The Tropical Fruit Forum

Dwarf Jamaican red, dwarf namwah, both wonderful and fruity. 

I have a dwarf namwah and i can say that it is a tough boy. I put it bare rooted in my cellar in november and it spent the winter there without even losing the last green leaf i left on it. After three months, i simply putted the plant back in soil, watered, and about ten days later the central leaf started to grow again.
This isn't the kind of treatment you are going to do in aruba, but gives you an idea about how strong this banana is.   

I'm willing to give a try with jackfruits.
I don't have any source for grafted plants right now, so i think i will go with seeds. It's way easier to obtain them. I will post later in the appropriate section a message about the seeds i'm searching, but for now i'm just searching for advice. It is pretty likely that i'm missing something obvious (like flowering time, pollination, and so on) ad i'd like to have it pointed.
I'm thinking about growing a jackfruit more or less like a potted mango, bringin it inside the greenhouse during winter and keeping it out in summer.
First, i checked the varieties listed here:
http://www.virtualherbarium.org/tropicalfruit/jackfruit-cultivars.html
and here:
http://www.sarasotafruitandnutsociety.org/information/TropicalFruit/jackfruitvarieties.htm
According to those sites, the Golden Nugget seems the most promising variety for me. It is an early one, wich is good because my short season, and it has little fruits, wich is needed for a potted variety. I think about going with Golden Nugget seeds.
But i need to know the following things:
Does jackfruit seedling come reasonably true to the parent?
Does it need cross pollination?
How much cold hardy is it? If it can't take an extended time at 34F i won't be able to grow it here.
Has someone see it grow in pot of reasonable size and still produce fruit?
Thank you very much for your suggestions!

Remember, you're going to worry every winter about survival, why be so worried it's going to outgrow the structure - that would be a wonderful problem to have, Pan?!!!!!!!

Lol, you are completly right. Seriously, i was thinking that my main goal was a problem!
I won't prune now, neither i'll do it later. I will see how this plant does, and i'll decide in next years if it needs some pruning. I'll stay with tip pruning for now. Time will tell, but as many other people have already said, plant shouldn't have any major problem recovering even from hard pruning... and with a better established root system, it will recover even quicker in future.

Hey, Nancy, i waited for your answer! I know that you don't give suggestions in those cases, but i valued you opinion, since apparently i started all this after i saw the good results with your hard pruning.
It's hard to tell how my plant should react to pruning. Apparently it shouldn't behave very differnt from yours, but the short growing season is really a concern. I'm barely able to mature the fruits, last years i had a growt flush after i harvested the fruits, but we have had an exceptionally long and hot fall, so i don't think this should be something i can count on every year.
For now, i think, i won't prune it. I will hard prune it in next years, if i feel i need to.  I's better to let it grow. I think i'll simply go with tip pruning to promote branching.
Please post your picture this summer about the pruning you'll do on your Glenn, and thank you!

You do not live in Florida or California those instructions do not apply to you, disregard them!! Here in California we are told by our elders in the CRFG not to prune our grafted mango trees because our winters will dwarf them for us

Uhm, i think you have a point here. The tree pratically hasn't grown last year, and if i don't cut the fruits i don't expect it to grow much either this year.
Maybe pruning isn't necessary, even if i fear that older leaves will start falling soon.
I'd like to have someone else growing a mango in a mediterranean climate to share experiences.... i have heard about pruning the fruits on new planted plants, and i thought that  it was also a good timing having it pruned at the same time .
(Wolud be awesome to have it holding a full sized fruit this year, but i don't count on it).

@Nullzero: i have read the link you posted, and found it interesting. And you are right, the high graft is a concern for me. Anyway i don't think i'll do that with this plant, and my reasons are those: 1) The plant i got had a very good root system. The pot were it has been grown was specifically intended to avoid it becoming root bound and apparently it worked perfectly (when i inspected it). So there isn't a strict need for changing/improving the root system of the rootstock. 2) This plant will be eventually replaced, when i'll have the first very harsh winter. I dunno how long it will take but i expect to happen, sooner or later. So i'm in a rush for fruits, because, if this won't happen, everything will be a wasted effort. That makes me really little concerned about the high graft on the short and medium term. On the long therm, it is another story, but i hope to do everything as it should be done with a new (and hopefully self-made) plant.

@murahilin: I won't do the air layer, but i'll try stone grafting (and any other grafting i can successfully make) for sure. Low grafts are easier to protect, of course, and overall they give you more freedom on the shape of the tree. Too bad here i haven't been able to locate a single soruce of mangos wich does low grafts (but is also hard to find a source of mangos in general).

@natsgarden123: Thank you for your suggestion! I'll check pug pictures to see if they give me some ideas.

@Jsvand5: You are right, the tree is nicely branched and if it was supposed to stay in the free air i wouldn't mind much. But i'd like to have some more branches where it froms a V shape (just above the graft), because i hope to keep it more compact, and will give me more choices on the next years. Basically i'm not unhappy on what it has got, but i just want more of it! This should optimize my limited space....
I slightly edited my picture above to give you an idea on what i hope will happen after the cuts (but i don't know if this is realistic)

I started to remove some of the frame around my mango, and i'm approaching to the days when will be possible to prune it.
As you may already know, i want this plant to stay small and bushy to be able to keep it under the frame i built. The plant itself is a Glenn mango.
This gonna be the first pruning of this plant for me and one of the first pruning experinces on mangoes at all.
I have watched some of the fairchild videos on mango pruning still i fear to break something and do a mistake wich will take years to recover. And of course, i want to eat my own mangos as soon as possibles.
Now the question is: how do i prune it?
I took some picture of the plant and of the frame to show you what i'm talking about.



This is just to give you a scale.
Then, this is where i'm willing to cut:




The red lines are the cutting spot, the blue one is the point where the plant is grafted. After this i hope to keep the plant in control for some years with tip pruning, and some limb cutting from year to year.
I won't do this before a month, because i want to use the branches removed to learn to graft, and i need more heat, but i'd like to hear your opinions now.
Thank you in advance!

Awesome plants!
It's nice how everything is healty and green despite the arid landscape.

I'm so envious! Nice report!

Wow lycheeluva, you must be the king of multi-grafts! I never used this tecnique, but surely works great for saving space!

Hey, people, thank you for your words and all those good suggestions!
I'm so happy about this, i really hope to be able to eat some fruits in next years.
Right now in the greenhouse i get more than 100F with sun and so i really need to keep it opened during the day.

Great job!
Is it not warm enough now to remove/open the cover? are there no flies or bees out yet?
[...]
i have a slight suspicion that some mangoes will set fruit without wind or insects- but thats just a wild guess

I'm thinking about this. To be honest i have a big apricot very close to this mango wich is in full bloom and literally covered with bees and bumblebees. Lol with that spectacular apricot bloom so close to it the bees don't seem to pay much attention to my mango, even if i open the cover!
So i'm thinking that maybe i should catch a bumblebee, and close it inside the cover for a day or two. There is plenty of water and a little of nectar so maybe it won't die? I will see if i'll be able to do it, but putting a fan seems a easier task!

Nice work! Time for a Mangosteen! 

Ahahaha, only in my wildest dreams!

I think Julie would of made a great fit for the enclosure (due to its stout compact form), perhaps if you do a second enclosure you can grow a Julie.

You have a serious point. What is better for this kind of project, a dwarf cultivar or a vigorous grower? I'm not sure yet. My answer has been "a decent grower" (there are more vigorous mangos than glenn, that for sure). I hope, this way, to recover from winter damage when it happens, in a reasonable time. With a slower mango the "hard pruning" that a cold winter can put on the plant can take years to recover. BUT if i will have too much success, will be hard to keep the plant compact. Well, anyway julie seems nice for our climate, since our summers are pretty dry. But i'm also very curious about pickering.
(Anyway Glenn has been a winner also for the good tasting reviews, productivity and disease resistance - and all that on an early bearer, wich is mandatory)

Yay!! Congrats on your blooms and especially for pulling through the harsh cold winter and having your mango not only survive but bloom too. I bet you're relieved its over for a while.

Ahaha, Nancy, im relieved, yes. This year starts nicely, i hope you will get some fruits too, for once! It is a warm feeling when you are "out of danger", it isn't?

Great job. I agree: open it up and let the insects in. At least during the day it should be fairly warm, no?

I'll open it in next days, yes. I'll wait a couple of week to unmount it, just because maybe we will have last cold front of this winter in a couple of weeks.

Paisan, I'm shocked  and glad that your mango has survive your cold winter. that's like a mango tree surviving in Chicago in a makeshift greenhouse,BRAVO!!!

Hey, thank you, but i don't deserve all this! Luckly our winters are milder than Chicago ones... If you want a comparison with a city in USA, i think that Atlanta gives you a good idea. Still our  winter sun is way weaker than the atlanta sun, so this kind of greenhouse in atlanta would be even more effective.

job of spreading pollen....either with a fan or just opening the
structure for awhile.....

I'm with you two regardin pollination. Still i'm a bit unsure on what to do: there is also the option "nothing" on the table, to see if the plant is able to set fruit by itself. This year i don't plan, anyway to leave any of them on the plant.... for now.

Very impressive job with the structure and getting blooms is very exciting.  Hopefully fruit is in your near future.

cheers,
-Ethan

I hope it too... still this year i'd like to try to increase the plant size. I'm tempted to leave fruits but... i want a bigger plant!

I just like the looks of the fruit,

I find it beautiful too.

Does it grow like a regular melon? I mean, is annual?

I'm going with the majority of people. Pot.
The reason are evident and well expressed by others. Can I add one more? If you have room for a mango, why don't you get a vigorous one? Even if pruned back from winter, it may come back from its ashes. According general lore, big plants are more frost resistant that little one.
A pickering, with its dwarf grow, can be pruned back to nothing every winter. A bigger plant should tolerate this, and maybe make some fruits.
And don't forget: keeping pickering in pot and adding a vigorous mango in ground can get you TWO mangos.