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Messages - franciscu

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26
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Diversity or Diversity
« on: March 17, 2015, 02:09:55 AM »
We're omnivores, but usually limit our meat/fish consumption to about 4-6 ounces per day.

We have a teenage granddaughter who has gone vegetarian. The whole family is tolerant and respectful of her choice. But it's worrisome because she's becoming ever more focused on carbs/ sugars and her health is suffering. Quite a dilemma for her parents.

Our gardening/ landscaping goals are shade, privacy, appearance, low maintenance, fresh air, exercise, reducing expenses for food, increasing self-reliance and emergency preparedness. We love fruit, BUT there's no way our health could tolerate all the sugar coming from our fruit trees.

Ideally, our selection of what to grow ought to aim for healthy nutrition (both fruits and vegetables), harvest spread out over 12 months, long season staples we eat a lot of, some short season 'treats', and cultivars selected for best taste, disease/insect resistance, ease of growing, extended picking season, and ease of harvesting.

We hope to grow more than we can eat ourselves and share the excess with friends, family, neighbors, and elderly folks who no longer have gardens or access to home grown fruits.

If local codes permitted we would opt to raise some rabbits, ducks, and/or chickens for protein. But that's a no go for the present.

27
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Must have mulberries (looking for new varieties)
« on: March 13, 2015, 01:20:56 PM »
Quote from: franciscu on March 11, 2015, 07:20:58 PM
The tags are still on the trees, I think. I'll see if I can post a photo tomorrow.

The 'green mulberry' has the tag. The one without a tag is the Tice.

Quote from: Viking Guy on March 11, 2015, 05:15:10 PM
Did you happen to check the variety?

It is possible you tried a white or a pakistani--neither of which have the tartness expected from a berry.  They are just lightly sweet.  The Australian is very notable in flavor.




28
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Must have mulberries (looking for new varieties)
« on: March 11, 2015, 07:20:58 PM »
The tags are still on the trees, I think. I'll see if I can post a photo tomorrow.

Quote from: Viking Guy on March 11, 2015, 05:15:10 PM
Did you happen to check the variety?

It is possible you tried a white or a pakistani--neither of which have the tartness expected from a berry.  They are just lightly sweet.  The Australian is very notable in flavor.

29
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Must have mulberries (looking for new varieties)
« on: March 11, 2015, 07:17:48 PM »
Thanks, I will keep your offer in mind. You are up in Central Florida I see.


Quote from: ASaffron on March 11, 2015, 02:03:23 PM
if you ever are in the area and want to trade for your tree, I'll take it.

I already have this one I think, but could use another.

I just love mulberries...all of them.

Quote from: franciscu on March 11, 2015, 01:58:16 PM
Quote from: bsbullie on March 11, 2015, 11:21:18 AM
When you purchased the green mulberry did you not know what the flavor profile was?  It has been discussed on this forum a number of times.  It is not supposed to have any acidity or sharp contrasting flavors.   While i dont know if what you ate off the little tree you purchaed was truly ready to be picked (when properly ripened they do not have a taste as you described ).  They should be a dirty off white color when ready, no green coloration at all. When properly ripened. They have the taste similar to a honeydew melon.

The first one I tried did have the dirty kinda off-white color. The berry was slightly plump too, so I do believe it was ripe. It was very underwhelming, I hate to say. I was disappointed for sure. On subsequent days I went with less ripe berries - experimenting to find out whether there was any 'tang' to be had earlier in the ripening curve. No go...

I'm sure that this is one of those personal taste things - some folks like Zinfandel, others prefer Chianti. Also, the tree is so small and I want to keep it for at least a year so as to give it a fair chance. But I expect I'll be wanting to replace it with a mulberry which has the most pizazz.

BTW, on the same day I also brought home a Tice from Excalibur. Much better.

30
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Must have mulberries (looking for new varieties)
« on: March 11, 2015, 01:58:16 PM »
Quote from: bsbullie on March 11, 2015, 11:21:18 AM
When you purchased the green mulberry did you not know what the flavor profile was?  It has been discussed on this forum a number of times.  It is not supposed to have any acidity or sharp contrasting flavors.   While i dont know if what you ate off the little tree you purchaed was truly ready to be picked (when properly ripened they do not have a taste as you described ).  They should be a dirty off white color when ready, no green coloration at all. When properly ripened. They have the taste similar to a honeydew melon.

The first one I tried did have the dirty kinda off-white color. The berry was slightly plump too, so I do believe it was ripe. It was very underwhelming, I hate to say. I was disappointed for sure. On subsequent days I went with less ripe berries - experimenting to find out whether there was any 'tang' to be had earlier in the ripening curve. No go...

I'm sure that this is one of those personal taste things - some folks like Zinfandel, others prefer Chianti. Also, the tree is so small and I want to keep it for at least a year so as to give it a fair chance. But I expect I'll be wanting to replace it with a mulberry which has the most pizazz.

BTW, on the same day I also brought home a Tice from Excalibur. Much better.

31
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Must have mulberries (looking for new varieties)
« on: March 11, 2015, 09:59:48 AM »
Quote from: ASaffron on March 11, 2015, 01:55:02 AM
where did u get the tree??

Quote from: franciscu on March 10, 2015, 06:29:59 PM
I recently bought a green mulberry 3 gallon size tree. It had three immature green mulberries on it. I bought it taste-unseen because of the high praise I read about here. The three little mulberries finally matured and I got to taste it. I guess I prefer more intense, complicated flavors because these left me totally uninspired. Very mild, no sharpness or complexity, some kind of greeny undertaste - sort of like sweet lettuce or something. Since it is so small I'll give it a year to prove to me that it's worth keeping.

Sorry, just my 2 cents....

From Excalibur. I love that place. It's just that this green mulberry cultivar and my particular taste processor don't seem to jive.

In general, I believe that individuals simply sense things differently. What one person may sense as fabulous (whether it be taste, sound, feel, smell, or sight) might come across as insipid to another. It's partially due to genetics, I think. That's why it's so hard to ever arrive at consensus.

32
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Must have mulberries (looking for new varieties)
« on: March 10, 2015, 06:29:59 PM »
I recently bought a green mulberry 3 gallon size tree. It had three immature green mulberries on it. I bought it taste-unseen because of the high praise I read about here. The three little mulberries finally matured and I got to taste it. I guess I prefer more intense, complicated flavors because these left me totally uninspired. Very mild, no sharpness or complexity, some kind of greeny undertaste - sort of like sweet lettuce or something. Since it is so small I'll give it a year to prove to me that it's worth keeping.

Sorry, just my 2 cents....

33
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What do you do with your Suriname cherries?
« on: March 04, 2015, 07:04:42 PM »
I bought a Meiwa kumquat at Excalibur on Monday. I wanted a Centennial but they only had the $250 size. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled and purchase a small one first chance I get.

34
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Nice 15g loquats in So. Fla
« on: March 04, 2015, 09:51:33 AM »
Quote from: zands on March 03, 2015, 05:25:45 PM
Quote from: franciscu on March 03, 2015, 05:21:31 PM


I have never come across a 'Supreme' cultivar of loquat in anything I have read. Not positive but I think that his 'mother' tree is the original Supreme. All I said was that we tried it and liked it - and bought a tree for $25. The couple of loquats Charlie gave us to taste were the first loquats of our lives, so I'm just reporting our experience as two naive amateurs. Actually this 'Supreme' is our second loquat tree. On Monday we visited Excalibur and bought a nice looking Wolfe (3 gal) for $35. The Wolfe is a FAR prettier tree, BTW. However we won't get to actually taste a Wolfe loquat until our new little tree grows up a bit.

I tasted his Supreme loquat and really they need 3-4 more weeks to sweeten up more.

The tree we ate samples from had fruit in all stages - green, pale yellow and still hard, medium yellow with softness, overripe with blemishes, shriveled and beyond appetizing. Charlie picked a couple of nice ones for us. The fruits were maybe 3 cm long, oval, 1-2 seeds which released from the flesh readily. Texture of fruit gave pleasant mouth feel, some juiciness, not crisp. Taste was quite enjoyable, pleasant combination of sweetness with some tart-sour underneath. I would have enjoyed eating a handful or two.

We haven't planted the 'Supreme' or the Wolfe yet. With the 2 pots standing together the appearance of the Wolfe is clearly the superior of the supreme. (My Latin teacher probably turned over in his grave right then...)

35
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Nice 15g loquats in So. Fla
« on: March 03, 2015, 05:46:05 PM »
Charlie is a retiree - a gentle and laid back guy. His 'grove' has been his hobby for decades. His trees are older varieties going back 30-40 years ago. He mentioned Carrie, Tommy Atkins, Kent, Haden,... When people come to buy his mangoes and say that they wish that they could have a tree yielding that fruit he then tells them they can and shows them his collection of trees grafted from the ones they like the fruit of.

36
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Nice 15g loquats in So. Fla
« on: March 03, 2015, 05:21:31 PM »
Quote from: bsbullie on March 03, 2015, 02:45:31 PM
So just for clarafication purposes:

The "Supreme" loquat is a seedling selection of his that he now grafts?

And he has a lot of mangoes in 15/25 gallon but is unsure of the varieties (and are they possibly grafted seedlings too)?

What about his "grove", known varieties?

I have never come across a 'Supreme' cultivar of loquat in anything I have read. Not positive but I think that his 'mother' tree is the original Supreme. All I said was that we tried it and liked it - and bought a tree for $25. The couple of loquats Charlie gave us to taste were the first loquats of our lives, so I'm just reporting our experience as two naive amateurs. Actually this 'Supreme' is our second loquat tree. On Monday we visited Excalibur and bought a nice looking Wolfe (3 gal) for $35. The Wolfe is a FAR prettier tree, BTW. However we won't get to actually taste a Wolfe loquat until our new little tree grows up a bit.


37
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What do you do with your Suriname cherries?
« on: March 03, 2015, 04:51:16 PM »
Haven't tried it, but I have always thought that Surinam cherries could be made into a fabulous syrup for over vanilla ice cream. But, as others have indicated, I have never had enough to  survive the trip between my trees and the kitchen!

38
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Nice 15g loquats in So. Fla
« on: March 03, 2015, 02:09:30 PM »
Wife and I visited Charlie's place this morning. Extremely nice fellow. Said that he has about 100 mango trees. Virtually all of them mature old (30-40 years). Huge old trunks - and I imagine huge old root systems to match. He 'pugs' back a small number of them every year in rotation. First year after pugging it's all new vegetative growth and no fruit. Second year they bear lightly. Third year they are gangbusters. All his trees looked vibrantly healthy and absolutely LOADED with pea sized fruits!

We got to taste his 'Supreme' loquats from his mother tree. Neither of us has any experience with loquat cultivars so we can't make a comparison. However, we both liked the fruit quite a bit - so we bought one home with us.

39
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: ultra high density mango plantation technique
« on: February 25, 2015, 04:14:55 PM »
Quote from: StPeteMango on February 25, 2015, 10:24:39 AM
Quote from: franciscu on February 25, 2015, 09:36:07 AM
I watched Dr Campbell's tip pruning and tree shaping videos first. They gave me confidence that an aggressive, LIFELONG pruning program can succeed - both for tree health and size/shape control. Then YouTube got me to the Indian video where they are taking the approach even further - limiting the trees to just 7 feet!!!

....

So, from my homeowners perspective, a technique like the ultra dense culture is hugely attractive. If it works I'll be able to easily care for my trees and harvest - everything within reach while standing on my own two feet. No ladders or poles! No pain, no strain. Even if I only get 5% of each tree's potential, that will be PLENTY. Furthermore, the ultra dense approach will leave room for more trees - yielding greater variety both in types of mangoes and in species of trees. Also, a larger variety of trees increases the odds of having crops of different kinds of fruit to cover our needs over the calendar year.

So it promises to be a win-win-win situation.

IF IT WORKS!
My thinking, exactly. I started 2 years ago, and part of the inspiration was Dr. Campbell's philosophy. The Indian technique seems to take that even further. I've got 11 mango trees planted: 6 in March of 2013 and 5 last weekend.
Also planted a pair of avocado trees last weekend; hope a similar regimen works. Jerry Coronel of Jenco Farm in Pinellas Park, whom phantomcrab and I visited a 3 weeks ago, has many avocado trees on his 2-acre lot. He keeps them 10-15 feet high and wide. He also has mango trees, but the avocados seem to be his main focus. He has all the trees heavily mulched (easily 8 - 10 inches) - even to the point of crowding the trunk, but the trees looked very healthy.

Until I saw this Indian video on ultra high density tree culture I had been thinking that MAYBE I'd have room for 1 more mango tree. Getting both the Lemon Zest AND the Sweet Tart yesterday was kind of an emotional impulse purchase. But now we feel very good about it - and are even open to the idea of trying growing yet more mangoes if we come across ones that are especially special... :-))

Also avocados. They are healthy and we have made them an integral part of our diet. I have one WAY overgrown Day tree (35 years old) which we'll be reducing over the next year or so. I have recently planted a row of 6 little avocado trees along our southern fence line - spaced at 10 feet. Our goal is to have homegrown avocado coverage for most of the year. I'm holding 3 10-foot slots in that row open for when I figure out which varieties will help cover calendar gaps. In addition to the big Day our six little ones are Monroe, Catalina, Nishikawa, Fuerte, Lula, and Wurtz. Let us hope that avocados permit this degree of ultra-density as well as those Indian mangoes!

40
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: ultra high density mango plantation technique
« on: February 25, 2015, 09:36:07 AM »
I watched Dr Campbell's tip pruning and tree shaping videos first. They gave me confidence that an aggressive, LIFELONG pruning program can succeed - both for tree health and size/shape control. Then YouTube got me to the Indian video where they are taking the approach even further - limiting the trees to just 7 feet!!!

Last year I went through the agony of cutting my beloved Wally back to just 10 feet - from about 40 feet. I planted it 35 years ago and, in my amateur homeowner ignorance, just let it gwow. The result was huge crops of fruit - but most of it too high, out of sight, unreachable. Over the years literally TONS of mangoes were just falling down, smashing, getting eaten by animals, and generally going to waste. Still and all, even though we only got maybe 5% or10% of the crop, there were still more mangoes than we could possibly eat.

So, from my homeowners perspective, a technique like the ultra dense culture is hugely attractive. If it works I'll be able to easily care for my trees and harvest - everything within reach while standing on my own two feet. No ladders or poles! No pain, no strain. Even if I only get 5% of each tree's potential, that will be PLENTY. Furthermore, the ultra dense approach will leave room for more trees - yielding greater variety both in types of mangoes and in species of trees. Also, a larger variety of trees increases the odds of having crops of different kinds of fruit to cover our needs over the calendar year.

So it promises to be a win-win-win situation.

IF IT WORKS!

41
Tropical Fruit Discussion / ultra high density mango plantation technique
« on: February 24, 2015, 03:35:52 PM »
My wife and I went to Excalibur this morning and picked up a Lemon Zest and a Sweet Tart mango (3 gal.). I've been searching for ideas on tree spacing and came across this interesting video on ultra high density tree culture.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uYIclJPs4ME

Looks like it could be an answer for those who would like more trees but don't have any more space. I'm going to do this with my new mangoes. It seems especially attractive for a home gardener to be able to grow smaller quantities of MANY things than large quantities of FEWER things. I am going to try and apply the same approach with my avocado trees.

42
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Achachairu flowering!
« on: February 23, 2015, 03:03:38 PM »
Quote from: murahilin on February 23, 2015, 01:58:31 PM
Quote from: franciscu on February 23, 2015, 10:26:02 AM
Is achachairu the same as 'white sapote'? Or different kinds of casimiroas?

From what I have read, white sapotes are notoriously delicate and difficult to handle without bruising. But those boxes of achachairu in Brazil look very clean!!!

If you took the time to do a 10 second search on Google, you would see that they are different fruit.

Murahilin,
My abject apology. In my confusion I WAS looking for info online. I got my wires crossed between the white sapote and the 'lemon drop mangosteen' - which also goes by the name 'achachairu'. I'll try to do better in future...

43
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Achachairu flowering!
« on: February 23, 2015, 10:26:02 AM »
Is achachairu the same as 'white sapote'? Or different kinds of casimiroas?

From what I have read, white sapotes are notoriously delicate and difficult to handle without bruising. But those boxes of achachairu in Brazil look very clean!!!

44
Recipes / Re: Soursop Drink
« on: February 17, 2015, 10:24:13 AM »
I make my soursop smoothies with avocado and some vanilla protein powder. It's a great fruit, BUT it takes some work getting rid of the seeds. For deseeding I slice the fruit into disks about 1/2 inch thick. This exposes many seeds and simplifies the job of finding and removing any still hidden. Working with a ripe and juicy soursop requires a very sharp knife. It's a very messy operation, but the result is worth the trouble.

45
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: A. squamosa Boca Giant Chewy
« on: January 09, 2015, 05:58:42 PM »
Quote from: Coconut on January 09, 2015, 04:05:12 PM
Quote from: goosteen on January 08, 2015, 12:49:48 PM
Quote from: Coconut on January 08, 2015, 11:49:45 AM
Well the marauding squirrels are back again, 167 is my total kill last year 2014.  Shot two last night on my neighbor oak tree ere they escape to after eating a couple of sugar apple!😁😁😱😱😭😭😭😁😁😁


Ditto!

Congratulations on a your squirrel hunt, 167 and still coming, that's a serious squirrel problem!
thankyou happy to see another card carrying NRA member here!👍👍

46
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Oro Negro vs. Monroe Avocado
« on: January 09, 2015, 10:16:55 AM »
Quote from: johnb51 on January 08, 2015, 03:06:53 PM
We've been buying those Dominican avocados.  The first ones, I don't know the variety, were turning brown on the inside as soon as they ripened.  Now we have Lulas, also from DR, and they're perfectly fine and delicious with the sweet Lula flavor.

Franciscu, in addition to the Oro Negro tree, I have Simmonds and Day, so in a few years I'll have plenty of avocados for you.  Now all we need is a spring-ripening avocado!

Sounds better and better! When I bought my little Monroe I also bought a Catalina, Fuerte, Lola, Nishikawa, and Wurtz. I have high hopes, but it's going to be a while....

47
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Oro Negro vs. Monroe Avocado
« on: January 08, 2015, 09:18:28 AM »
Sounds good. We love avocados and consider them a very healthy part of our diet. But lately we've had AWFUL luck with store (Costco) bought avocados (Hass style). They look good in the store, but then go from hard to full of brown without much edible flesh. We have been discarding at least half of what we buy. Extremely aggravating!!! It wasn't like this in the past. Anybody know what's going on?

48
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Oro Negro vs. Monroe Avocado
« on: January 07, 2015, 06:44:16 PM »
I chose the Oro Negro first, but it malingered and then died. Now I have a small Monroe that seems quite happy. Even split - the ON didn't like me, the Monroe does...

49
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Whitman Fiberless Sweet Soursop first harvest
« on: January 02, 2015, 10:44:02 AM »
Thanks, Jack, for sharing the Whitman with me and Diane. The fragrance and flavor are excellent. The coloration of that fruit is more yellow than the ripe fruit when it comes off my tree (whatever it is). Mine stays pretty green, gets suddenly soft, and falls off when its weight tears it away from the stem. I have learned to frequently check my fruits by feel and pick them as soon as the softness starts. Then I leave them for a couple of days on the counter. I am learning to let them darken and get quite soft before opening them. More messy! But sweeter and juicier - kinda like bananas behave.

Your Whitman is very tasty, still somewhat firm, with some nice soursop tartness. As other fruits get picked you can experiment with various wait times, coloration and softness changes, to determine which degrees of sweetness/ juicyness/ messiness you like best.

50
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Whitman Fiberless Sweet Soursop first harvest
« on: January 01, 2015, 10:48:12 AM »
Yup, the soursop turns fast. One day hard as rock, next day about like a soccer ball, the next day on the ground and soft as a bag of jello. But I have found that there is no rush to eat it. I let a couple of my soft ones sit on the kitchen counter for another day or more. Even when they got brownish skin the flesh inside was creamy white, juicy, and really delicious-complex-sweet. Let there be no doubt that soursop is one of the messiest fruits to deal with. Worth it though! Yum!

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