arrived damaged. From delivery confirmation, you have only 48 hours from delivery confirmation to make any claim.

 

All claims need to be supported with Photos of the damaged plant(s) as packed/unpacked, the box if damaged, the packing materials and any documents. I am very reasonable and understanding, anything can happen to small plants in transit.

The expense to send it to you is most of your payment. To send any replacement(s), I try to piggy back with your next order.

Replacement is not an option for CUSTOMS SEIZURE.

ALL OF MY ITEMS ARE SHIPPED USDA CERTIFIED WITHIN THE U.S.- USDA and USPS fees are included in the actual cost of shipping and Handling.

Please do not leave a 1 or 2 in my detailed seller ratings for postage fees or any reason really because I will block you from any further purchases. I ship items the best and least expensive option. These are coming from Hawaii. The only thing inexpensive here in Hawaii are my items!! I do ship all my items promptly via best method--if you feel like the combined shipping fee is wrong, please wait to be invoiced and check back with me-I value your business and will work diligently to keep you satisfied. I am very generous and reasonable with reasonable people, just ask.

 

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If you are dissatisfied with the item, please contact me   

before leaving a negative or neutral comment.

I want you to be satisfied.

Mahalo iâ `oe no ke kipa `ana mai. E kipa mai hou!

Rare Palm Seeds

Fresh Highest Quality

         Seller warrants seed to be of the variety and quantity advertised. Safe delivery is guaranteed and seeds lost or damaged during shipment will be replaced at seller's expense. Claims must be made within 7 days of shipment. All other replacements, refunds, returns and exchanges will be made at the sole discretion of the seller.

  Seed is a live product which depends on many important related grower skills such as proper planting time, seed depth, type of soil, irrigation, proper use of fertilizers, weed controls, fungicides, insecticides, disease free soil, and reasonable weather conditions during the growing period. Germination is affected by such factors as temperature, moisture content, light intensity and contamination of planting media. These factors are totally out of the seller's control and are the buyer's responsibility and risk. Consequentially, the seller cannot unconditionally guarantee seed to perform properly regardless of conditions or the buyer's methods or mistakes.