Author Topic: Introduce Yourself  (Read 620643 times)

victory

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #400 on: October 12, 2012, 12:27:55 PM »
Hello,
   My name is Ed Doyle. I have been growing tropical fruit trees and other things since I moved into this house in 1991. Through the years, I have been more of less serious as financial and health matters have often taken precedence. I have a unique pie-shaped lot in a treed neighborhood close to downtown; protected from the winter North- Northwest winds and freezing temperatures by a 20 foot high concrete wall at the rear of the property. This provides an excellent microclimate. I have collected a large number of cultivars of many species. Of course, the major problem here is Hurricanes, and I've had my share of heartbreaks with fallen trees and wind damage. Last November, we had a monsoon event. My property is 5 feet higher than my neighbor to the rear, so flooding is never an issue. However, he has some larger oak and ficus trees, two of which decided to topple on my property and house. The roof over one bedroom collapsed, and I have spent the last year repairing the damages and removing other large trees in order to maximize my future efforts. I am fascinated with the Eugenia/ Myrciaria and Garcinia/Rheedia groups, Lychee, and Mango; as well as the more usual fare. This year, I am doing a complete garden overhaul, removing older selections and replacing them. I am also installing self-watering grow boxes and vertical growsticks for production of more vegetables in a smaller space. I am studying the possibility of adding an Aquaponic system as well. Always on the search for the rare and unusual seeds and plants. In these times, I think people need to work at re-aquiring the skills of food production largely lost in our 'just-in-time' delivery system. Besides, foods grown at home with all the micronutrients is far healthier. This year, after reading about the legendary 'Terra Preta' soils of the Amazon and their insane productivity, I purchased a keystove to turn waste wood into bio char and wood ash. It is a pleasure to have found this board thru Pepe's Plants!

nullzero

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #401 on: October 12, 2012, 06:46:40 PM »
Victory,

Welcome to the forums, a lot of the things you show interest in many of us do as well. I have always wanted to setup a aquaponics system, but don't have a owned home yet to test it out. I am experimenting with bio char in the container mixes I use. I also have SWC containers setup, and testing out the air pruning containers.
Grow mainly fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

victory

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #402 on: October 13, 2012, 07:55:21 PM »
I wonder how many others are trying these pots and swc's and how they are working? Thanks Nullzero!

CoPlantNut

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #403 on: October 13, 2012, 08:09:01 PM »
I wonder how many others are trying these pots and swc's and how they are working? Thanks Nullzero!

Welcome to the forum!

I've tried air-pruning pots for ~6 years and and self-watering containers for ~15 years (though nothing in the past 5 years); so far I have nothing but good things to say about the air-pruning pots (especially fabric pots!) and mixed to bad reviews on the self-watering containers.  The self-watering containers work OK in the short term, but after 2-4 years they seem to cause more problems then they are worth in my experience.  Your results may vary; for things that like sitting in water like Jabuticaba the self-watering containers may be OK in the long term.  But I've yet to encounter a plant that didn't do well in a fabric pot, now including strongly-tap-rooted things like Garcinia.

   Kevin
« Last Edit: October 13, 2012, 08:13:51 PM by CoPlantNut »

phantomcrab

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #404 on: October 14, 2012, 11:33:19 AM »
Hi there. I'm Richard in St. Petersburg, Florida and have been on the forum since January but never introduced myself.
I live on a small lot at 55+ feet above sea level with three large live oak trees and very sandy soil so I'm somewhat constrained in what I can easily grow. Temperatures in my area fall to freezing or below every 4 years or so. I grow mangos, citrus, pineapples and a few eugenias because these are tolerant of the climate and are frequently seen around town. Lychee, avocado, longan, carambola, sapodilla, sugar apple and atemoya also grow well here but there is simply not the space or sun for these in my yard. Other people do grow more tender fruit (jackfruit, wax jambu, abiu) in better cold protected locations near the water.
I've always been interested in tropical plants and now I grow them outdoors with relative ease.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2012, 05:35:27 AM by phantomcrab »
Richard

Tomas

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #405 on: October 14, 2012, 11:38:28 AM »
Welcome phantomcrab! I am particularly happy to hear that you grow Eugenias. I am a little crazy about Eugenias myself and I probably grow more Eugenias than I should.

Tomas

Jen

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #406 on: October 14, 2012, 07:28:54 PM »
Hi everyone, I have been a 'lurker' for a while but finally found the courage to post! I love reading all the informative discussions on this forum also Daleys and love growing my own fruit to eat. This fruit-tree obsession has been a fairly recent one for me (over the last year really) but has been fuelled by all the fantastic information available from all you gurus! I love garcinias - starting with the purple mangosteen, furthered by the achacha and am growing a variety of other things most of which are too young to fruit yet but I hope over the next couple of years to start tasting all these exotic fruit which are not readily available in the shops - abiu, white sapote, cherry of rio grande etc.

I am a busy mum of 4 boys all at school & I study graphic design & I do photo restoration so it's hard to fit it all in but I try! My husband unfortunately does not share my fruit tree obsession, only tolerates it and we do not live on acreage so space is always a consideration. I am trialling the bonsai tree bags as discussed on the Daleys website for a few of my trees, so how successful this will be remains to be seen.

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #407 on: October 14, 2012, 08:45:05 PM »
Looks like a bunch of new members I missed welcoming.

Bienvenidos a HuertasUrbanas......we are still short of South American members, so glad to have you join in the fun. 

To Dirty Coconuts.....welcome, I think.  Your member name has me a bit worried. I'm sure you're alright though. 

CaliforniaTropicals, good to have more representation from the great State of California.  Good to see a new member posting pictures immediately.  We need more of that.

Organic Jim...welcome.  Sounds like you may be a real resource for our members that are into the organic growing world.....which is a pretty good percentage of us.  What kind of fruit orchards did you grow up with?

Recher......welcome.  You need to get over your shyness and tell what you really feel about some of these horticultural subjects.  I hate people that beat around the bush.

RoyinMalibu....welcome.  A mango salsa-phile.....excellent.  I wish you luck in achieving the goal of besting the Costco mango salsa.  I never pass up the opportunity to try that salsa when they are demonstrating it at my local Costco.  Of course, I don't really like it...I just feel it is incumbent on me to check to make sure it remains properly prepared and presented. ;)

BarryDiamond......welcome.  Very nice collection you have.  Please don't openly admit you are anything like Patrick. Didn't you know how crazy he is.  If you have any of his tendencies, just keep it a secret  (like the rest of us) and no one will know.

To Victory (Ed), welcome.  You've got about as many years as I have in this hobby, so hopefully you be able to give us the benefit of your wisdom gathered over the years. Thanks to Jason (Pepe's Plants) for telling you about the forum.

To PhantomCrab (Richard)......I have already had the pleasure of your visit to my house.  Good to see you making the formal introduction to everyone esle.

To Jen.....welcome out of the shadows of lurkerdom and into the bright light of forum posting and discussion.  We're short on Aussies and also Ladies....so an extra specially warm welcome on both of those accounts.

To all new members, please let me know if you are going to be anywhere near my home.  I am always interested and willing to show interested folks around.........and to enjoy tasting whatever may happen to be available to try from the yard's bounty.
Harry
Fort Lauderdale, FL 
USA

victory

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #408 on: October 14, 2012, 09:31:52 PM »
Great to hear of your success with these CoPlantNut! I only found out about the air prune pots a few weeks ago. I use the self waterers for vegetables only so far. And thanks Harry, I'd love to stop by sometime and see your place. As for my experience, I have only renewed my interest this year. Only now am I approaching it in a more conscientious manner and learning such things as grafting. I have a lot to learn and this forum is far and away the BEST resource I have come across for a vast array of experience of others. I am very grateful to have found it!

hbijlmakers

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #409 on: October 14, 2012, 11:58:53 PM »
Hello fruit lovers,
I am an agronomist and I have a garden in Thailand with many types of tropical fruits.
Happy to have found this forum.
Hein

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #410 on: October 15, 2012, 12:18:16 AM »
Hello,
   My name is Ed Doyle. I have been growing tropical fruit trees and other things since I moved into this house in 1991. Through the years, I have been more of less serious as financial and health matters have often taken precedence. I have a unique pie-shaped lot in a treed neighborhood close to downtown; protected from the winter North- Northwest winds and freezing temperatures by a 20 foot high concrete wall at the rear of the property. This provides an excellent microclimate. I have collected a large number of cultivars of many species. Of course, the major problem here is Hurricanes, and I've had my share of heartbreaks with fallen trees and wind damage. Last November, we had a monsoon event. My property is 5 feet higher than my neighbor to the rear, so flooding is never an issue. However, he has some larger oak and ficus trees, two of which decided to topple on my property and house. The roof over one bedroom collapsed, and I have spent the last year repairing the damages and removing other large trees in order to maximize my future efforts. I am fascinated with the Eugenia/ Myrciaria and Garcinia/Rheedia groups, Lychee, and Mango; as well as the more usual fare. This year, I am doing a complete garden overhaul, removing older selections and replacing them. I am also installing self-watering grow boxes and vertical growsticks for production of more vegetables in a smaller space. I am studying the possibility of adding an Aquaponic system as well. Always on the search for the rare and unusual seeds and plants. In these times, I think people need to work at re-aquiring the skills of food production largely lost in our 'just-in-time' delivery system. Besides, foods grown at home with all the micronutrients is far healthier. This year, after reading about the legendary 'Terra Preta' soils of the Amazon and their insane productivity, I purchased a keystove to turn waste wood into bio char and wood ash. It is a pleasure to have found this board thru Pepe's Plants!

Hello Victory, ( As in Victory garden? )  You have some great plans,  and wish you success.

I have made a couple of home made self watering containers,  after "playing" around with them, this is what I have discovered.  Use them for shallow rooted plants.  things like Papaya and Watermelon, all started well until the roots reached the water.

At the moment I have a Pitaya growing in one, which are now reaching the second floor roof.  it loves that container.  tomatoes and things like that do well also.

Also you may want to look into the wonderful world of mychoriazal fungi and beneficial bacteria, as you seem to be interested in improving your soil.
William
" The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.....The second best time, is now ! "

Tropicdude

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #411 on: October 15, 2012, 12:19:48 AM »
Hello fruit lovers,
I am an agronomist and I have a garden in Thailand with many types of tropical fruits.
Happy to have found this forum.
Hein

Hello Hein,

Welcome to the forum, .
William
" The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.....The second best time, is now ! "

nullzero

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #412 on: October 15, 2012, 01:57:12 PM »
I wonder how many others are trying these pots and swc's and how they are working? Thanks Nullzero!

Have not checked this thread for a few days. The SWC have worked out great with the plants i have tried it on. Lychees seem to love the SWC. I also have a 3 1/2 year old pepper, 'Ken's Red' Kiwi, 'Hana Fuyu' Persimmon, 'Vista' Fig all in SWCs. From what I noticed, container mix makes a huge difference in health of the plant. Also having plants that love water helps as well. I have gotten better results with the SWC, then the fabric containers.

Fabric containers have been given me mixed results, I think a lot of this has to do with the mix drying out to soon and not re-wetting evenly with the peatmoss mix. The plants get watered by my mother during the week days, so watering can be infrequent (2-3 times during the weekdays on average) and not as focused on certain plants. I decided to mainly have citrus, jujubes, and a few other semi drought tolerant crops in the fabric containers.

The air pruning containers, such as superoots have given me the best success. I have since ordered another batch of them, which I expect soon. I am going to aim to have (15) 12 gal superoots eventually, my older trees which I want to push into holding fruits will move into them.

After the testing and observations, I would go with Air pruning for my prime fruit trees like Mango, Cherimoya, etc. Fabric for the cactus fruits; Dragon Fruit, Opuntia, Stenocereus, etc. SWC for the water lovers; Lychee, Jabo, and ones which get drought stress easily without a reservoir.

The soil mix is a crucial part of having success, it also changes drastically for me depending on the container used.
Grow mainly fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

phantomcrab

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #413 on: October 15, 2012, 04:25:40 PM »
Welcome Jen.
I have a friend that teaches at Griffith University in Brisbane. Here's a link to a USDA climate zone map of Australia.
http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/research/hort.research/zones.html
Richard

victory

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #414 on: October 15, 2012, 07:24:32 PM »
Thanks very much for the tips NullZero! I thought the Lychees would like them. Ed

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #415 on: October 15, 2012, 09:23:48 PM »
Hi everyone, I have been a 'lurker' for a while but finally found the courage to post! I love reading all the informative discussions on this forum also Daleys and love growing my own fruit to eat. This fruit-tree obsession has been a fairly recent one for me (over the last year really) but has been fuelled by all the fantastic information available from all you gurus! I love garcinias - starting with the purple mangosteen, furthered by the achacha and am growing a variety of other things most of which are too young to fruit yet but I hope over the next couple of years to start tasting all these exotic fruit which are not readily available in the shops - abiu, white sapote, cherry of rio grande etc.

I am a busy mum of 4 boys all at school & I study graphic design & I do photo restoration so it's hard to fit it all in but I try! My husband unfortunately does not share my fruit tree obsession, only tolerates it and we do not live on acreage so space is always a consideration. I am trialling the bonsai tree bags as discussed on the Daleys website for a few of my trees, so how successful this will be remains to be seen.

Hi Jen,
Good to have another local here.
Purple Mangosteen is among the hardest gacinia to grow here. My 6yo has just gone through its second Brisbane winter without harm, so it can be grown, and we will see about the fruit. There are so many otehr great garcinia species out there. Good luck with the bonsai bags - I have a few things in tree sacks and they are generally quite good.

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #416 on: October 15, 2012, 10:07:05 PM »
Hello fruit lovers,
I am an agronomist and I have a garden in Thailand with many types of tropical fruits.
Happy to have found this forum.
Hein

Welcome to the forum Hein. Looking forward to seeing your pictures and posts of Thai fruits.

nullzero

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #417 on: October 16, 2012, 11:36:47 AM »
Welcome to the forums Jen & Hein. Now lets see some pictures of the gardens  ;D.
Grow mainly fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

OrganicJim

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #418 on: October 17, 2012, 11:11:59 AM »
I grew up on a family owned orchard in the State of Washington where we raised several types of non-tropical fruits. After college and the military I ended up in Florida. I have been growing citrus, pinapples and bananas for the last 40 plus years along with orchids others.
I got interested in organic growing in the 90's and became involved with TurfPro USA in 2005 where i consult on soil, soil biology and plant nutrition. I met Adam at a meeting and started working with him on the nutritional problems he was having with some types of tropical trees.
Bad mistake! He gave me some plants to grow and I am now growing a number of different types of tropicals and starting to look for others.
I have a good sized fenced yard and two greenhouses. Since Central Florida Zone 9b I am trying to stay with things that can either take some cold or can be kept in containers for years and still fruit.
Having a house set east to west and 2 1/2 stories high plus sevral large oak trees I have several micro climates in the yard that allow me to vary wath can be put in the ground.
I am enjoying looking at the various postings and getting at the same time getting a good education on what and how to grow. This forum will certainly shorten the learning curve that I did not have when I started here in Florida.
I have a long way to go before I can do much in the way of postings on most of the fruits grown here but can help on healthy grwoing methods. Jim
 

Ryan

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #419 on: October 20, 2012, 03:38:10 PM »
Hi guys,

My wife and I are a young couple moved to Hawaii 3 years ago in search of a simpler way of life. Tropical fruit culture is one of my longtime interests. A year ago we cleared some jungle and began building a homestead & hobbie fruit farm. Today the place is still in its infancy, though we've already planted 50 grafted varieties of tropical fruit. My personal goal is 200+.

I am excited to discover this online community and look forward to interacting with all of you here.

Aloha,
Ryan

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #420 on: October 20, 2012, 03:53:12 PM »
Welcome Hein.  You live in a part of Thailand that  I always wanted to visit.  Please post some pictures of your horticultural doings when you get a chance.

Aloha, Ryan.  Welcome.  Which of the Hawaiian Islands do you call home?

Harry
Harry
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Ryan

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #421 on: October 20, 2012, 07:36:46 PM »
Aloha, Ryan.  Welcome.  Which of the Hawaiian Islands do you call home?
Harry

Hello Harry, we are on the island of Hawaii.

jc

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #422 on: October 20, 2012, 09:28:12 PM »
I guess I'm the latest FNG.  Love mangos, avos, carambola, citrus, etc.  Been "lurking" for about a month or two and figured I needed to register.

I'm new to tropical fruit growing but I'm in it to win it.  Planted all my trees this year in a trial by fire mindset.
Mangos: Maha Chanok, Dot, Pickering *2, Neelam, Beverly, Rosigold, Valencia Pride, Ice Cream, Brahm Kai Meu, and Lancetilla.  Future mangos: Cogshall...

Avos: Lula and Wurtz

Bell Carambola

Citrus: Honeybell Tangelo, Mexican Lime, Meyer Lemon

Purple Haze Dragon Fruit

Miracle Fruit

Random seasonal herbs and veggies

Looking forward to learning an new passion. 
JC

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #423 on: October 20, 2012, 11:33:21 PM »
Hello
My name is Maurice and i have been growing and learning about fruit trees(as a hobby) since about 2009, rarely participating in any internet forum but silently reading. The collection and knowledge increased drastically during this time but at first people bugged me for having too many plants, now my family has finally gotten used to it :P.

As a proud nerd i have many hobbies which include reading about different topics,sports and computer science/programming which is what i majored in.

See you around  :D

luak

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Re: Introduce Yourself
« Reply #424 on: October 21, 2012, 08:07:14 PM »
Spent 11 years on the island of Java, the town of Malang,Indonisia, thus i am very familiar with tropicals fruits. We had 4 acres of fruits describe on this forum.I like to add a mango variety that we grew that we grew with the name of kwennee, it is pronounce this way, but is spelled different i believe, it has lots of fibre and taste totally different(a aquired taste).It is a large fruit and you have to peel it thick and make shure you don't mesh with it or you end-up with thick lips.

I retired in Arkansas, U.S. now and like to grow a few tropicals fruits tree's.I am growing a Page Manderin tree for the last 5 years and it is doing good and so are my pomagranates. As i read articles in this Forum it brings back sweet memories(tears that is). Maybe i can find answers on this forum.
Bob.