Author Topic: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado  (Read 15473 times)

FrankDrebinOfFruits

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #25 on: May 12, 2015, 08:09:16 PM »
I have space and desire to grow mangosteen. I just cannot take the waiting part... I applaud you for having the patience to grow it indoors and grow it well.

LivingParadise

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #26 on: May 12, 2015, 09:43:56 PM »
It's a total myth that mangosteen will not survive being transplanted. Actually they are quite hardy. I have shipped bare root mangosteen from Thailand and they all did fine after one week bare root in the mail.

That certainly has been my experience. In all honesty, while there is of course an art to growing plants and to truly being a horticulturalist, I have heard endless claims that plants in general are so delicate that turn out not to be true.

I have been told that my mangosteen would die from transplanting it, that my orchid would die after its first flowers because it is too hard to keep them alive for a full year, that my Birds of Paradise would die from splitting them and replanting them, that my melons would never fruit indoors because it's not enough sun, and on and on and on... and none of these things turned out to be true. I don't know why people are so afraid of plants, and of gardening. They're not little delicate flowers, so to speak, lol!  They're hardy machines made specifically to survive against all odds, as long as you can give them the basic tools for life - just like human beings. If you understand that each plant needs a certain amount of water, certain nutrition, certain humidity level, and certain amount of light and oxygen... it's pretty hard to go wrong if you give it to them.  Mangosteens in my minimal experience so far don't seem to need much from me - I haven't given it any more care than I have a ficus or a rubber tree, a random houseplant - and yet it grows just the same.

I'm not trying to be arrogant at all. It's just that plants don't need all the fussing from humans in order to grow. They are genetically designed to grow. The problem comes when humans place human expectations on plant achievements. If you don't require a plant to put out the absolute best growth, the best flavor, the most attractive leaves, the fastest fruit, the top of everything... the plant does just fine on its own, no special fertilizers or extra care needed. Grow a plant in an environment in which it is equipped to do well (even if that environment happens to be totally artificial like the indoors in a pot), and it will do what it does, all on its own. It may not have the most stellar fruit without intervention, but I don't care. I like the unique beauty of each plant doing what it was meant to do, in its own way. I love the diversity of watching different plants around me, doing different things at the same time. I love that they do not conform.

There is no particular reason that a mangosteen cannot be transplanted, that it can't be fruited indoors, or that it can't live and fruit outdoors in Florida. As long as it gets the reasonable care that it needs, it should be fine. In Florida, reasonable care involves amending the soil, because it's not likely to be happy on high-PH coral soil, it won't get the nutrients it needs, and will become susceptible to disease - just like a human lacking sufficient nutrients. But just because fruiting mangosteen in Florida hasn't been done a whole lot before, doesn't mean it can't be done. The same for indoor planting. The right soil, the right light, the right temps, the right watering... and it should be fine.

From what I have seen, mangosteen are not delicate, and anyone who wants to should give growing them a try. I hesitated because of all the reputation for being so precious and dainty... but I have treated mine a bit harshly at times and it is still kickin' it. There is no reason to fear - except of course for the price tag of the initial plant - which in my case was around $120. But it already made me pretty close to that much worth of happy, looking at it every day for over a year up close in my house and watching it grow while seemingly never move a muscle. It's a pretty cool, attractive plant.

Tropicaliste

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #27 on: May 12, 2015, 11:06:31 PM »
Interesting to see this old thread revived. The other day I was wondering what happened to coplantnut. Lol.

knlim000

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #28 on: March 13, 2016, 06:44:46 AM »
has the mangosteen fruited yet in Colorado?

Stan

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #29 on: March 13, 2016, 12:48:19 PM »
I read somebody say that they were able to get Atemoya to bloom in less then a year from seed under lights. They also force fed it high middle number fertilizer.
I wonder if that would be an answer to the many "I grow it,but it wont flower and fruit" posts?
I might use flower fert on my Santol this summer.

CoPlantNut

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #30 on: March 15, 2016, 06:30:02 PM »
The Colorado mangosteen is doing well; it has been trimmed back twice now as it wants to get taller than 5' and I don't have the room. No hint of flowers forming on it yet, but it is only 4.5-5 years old so I'm not really expecting any yet. If it objects to being kept less than 5 feet tall it may never flower, though it is cooperating nicely with increased branching without getting too tall.  All of the G. xanthochymus and G. hombroniana nurse rootstocks have died off, so it is living only on its own roots at this point, but it seems perfectly happy and healthy still in a 3-gallon fabric pot.

Sometime in the next 2-4 years I hope to get flowers!

   Kevin

knlim000

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #31 on: March 15, 2016, 07:18:46 PM »
Great to hear and thanks for the updates. Hope you get them mangosteen fruiting soon.

Tropicaliste

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #32 on: March 15, 2016, 11:32:54 PM »
It's good to see an update from you, Kevin. It kind of seemed like you fell off the face of the Earth. :) Could you post any pics of your mangosteen?

SoCal2warm

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Re: Experiments with container-grown Mangosteen in Colorado
« Reply #33 on: April 11, 2018, 07:06:11 PM »
My biggest is in the 3 ft range.  It was lighted by only a couple of light weight florescent bulbs, and it was doing great.  I now have moved it to a grow tent with 400w leds.  It is still growing but I am getting chlorosis in the new growth. I am thinking it is not getting the nutrients that it needs.  I'm thinking of trying chemical ferts to give it a boost.  Anyone use chemical ferts on mangosteen?  Or should I just dial back the light? I have used foliage pro exclusively on it, it seems to like it. Maybe just a higher dose of that. More foliar is definitely in order.
The temperature inside may not be consistently warm enough. They grew much better for me after I installed a thermostat and mini 250 Watt space heater to maintain the temperature between 77-79.
Before that the heat was coming mainly just from the lighting and was getting down to 63 at night. The plants seemed not to be putting out much growth or to be very slowly declining. I also found that the young plants (5 inches tall) do not seem to handle excessive light well. Bear in mind that there was plenty of humidity here and this was LED lighting. Yet the leaves started appearing a little bit bleached and unhealthy until I toned down the light level.

Another lesson learned is that heat pads did not end up working out well because they caused the soil in containers to dry out at a much faster rate. That's what happens when something is a warmer temperature than the ambient surrounding air.

This is in WA state:

"mangosteen and lychee, growing in warm enclosure"
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=26605.0