OK folks, I am satisfied that what I have IS a Silverhill. I talked at length on the phone with the gentleman who runs Flying Dragon Nursery in Jacksonville, FL yesterday. He has a couple of 50-year-old Silverhills and when he described the difference between Silverhill and Owari, it was my tree exactly! Between that and the pictures at the link Laaz posted I am about 95% sure of its identity

Here is a pic of my wife and ADORABLE granddaughter from this past weekend, picking some of the last of the fruit.


The tree is very spread out now from carrying more than 500-600 fruits to ripeness and I am going to start pruning this afternoon. We are forecast to come close to freezing in the next few nights so I want to do it quickly.

Do most of you want budsticks or should I try to root some of the branches instead. I need some direction on how big a branch to cut, etc. Also, I need advice on how to pack these sticks for mailing. Wrap in bubble wrap or does it matter?

I also have a small handful of seeds (strange, I have never found one, but my wife has!) Anybody wanting a budstick should PM me with a mailing address.

Definitely off topic, thank goodness there are no Nazis here!

My wife insisted I post another picture of Brianna, our granddaughter since the other pic is so bad. Here she is inside my dome greenhouse surrounded by banana plants.

Very nice looking tree Casa. Nope no forum Nazis here. Thanks for the photos

Very nice. This si my dream (I´m from czech republic)

Those are great pics! Your grand daughter sure looks like a sweetheart.
Ales, no problem. Just post something whenever you like. Your english can only improve,
and we'll do our best.

Cheers, Barrie.

The best budsticks are found just below the current season's growth.

If we start at the tip of a branch down to where it is attached, that branch is called the current season's growth, you don't want this part, it should be discarded. Then from where the terminal branch is attached down is your next bigger branch, this is what you want, that is the best buds to be used for propagation. The more vigorous the branch is, the better budwood it yields.

What I do, just two weeks before growth flushes starts, I harvest the buds. First, I cut off the terminal branch and throw it away. Then I clean the next branch below it by nipping off the leaves from the petiole. Then I wash that branch with clean water. Then cut that branch and wrap it in moist paper towel, and into ziploc bag, and put in icebox on top of ice. You can then put a layer of bubble wrap on both sides of ziploc and ship them off the soonest. If you do it exactly in this sequence, you will have very few moisture losses from your budsticks and the budwood will have a big chance of survival.