The Tropical Fruit Forum

I am sure some of you are already familiar with this site.  but just wanted to share the link,  as I think this would be useful to forum members.

For one,  you can see which varieties of fruit are being imported to a certain market in the US.  and even the current wholesale price paid. this might help with some seeking to find out a variety , or origin.  you can also see if you are really paying a fare price.

https://www.freshfruitportal.com/precios-frutas/precios-usda/

I have a potted Hasya Sapodilla.   it fruited for the first time, it has one tennis ball sized fruit on it.   I have zero experience with these fruit,  how do I know it can be picked?  do you let them ripen on the tree or do they need to be removed and ripened on the counter?

I have been monitoring the progress of this kickstarter gadget, for about 2 years, they finally came out with their device.   its a portable spectrometer sensor,  I do not have the details of all its capabilities. but from what I understand, you can make your own applets,  for example scan one item, and scan another and see the difference.

I have seen examples of it used for scanning fruit and veggies at supermarkets, to determine ripeness or chemicals.   you can also use it to identify medications, and can even tell the difference between a generic medication and originals,  ( I assume its sensitive enough to detect the slight differences )

So I wonder if this would be useful for the garden community,  would it be possible to scan leaves, and check for nutritional deficiencies?  what about Identifying varieties? or would there be too much variations due to nutrients and climate etc?    or maybe for breeding to quickly determine if one cultivar crossed with another? anyway will be interesting to see where this leads.

https://www.consumerphysics.com/myscio/technology

Soon after writing this I came across some Q&A, seems it wont work for plant identification at this point.  too bad.  but this is just a first generation pocket sized unit, so maybe eventually we will get what we really want.

While in Florida I had the chance to visit Fruit and Spice park,  not much in season in October, but did come across a loaded Rukam.  I was much impressed by the fruit.  I had tried governor's plum in the DR ( indica ) which were ok, bit on the sour side.   but these Rukam from fruit and spice park,   tasted just like regular plums,  texture, size and color being the main difference.   

I also like the fact that, you could eat them skin and all.

Not much chat on these in this forum,  anyone else have experience with them. or have them growing?   I have what I think is a governors plum in a container,  been there for 5 years or so, I think flowered once, produced no fruit.   do they require pollinator?  or is my tree just too young still?

I keep hearing of all the new great Zill varieties,  and in different threads you get some description here and a little there.  I know a few of the members here have experience or have first hand knowledge of all the new varieties. 

My request is that you folks "in the know"  list all the new varieties, and their traits,

Disease resistance
Vigor
Precocity
Tree growth
Fruit taste
Fruit firmness
Fruit size
fruit color when ripe
Shelf Life
And availability status.

This would be a good reference for anyone considering getting a new Zill  tree,  it could be started as a new thread.

Although this topic has come up in the forum,  its within threads that had nothing really to do with Tree Injection.

The Tree Injection technology I will be writing about is not to be confused with those systems used to treat trees for pests, and emergency application of nutrients. there seems to be a lot of information on these things online, and commercial products available such as "Chemjet" or "Arborjet" we are not even talking about root injections.

The Tree injection I am presenting here, is feeding trees water and nutrients directly into its vascular system, like an I.V.   the benefits are numerous, specially for commercial growers.

* No waste, all nutrients go into the tree.
* No contamination of ground water, rivers as no fertilizer is applied to the soil.
* Less weeds, because you are not fertilizing or even watering the area around the tree.
* Complete control over what goes into your tree , in traditional methods you are limited to what is absorbed by the roots of the tree, if Ph is off, some nutrient do not
   get absorbed, or some nutrients are block due to high levels of other minerals in the soil.  with tree injections you by-pass all this.
* Knowing the water problems in some places, finding ways of using it more efficiently is important.
* the limited experiments done shows increase in quality and production.

I am no expert in this, I am only sharing information I have found on this interesting technique,  Oscars experimenting with Injectors on his Avocado trees has inspired me to compile the information I have on this so far.   

 I still have many questions.  but this looks promising,  I would almost compare it to hydroponics for trees. but of course its not the same as we are not feeding the roots, but the other benefits are there. like controlling the nutrient solution. 

Although I do not see this as very practical for a back yard grower, I believe it may be useful in some cases.

I welcome others to add experiences or information on this topic.

Here is the video by Carlos, who is looking ahead and doing great work. in regards to finding ways to get around the Laural Wilt problem that  the Avocado growers are facing.

http://youtu.be/t-27vTGtJeo


Original Technique for Liquid Injection in Tree Trunks
http://avocadosource.com/temp/OLD%20WAC%20II/WAC2_p199.htm

Mango and Grape Injection experiment in Egypt
http://www.google.com.do/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalsciencebooks.info%2FJournalsSup%2Fimages%2F0906%2FFVCSB_3(1)22-27o.pdf&ei=YsbGU6OLCbDLsQTqg4LIDQ&usg=AFQjCNF2pzMrkHuUVZ-pU_SWN0asaj6LzQ&sig2=6A35U8uxrlc-t5PiehyfFw

I was wondering is someone has some suggestion into the application rate of minor elements, for mangoes in containers.  some of the new growth on my trees, is stunted, pale and  undulated, looking at diagnostic sheet, everything indicates minor element deficiency.

Do not have a picture, but this document has a picture of exactly what I am seeing in my trees.  ( Fig 32 page 40 of pdf )

http://www.sqm.com/Portals/0/img/tablas_cultivo/mango/SQM-Crop_Kit_Mango_L-EN.pdf

I will do a foliar spray, but would like to add something to the soil, that wont leach out so fast,  southern ag, has some granular essential minor element, anyone with experience with that?

Never seen this before,  a mango variety with variegated fruit.

http://youtu.be/_X1lcARzOYo

I have a Pitaya that I allowed to climb up the side of our house, naturally it decided to flower on the roof. 

Can someone identify the variety?  It was supposed to be a Makisupa,  but I noticed the flower is yellow, with red tips. kind of pretty. my other Pitaya just has white flowers.

Today I went to Expo Mango 2013.  this year the event started tied in with an International Mango symposium .


I will update with videos and pictures in a few days.

Anyway, this year had plenty of varieties, and I was lucky enough to obtain a few mangoes to try out for the first time.

Nam Doc Mai,  ( Flower Nectar or whatever its translation ) is exactly that, a very sweet, silky smooth mango with floral overtones. I loved it,  My wife called it "a very feminine mango", because or the sweet aroma, smooth texture, and pointed shape.

St. Maui,  Very nice looking mango,  very colorful like a Tommy.  it felt soft to the touch, so I decided to try it.  it was not 100% ripe yet, but this didn't seem to matter, it tasted really good, very different than the NDM, St. Maui had a slight pine aroma, but just a hint that gives it an interesting flavor. I would like to try a fully ripe one.

The got plenty of surprises at the expo, I did not expect to see Gary Zill and his wife, at the event, very friendly.

I also met Noris Ledesma she was a speaker at the event, extremely nice person.  the whole group did tours to some plantations and packing house, which I filmed.
hopefully I will have this edited and uploaded this week.



I also have a question regarding the St. Maui.  I noticed the seed was rather big in relation to the fruit, which leads me to think it could be polyembryonic.  does anyone know for sure? Poly or Mono?   

Update 3:  4th Video upload.

I finished the first of a series of clips, here Noris Ledesma, gives her opinions on various subjects related to commercial mango growing, one of her suggestions is that the D.R. should breed or select a signature variety that is well adapted to the tropics, and does not require chemical flower induction, like many varieties bred in Florida. which are more adapted to a sub-tropical climate.    another issue is regarding the Keitt variety, she says that there is good progress in the DR, but one thing one must take into consideration is that Keitt mango variety is being planted all over the world, and soon the DR will be competing for the same market using the same mango variety.

http://youtu.be/qVHu0o7rr74

Second video:

A short clip of the varieties being sold to the public from the vendors at the event.   the big Pascuals sell for around 25-30 pesos  which is like 0.55- 0.75 cents dollars.
and the medium sized fruit sell for about a US1.50 a dozen.  One thing you may notice is how clean the fruit are in regards to anthracnose, which is rarely seen on Mangoes grown in this area of the country, salt breeze and little rain. make it the perfect place for growing mangoes.

http://youtu.be/u8afGh830iQ

3rd Video upload:

This is a video of the varieties display tables,  this year they covered the fruit with some kind of oil, I suspect this was doe to prevent flies or to preserve them for display, but I noticed that it had some affect on the coloration, causing some kind of variegation in the skin.  anyway, if your bandwidth allows it, watch in 1080p.

http://youtu.be/zATZtkgBaUc

4th Clip:

I had the chance to visit a private mango orchard, the owner has 100 varieties.  the owner gave permission for a small group to look around.  my only problem transportation was leaving in 30 minutes.  so I had to rush things a bit.  although I may get another chance to film inside again, but now is the best time because most trees had fruit on them.

This place was one of the best kept orchards I have ever seen here.   the trees you see that are heavily loaded with fruit, are Keitt of course.

http://youtu.be/Eg_uI71ZW4w

Other video on the way,  >plantation tour, 


 

Just wondering who has Angie available?  in 3 gallon.  I will be visiting S. Florida in couple of weeks, and would like to pick one of these up.

NOT MY VIDEO

Came across these videos posted on youtube, someone taking a tour of Tropical Acres Farm, in WPB.  anyway I found the videos interesting ( 3 parts ), some very mature mango trees.

http://youtu.be/HEFWMsJNwV4