The Tropical Fruit Forum

I planted my jack fruit almost a year ago now and it’s about 6’ to 7’ tall. I have some really tough grass to deal with where I planted it so I wanted to make sure the roof ball got nice and big. To do this, I cut the bottom off of a large potting container and planted with high quality soil and hurried the pot in the ground. This kept the grass out while letting the roots grow. Once it had been established and growing well I dug around the pot, cut it, and removed it so the roots can continue growing out. I was happy to see that the tap root had established and I was able to remove the pot without disturbing it. I don’t have fruit yet but the tree is very healthy looking. I am hoping for fruit next year, fingers crossed.

Will

Thank you for the response everyone; very helpful! I’ll go ahead and remove those dead branches and continue to monitor it. I typically don’t apply any pesticides or fungicides to this tree as it’s done very well. Does this seem like a good course of action or would it be beneficial to spray copper as a preventative?

Compare with the carambola that I planted at the same time:



Note that it was just watered thoroughly about two days ago and already the leaves are drooping and it’s been overcast all day today.

In Florida 9B how long will your Brogdons last into the season?  I am having my first bumper crop of Brogdons and eating the ones the squirrels are cutting off the tree (which are a lot of them).   They are good, but not at their prime yet probably.  Should you wait for them to turn black before picking or picked green mature?

Also while I know Cados don't grow true my neighbors have asked about planting Brogdon seeds.  I told them to go buy their own grafted trees, but they refuse to do so.  Will a Brogdon seed eventually probably produce fruit SIMILAR to the parent?

Thanks.

Definitely wait for them to turn black and also squeeze them to check firmness. It should dent easily when it’s ready. As for growing from seed, I’ve heard some people claim that they’ve grown from seed but my understanding is that it will not be the same variety. My neighbor asked the same thing and I told him to get a grafted one.

Hello! I've been on this forum for a few years now and asked many questions. Today, I'm happy to say that i'm ready to share my personal results with anyone who is interested in avocados 🥑. When I first moved into my house in 2015, the first thing I did was buy an Oro Negro and a Florida Hass avocado. I was interested in high density growing, so I planted the trees a few feet apart along with some happy frog soil. Everything looked good for the first few months and the Oro Negro even had a few baby avocados. However, I found that both of my trees succumbed to some type of fungus as the branches began to slowly die off from the top and work its way down. I treated with Agrifos but to no avail.

Later that year, I was visiting some family down in Miami (I live in Merritt Island) and realized Pine Island nursery was nearby. So I drove over and I told them I was looking for an avocado tree and they recommended the Brogdon. So I brought the tree home and planted it the next day in a new spot in my backyard. Unlike my previous experience, this tree rooted very quickly and grew like a weed. Not only did it grow well, but it's absolutely beautiful. In addition to the Brogdon, a friend of mine from Rockledge Gardens recommended that I pick up a Joey avocado as well (he is also a fan of Brogdon). I brought the Joey home and planted it on the side of my house. Both the Joey and the Brogdon weathered hurricane Irma well. The Brogdon was pulled a little bit but I was able to use a strap to pull it back without any issues. The joey split in half but recovered very quickly. Oddly enough, the joey put out 2 avocados that year; the Brogdon didn't set fruit at all.

Fast forward a year and I was pleasantly surprised by both trees. The Joey, shorter than the roof of my house, put out over 30 avocados this year. My initial impression was that they were OK, but not great. I let a couple of them sit out a bit longer than usual and pushed into the fruit a bit once a day to soften pulp. After doing this, I noticed the fruit was a big creamier, though not quite like a Hass. The taste is still good, but has a bit of a peppery and nutty flavor to it. I experimented with the Joey quite a bit since I had a decent harvest. Since I was debating on whether or not I should replace the tree, I thought I would try preparing the fruit in several ways before making a decision. It turns out, it's great in salads, especially with nuts and other berries. But then I discovered the best use for this avocado... grilling. The Joey is unique in that it comes off the tree in both the shape and size of a large egg. I remember my grandmother making deviled eggs, so I thought I could do something similar with the Joey. After cutting it in half, I stuffed it with goat cheese, wrapped it in prosciutto, and grilled it until it had light grill marks on both sides. I then topped it with a date sauce. I brought about 14 of these to a neighborhood party and every one of them was gone within an hour. The best part is that you don't have to peel the skin off. This skin honestly tastes pretty good, especially when grilled.

The Brogdon has a bit of a different story. While the tree is large and definitely denser than the Joey, I didn't get a single fruit the first year. This year I have about 10 fruit on the tree and the first one was ready to pick about 4 or 5 days ago. I was really excited to try this variety as i've heard a lot of mixed reviews and wanted to taste the fruit for myself. I have to say that it was worth the wait. I honestly can't believe the Brogdon doesn't get more attention. When I cut the fruit open I was surprised to see an oddly shaped seed but it was rather easy to remove. I've read that it is difficult to remove the skin, so I didn't even try; I was interested in just how creamy this variety would be. Using a spoon, it scooped out like removing ice cream from a carton. The flavor was rich and the texture was creamy. My wife and daughter both loved the flavor as well. Another thing that's interesting is the color. The skin on the outside is blackish purple and a little tougher than the Joey's (I believe they are edible but I haven't tried). The pulp has a beautiful yellow hue, that seems somewhat exotic in my opinion.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with both trees. The Brogdon is definitely my favorite, grows remarkably well and if I had to choose between a Hass or a Brogdon at the grocery store, I would pick the Brogdon every time. I can't wait to make some guac! Thinking into the future, I've heard Oro Negros are excellent so I would like to try grafting an Oro Negro onto my already established Brogdon tree. Well, I hope everyone found this review helpful, especially for those who are looking to plant their first avocado tree. And since pictures are worth a thousand words, i'll let them do the rest of the talking:

Are the trees ready to hold fruit? how long have they been in the ground? Best to upload some pictures. If the trees are small or newly planted it might be best to cull the fruit for a few seasons to help the tree to grow. Some people do , some don't but it takes alot of energy to make fruit and can cause the trees growth to be stunted.

Hi @mangomongo. I'm also in Merritt Island. The first avocado and the mango are about 12' or more. The second avocado is at least 16', maybe more. I honestly don't plan on letting them get much taller as I was hoping to do more of a backyard orchard in which the fruit would be within easy range of picking. In general, what do you recommend once the tree flowers?

I live in rockledge just on the other side of the river from you and boast a golden nugget jackfruit about 4 moths ago from that nursery by the airport. I repotted it immediately from a 3gallon pot since it was about 4foot tall. I forgot to water it for about 10days a couple months ago when it was hot. Same thing happened to me. It it was under watering not over, all leave dropped and were yellow. It came back strong. I did plant it in a pot so I could bring it inside until our winter is over because you never know when we might get some weird 30F night out of the blue. I’ll plant it once spring hits so it has a better chance to mature more for next winter.

Hi @Cythompson159@yahoo.com! Great to hear someone else is also growing a jack fruit in our area. I did give the tree some water and it seems to be doing fine. One thing I found very interesting is that the leaves that turned yellow seem to follow a pattern. It's always at the base of the branch and appears to be symmetric around the tree. I was concerned because I tried growing a jackfruit last year and it declined since the moment I put it in the ground. On the contrary, this tree grew when I planted it and seemed to thrive in this location. My guess is that the winter months are simply stunting growth since we don't have as much light in a day and it probably needed a little water. I'll continue to monitor and post if anything changes. Good luck with your tree!

Quote from: skhan on December 06, 2018, 08:50:21 AM

Got a few more days (nights) in the 50s coming up.
Should be good news for the upcoming season.

BTW, I guess now is a good time to start spraying some sulfur. (and maybe copper)

Copper for rain, sulfur for the cold weather..

My mango has been in the ground for two years and just started putting flowers out for the first time! I’ll be getting weather in the upper 40s tonight. Should I do anything to protect them? Also, when should I spray with copper / silver? Should I just spray on the flower stem?

Anyone know where I can get a biriba tree in central Florida? I live near the coast so it’s probably warm enough.

Regards,

Will

I planted this tree right after hurricane Matthew and it has done really well. I’m excited to see that it is flowering and is still in good shape (though I’m fighting some lace bugs).

Happy Monday, so it's been a little over a week since I initially posted on this thread. I've applied 2 treatments of Dithane-M45. The first application used a tablespoon of the solution in .5 gallons of water. I sprayed the leaves and the trunk thoroughly. After a week, I was ready to apply a second application and was told that the solution should be 4 tablespoons / gallon of water and to use a surficant. Since I'm spraying half a gallon, I used 2 tablespoons of Dithane-M45 along with a .5 teaspoon of gynesis (surficant). I'm attaching a new picture to show the status if anyone is interested.

Regards,

Will

Washing pruners in alcohol sounds like a pretty wise thing to do. I will make sure I do this when it comes time to prune. So speaking of fungicides, how safe is it to eat the fruit if I’ve treated my tree with a fungicide this year? If I remember correctly, I read 45 days after spraying with dithane. Does anyone else worry about eating the fruit later on and ingesting some of the fungicide? Regarding the surficant, I have some genysis so I will use that.