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Messages - simon_grow

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: March 19, 2024, 10:48:51 PM »
Lets see the progress of everybody's yangmei :)

Here’s a couple pics of my Yangmei jungle.






Thanks Fruitfool, pinkturtle and ScottR! It would be awesome to get some homegrown fruit this year.

I also planted seeds from my Weee order last Summer and some seeds are just starting to sprout. I just ignored them like everyone else and they sprouted on their own.

Simon

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: March 16, 2024, 04:05:44 PM »
Here’s an update on my Yangmei trees. Looks like my trees were able to set fruit despite the weekly rains. All the trees are still in bloom but they’re definitely slowing down in terms of blooms opening up, especially for the earlier varieties that started blooming first. The White honey and Wandao are the latest to open this year.

Here’s the fruit getting bigger on my Big Black Carbon






Here’s White Honey with blooms, set fruit and new vegetative growth






Here’s Dongkui with fruit set, notice the color of the fruit has reddish/purplish coloration




An Hai with very heavy fruit set







And the worst part is that some of the fruit are so close to each other, I had to thin the fruit


I will probably end up thinning 50% of the fruit from An Hai since it appears there’s hundreds of fruit set. I’m not sure how much natural attrition there will be but I’d rather thin some fruit and get better quality since this is the first year fruiting and these trees are in pots.

Simon

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sugar Cane Juicer
« on: March 16, 2024, 01:31:40 PM »
Hey Brad, I’m glad I spoke with you before getting my new juicer. I think if I got the 400 watt model, I would have buyers remorse by now. I tested out my new juicer yesterday and I ran my thickest cane through it without cutting it in half and it easily pressed without stalling. My unit does not come with wheels so I might add some giant wheels from Harbor freight.

This unit was extremely easy to clean since the juicing chamber is completely sealed off. I just spray the top opening with a hose and lift the viewing window and spray everything out. This machine is a beast!

Simon

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sugar Cane Juicer
« on: March 15, 2024, 12:27:03 PM »
I just received my new sugarcane juicer. After a lot of web searching, I decided to go with this Vevor 4 roller machine because I have thick canes and the 800 watt motor will be more powerful than the 400 watt models. I’ll still have to split my largest canes in half but at least the motor is less likely to stall.

https://m.vevor.com/electric-sugarcane-press-c_10699/vevor-electric-sugar-cane-juicer-800w-sugarcane-juicer-machine-with-661lbs-h-high-output-4-stainless-steel-roller-auto-roller-pressure-adjustment-sugarcane-juice-press-extractor-for-home-commercial-p_010805021199?adp=gmc&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_id=16872267312&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACq8bLVARpLO1P7BS69EFgKIsrsJX&gclid=CjwKCAjw48-vBhBbEiwAzqrZVOaNNOlh6_n-HbW5I1boR9lpXamYXyg3nEJQ1xhnBu7T1Itjjwlg2xoCcl4QAvD_BwE

What I like about this juicer:
800 watts of power, 4 rollers for single pass juicing, acrylic window for viewing which easily slides up for cleaning and to empty strainer, the entire sugarcane juice extraction area is 304 stainless steel, the motor, gears and electronics are extremely robust, one of the four rollers have actual teeth for pulling in sugarcane that has not been peeled.

What I don’t like about this juicer:
It is very heavy, probably around 100 lbs, the strainer is relatively small and just tucks under the rollers, expensive at around 800-850 for the backyard gardener.

They also have a 3 roller model that is lighter in weight and cheaper.

Picture of the great quality rollers





The gears, chain and electronics. This model has better wiring connections than other models I checked out.

Simon

5
The fruit cracking can be caused by multiple reasons. In California, we often get cold weather which can lead to incomplete pollination. The resulting nubbin fruit often don’t have a fully formed seed and these thin seeded fruit crack at a significantly higher rate than fully pollinated fruit. You want pollination to occur during warmer weather. Often times, our trees will bloom multiple times throughout the year and at least one of the pollination events will occur during periods of warm weather.

The fruit cracking can also be caused by over watering and fertilizing at the wrong time of year. Try not to excessively water while your tree is holding fruit and avoid over fertilizing during heat waves. Fertilizers are pulled into the plant and changes the osmolarity of the fruit. If the osmolarity of the fruit becomes high due to fertilization and then the gardener waters heavily because of hot weather, the water will then be pulled into the fruit very quickly, causing the fruit to crack.

You can also try giving your tree some calcium in the form of gypsum. Frequent diluted feedings with kelp emulsion which contains auxins and cytokines can also increase Brix, fruit retention and size of your fruit. Yeast extract combined with kelp is also very good for mangos.

I’m not sure what the dark spots on your blooms are, I don’t like to give IDs without taxonomic identification using DNA but it doesn’t look bad. If you have fungal problems, it’s best to spray with Sulfur pre bloom and then again right before the blooms open. It’s also best to alternate what you spray. You can use an organic bio fungicide and then switch to organic copper and then back to Sulfur but your blooms don’t look like they need all that attention.

Simon

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: March 11, 2024, 11:22:29 PM »
So many of my trees die from the top down! Is there any prevention?

Are these the trees imported from China? Often times, it’s an issue with the roots. Best to graft the scions onto healthy rootstocks.

Simon

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: California Super Mango rootstock experiment
« on: February 27, 2024, 10:41:36 PM »
Hey Phillip,

Looking good so far. I’ve been meaning to make some more of these trees but work has been too busy. Please keep us updated on your progress with this tree!

Simon

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Foliar Feeding Micronutrients
« on: February 24, 2024, 01:51:01 PM »
After you read the article on research gate, you can check out this older thread with some info regarding mangos.

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=241.0

A spreader/sticker/extender is very important when foliar spraying.

Simon

9
If you’re in an area with Phytopthora, you should plant specific seedlings or clonal rootstocks that may have better resistance to Phytopthora.

Simon

10
Maybe you’re talking about this thread?

https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=12844.0

If so, I believe we used store bought Hass avocados as rootstocks.

Simon

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 22, 2024, 11:09:58 AM »
I have a grafted tree with two varieties on it and one of them is yellowing out super hard while the other isnt.

Hey Nate,

Did you check the graft union on both varieties? I’ve had this happen to some of my trees where I rushed my grafting and the union was kinda sloppy. I believe there was a bottleneck effect with the transport of nutrients due to incomplete union formation that caused the slower growth and yellow leaves on my tree.

Simon

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 22, 2024, 10:50:58 AM »
Mines look terrible.  Not sure if it's the cold, Californica rootstock, or too much water.


Hey Max, is your tree in the ground or in a pot? Besides the yellowing, I also see some burnt leaf tips towards the back of your picture. Did your trees have any close contact with the trees imported from China? I’ve noticed that the trees that were imported from China and had root knot nematodes tended to have yellow leaves like yours. I wonder if any cross contamination may have occurred with RKN infested trees?

Simon
Hi Simon, the trees are planted in the ground. It’s all grafted on Californica rootstock. The Scions are from China trees.  I’m positively  sure there’s no cross contamination with the RKN infested trees. Hopefully the trees will be better when Spring comes around. As for the burnt leaf tips, I think I threw down too much fertilizer pellets.

Hey Max,

I have noticed that some trees grafted onto Californica rootstock yellowed as it got colder. My Dongkui on Californica started yellowing a bit when I got frost and it seems to be recovering a bit now that the cold has passed and the sun is showing. I have other trees grafted onto Californica rootstock that didn’t yellow at all however.

Simon

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 22, 2024, 10:45:17 AM »
Simon, I never got a male piece to put on it.  The plant got pretty big.  It may not work that well to hang a male piece on it.  I will probably need to chop it way back to get the new piece to grow.

Hey Brad, you can grab some scions from my Hermaphrodite next time you’re in the neighborhood. You could also stop by to collect some pollen if you want to try to get some fruit this year. I would actually recommend doing a high graft for male Yangmei scions grafted onto female varieties because these trees grow so fast and it would be beneficial to have a larger percentage of the tree remain the female variety.

Simon

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 21, 2024, 10:42:09 PM »
Mines look terrible.  Not sure if it's the cold, Californica rootstock, or too much water.


Hey Max, is your tree in the ground or in a pot? Besides the yellowing, I also see some burnt leaf tips towards the back of your picture. Did your trees have any close contact with the trees imported from China? I’ve noticed that the trees that were imported from China and had root knot nematodes tended to have yellow leaves like yours. I wonder if any cross contamination may have occurred with RKN infested trees?

Simon

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 21, 2024, 10:36:42 PM »
Mine is just starting to make some flowers.  Looks like it will be 1-2 months before it really blooms.



Hey Brad, looking good and healthy. Did you graft any males onto it yet?

Simon

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 21, 2024, 03:25:10 PM »
Hey Shane,

How is your Biqi seedling doing? Have you found any male blooms on it yet?

Simon

17
When the weather gets hot, best to move them to a cooler spot out of direct mid day sun. Make sure the plants are well watered in hot weather. If your trees are in ground, water well and you can put up some shade or move another potted plant next to it to give it some extra shade. I agree the fruit has a great flavor and smell. I keep my plants in pots so they are easier to move.

Simon

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 18, 2024, 07:20:28 PM »
Lots of flowers here too. I love the red.  Can’t remember if male or female (I think female) but I’m still looking for healthy vegetative growth over fruit.  Maybe next year I’ll graft on some scions of opposite sex but it’s fun to have it healthy and thriving!





Rad! What rootstock is it on? Thx

I grafted that one onto Cerifera rootstock.

Simon

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 17, 2024, 09:46:26 PM »
Jeramyl, nice growth! Is that the same Biqi from me? Those are female blooms. Keep up the great growing!

Simon

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 17, 2024, 05:58:01 PM »
I haven’t seen male and female flowers on any of my plants yet. My Early Hermaphrodite is the only one that is supposed to produce both male and female blooms but so far I’ve only seen male blooms. According to the Chinese resellers/distributors from the group buys, Dongkui and several other varieties are supposed to set fruit on their own. A friend also contacted one of the sellers from a previous group buy and they sent a picture of Dongkui with both male and female blooms.

Simon

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 17, 2024, 12:21:22 PM »
Here’s the same picture with the supposed fruit circled.



There are several of these on my tree so fingers crossed that these are fruit set and that they can make it to harvest.

My Dongkui, An Hai, White Honey and special variety from a friend are also blooming. Late Rice (Wandao) and Biqi are slightly behind.

Here’s my An Hai blooming like crazy.











Simon

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 17, 2024, 12:07:53 PM »
I believe i have my first fruit set on my Big Black Carbon. I’ve been closely watching these blooms and as the pistil dried up, there is a round swelling at the base of the flower.



Simon

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 17, 2024, 12:01:38 PM »
Hey Rob,

Your plants look super healthy! Hopefully you will get some blooms next year. They should grow very fast in Florida.

RevivalROOts, that is awesome! I found the same thing on some of my Cerifera rootstocks.

My Hermaphrodite tree is going bonkers with Male blooms but these rain storms we get every other week is just washing away and soaking most the pollen which seems to be delaying any wind pollination.

I have multiple blooming hermaphrodite trees so I surrounded my grafted females with them in the hopes that there will be a better chance of wind pollination on the dryer days.

Here’s a couple shots of my Hermaphrodite’s male blooms.








 
My Hermaphrodite is also still pushing new buds so hopefully the pollen will still be available when my later varieties open their blooms.

Hermaphrodite with some buds at various stages of growth








Simon

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What Are The Tastiest Jabos, 2024?
« on: February 08, 2024, 11:00:02 AM »
I have Sabara, Grimal, Red Hybrid, Restinga and Paulista. Only my Sabara, Red Hybrid and Grimal have fruited. My favorite is the red hybrid because of the flavor, sugar acid balance and thinner skin compared to the other varieties.

Simon

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: February 03, 2024, 07:36:24 PM »
I think pinkturtle means it’s on original Rubra rootstock from the group buy.

Simon

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