The Tropical Fruit Forum

How big do you all let your trees grow to before you let then hold fruit? This is for both in ground and potted plants. I'm mainly interested in mango, avocado, and citrus tress. If you have a pic with tree age, it would be awesome.

This is a 3 year old NDM mango. I just reported it into this 25 gal pot (I think it's a 25 gal).

I have started putting together and purchasing parts of my hoop house. I'm building this hoop house at my parents' homestead on the outskirts of Houston. They have 2 acres and are always fiddling out in the yard. Winter is their boring season as they basically huddle inside the majority of the time. Our winters are generally not that cold as I am able to run around in shorts and t-shirts through the majority of it. However, snow and cold ice freezes have been more common lately. These oddball events occur a day or two at a time and only once or twice a year. They don't occur every year either. However, I would like to stop bagging, dragging, and carrying lots and lots of pots to a makeshift greenhouse that we raise each year. It's just too much work!! The plants take a beating and it takes a good amount of work putting up the makeshift shelter each winter.

I have decided to take the leap and make a simple hoop house. They can get a jump start on and prolong their growing season with a nice hoop house. The hoop house will about 72' or 73' by 20' wide. I am undecided on the height of the structure but I'm thinking 11' tall. This will allow easier access to the two ends and they will have a short vertical ground post sides. The height will also allow trees to be grown a little taller before they have to be pruned.

So far, I have only purchased the hoop bender and the 1 3/8' x 10.5' top rails. I am currently in the process of bending those hoops. It's a decent amount of work given the fact that I plan to space those hoops at about 3' apart. Why you may ask? Because 1, they occasionally get strong winds; 2, more ribs = less flopping of the covering which in turn will reduce wear and tear; 3, it's only a difference of about $150 to significantly strengthen the structure.

I'll keep this first post up to date with prices (rounded up) on the material spent.

-hoop benders (I bought 3 sizes in case I felt like raising a smaller one (10' or 12' wide) at my house in the subburbs)= $130
-1 3/8' galvanized top rail ($12.48/each or bulk price if bought 30+ $10.24/each)= $700 thus far. I will need more as I need to but stiffening and perlins

I have bent about 45 of them. I still have more to do.


Thangbom

Hello all, I bought a few hoop benders and would like to offer it to the community. I have the DY-20, DY-12, and DY-10. What I want to do is offer rental for these benders to the local community to borrow (Houston area only, sorry). How it will work is you will send me a PM with your real name and number. I will then post your name on a list that I will create and edit as others request to use it. We can make arrangement to meet at my place or somewhere to exchange a $60/per bender collateral for the ~1wk rental. Once you return the bender I will return you your $58. I will keep $2 as rental fee as the bender will inevitably will need replacement.

With that said, I have yet to use these benders as I'm still in the planning stages of building a hoop house. Once I am ready, I will put myself on the top of the list and will be next up to use the bender.

I know we Houstonians already have a nice gardening community but I would like to add to it. I am a new gardener and will love to learn, chit chat and maybe get seeds of rare/hard- to- find plants once I get the hang of growing things (I'm willing pay if it's in my budget).

Thangbom

 

Hello and happy holidays!

I'm in the research and planning stage of raising a large green/hoop house at my parents' house. They live in the outskirt of Houston where they homestead raising chicken, ducks, quails and plant a good assortment of veggies. My siblings and I regularly visit them on the weekends (almost every weekend). My parents are older (70) but still stay active and love to work in the garden. As the cold comes, my siblings and I have to carry a bunch of plants to group them together to cover them with tarps, plastic, ect. to protect them. I'm tired of doing this and my parents don't have much to do since they can't grow anything in this cold season. They would also like to try their hands at other plants that would regularly not survive in our zone. this whole project will be a DIY project so that I may save $$. I'm not cheap per say but saving $ is good. I don't mind spending $ if I think it's worth it. I'm setting my budget at $2500 for this whole project. Again, I plan to build and DIY everything that I can so save $. Luckily I consider myself very handy and have a good amount of handyman skills/tools.

The plan:
-20'w x 50'l x 12' peak hoophouse (I would like to have more of a strait side so There would be more usable vertigo space). I just have to figure out where to raise the GH on the 2 acres property
-hand cranked roll up sides and auto open vent at top of end walls
-water from well and rain gutters (gutters later on)
-a small door at each end to go in and out
-a second door at the end large enough to drive a 1500 series through in case we ever need to do something in the off season.
-till up the greenhouse grass/dirt to make it softer/add a few truckloads of topsoil to add nutrients and make it easier for roots to grow down.
-dig a small trench near the greenhouse to control water drainage away during rain storms.

I plan to reserve about 15' of the last portion of the hoophouse to plant some trees (mango, avocado, lychee, logan, pineapples, passion fruit, dragon fruit and whatever else I see interesting).

The questions:
-Once the greenhouse is up and growing veggies, how are you transporting dirt/mulch ect. into the greenhouse? Remember, my parent are old so I'm trying to have it so that they can do things on their own.
-Flooring? This is a complex question I think. I plan to have some kind of solid flooring in 1 transporting lane. I think I'll lay bricks of maybe pour some concrete. What I mean by the transport lane is I plan to have a designated lane that will run down the length of the GH for the above question. I'm thinking a sturdy and solid base for this one lane will make it easier for my parents to roll and cart things around. The real question if what so I use for flooring for other areas of the GH that is not growing something?
-Shade cloth? Where to buy? What type?
-Poly sheet? Where and what kind did you buy? (I was thinking 6mil GH poly but unsure)
-For you windy people, how deep did you dig and anchor your poles? I planned to cement every other post and erecting the hoops 3' apart instead of 4' just to add strength but IDK.
-Pest control? We occasionally see wile animals such as birds, rabbits, snakes, foxes, and occasionally an escaped farm animal (horse, donkey, cow). How are you keeping these animals out of the GH when you open the doors or skirts? What about bugs inside the GH such as grasshoppers and such? I was thinking maybe getting some guinea hens to live int he GH to eat bugs?


Thangbom

I just watched this video. It's very educational and interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UBOMh5WbTo

This is some good reading on grafting.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/propagation.pdf