The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: 1988GD on November 01, 2016, 02:15:34 PM
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I'm looking to add a mamey tree to my yard and I was wondering if anybody could recommend a variety. I live in coral springs florida. I have tried magana and patin. I like patin a lot more than Magana but I know there's others like lorito, viejo, pace ect. I'm looking to get a 15 gallon tree thanks!
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I was also looking for one too (that fruits outside of mango season). The best i saw was Excalibur (Fall) and Pace (Spring).
Viejo is in winter but it seems that it is not as sweet.
I really need to taste them before i plant any.
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I'm hoping to see some fruit from my Excalibur mamey this coming year. It's been in the ground since 2011... fingers crossed.
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Following this one.
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Best in terms of flavor, sweetness and texture, Lorito and Cepeda Especiale (yes, better than Pantin and Pace).
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Were do the have cepeda especial? ?
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Were do the have cepeda especial? ?
Excalibur might. If they dont, try Lara Farms in Homestead.
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I'm looking to add a mamey tree to my yard and I was wondering if anybody could recommend a variety. I live in coral springs florida. I have tried magana and patin. I like patin a lot more than Magana but I know there's others like lorito, viejo, pace ect. I'm looking to get a 15 gallon tree thanks!
Just a warning: Coral Springs,with its limestone soil, is not the best place to grow a mamey. I tried growing Pace and Pantin and had to pull them out. I am sure you will have better luck.
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That's weird. As long as you add chelated iron (Sequestrene 138), it shouldn't be much of a problem. There are a lot of mamey trees thriving in limestone soil in the redlands and on the yucatan peninsula. Did they turn yellow before you pulled them out, or did they just die back?
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It's true -- they can be hard to grow here. That is probably why mamey trees are extremely rare in this part of broward. Pace is one of the more difficult to grow in my experience.
There are 2 problems with the mamey here:
- Cuban may beetle ravage them.
- Shallow topsoil with limestone rubble base (as is common in parts of Broward) doesn't retain moisture and is high in pH (meaning that minor element deficiencies limit growth and production)
So, you'll see trees that are severely stunted or trees which fail to bring crops to maturity. But this depends largely on your soil and cultivation practices.
With that said, I have had success. Here are some tricks that I've used:
To alleviate the dry soil / lack of water retention issue, I dug out the limestone rubble and replaced with sand + compost to a diameter of about 8 feet and deep enough to hit the deep sand below. This worked well. But, you must be careful, as mameys also hate overly wet soil. They are really finicky in this regard and are averse to both dry and wet soil.
Another way I got mameys to work with shallow Broward soil was by trucking in sandy soil and building up a foot or more of soil above the limestone rubble.
To ameliorate the cuban may beetle issue -- which will leave your mamey looking like a skeleton for 90% of the year -- I mulched over all of my grass, which starved the cuban may beetle grubs of a food source and eventually killed them all off. Interestingly, cuban may beetles don't venture very far from their food source as a grub. So, even though your neighbors have grass 20 feet away, removing the grass eliminates 95% of the beetles.
The nutritional issue can be solved via various cultural tactics. If you've built up a decent soil base as described above, you can lower the pH with sulfur (assuming that the top soil doesn't have more than, say, 1% ca carbonate). Mameys also seem to adore iron, so you can use various fertilizers and foliar amendments to address this. Continual application of fe via a complete fertilizer will do the trick if you've followed all of the steps above.
So, there you have it. Mameys can be grown in shallow Broward soil, but it requires some effort. Seeing as how mamey is one of my favorite fruits, I went ahead and did all of the above. I currently have fruit on my mameys!
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I agree Jeff. Pace is finicky, even in my deep sandy soil. It starts to look dehydrated after 3-4 days without rain, while my pantin and viejo still look happy. My Pantin is also growing quicker and is actually now larger than my pace, even though it is a year younger. The Pantin is growing like a weed. I have not harvested any fruit from my pace yet and it has been in the ground for 5 years. It is now covered with flowers. Hope it forms some fruit that will stay on the tree. I have to water the Pace more frequently, compare to my other mamey trees so it does not reject all of the fruit. That happened last year. :( Got a bit drought stressed and it rejected all of the grape sized fruit one by one.
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Yes, it seems counter-intuitive. But my neighbors have a pantin that is > 10 years old which stands at a mere 7 feet tall and has not produced a single crop.
My theory is that redlands soil is heavy enough to retain sufficient moisture, and the red hue to the soil there probably indicates a large amount of iron. Moreover, I don't think cuban may beetle thrive in that type of soil.
You're quite lucky where you're at in that you have deeper soil. I think if you can get at least a foot of sand, you can grow them successfully. However, many parts of Broward have a mere 3 inches of 50/50 mix on top of limestone rubble. I ended up "fixing" this by trucking in 250 cubic yards of palm beach soil (south lot) and 1,000+ cubic yards of tree trimmer mulch (north lot). Both lots now have a foot or better above limestone, and I can grow pretty much anything successfully now.
That's weird. As long as you add chelated iron (Sequestrene 138), it shouldn't be much of a problem. There are a lot of mamey trees thriving in limestone soil in the redlands and on the yucatan peninsula. Did they turn yellow before you pulled them out, or did they just die back?
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Yes, it seems counter-intuitive. But my neighbors have a pantin that is > 10 years old which stands at a mere 7 feet tall and has not produced a single crop.
My theory is that redlands soil is heavy enough to retain sufficient moisture, and the red hue to the soil there probably indicates a large amount of iron. Moreover, I don't think cuban may beetle thrive in that type of soil.
You're quite lucky where you're at in that you have deeper soil. I think if you can get at least a foot of sand, you can grow them successfully. However, many parts of Broward have a mere 3 inches of 50/50 mix on top of limestone rubble. I ended up "fixing" this by trucking in 250 cubic yards of palm beach soil (south lot) and 1,000+ cubic yards of tree trimmer mulch (north lot). Both lots now have a foot or better above limestone, and I can grow pretty much anything successfully now.
That's weird. As long as you add chelated iron (Sequestrene 138), it shouldn't be much of a problem. There are a lot of mamey trees thriving in limestone soil in the redlands and on the yucatan peninsula. Did they turn yellow before you pulled them out, or did they just die back?
Wow. My pantin is 4 years old and it is almost the size of a two story house. lol That's the 7 gallon tree I bought from you along with the tikal sapodilla. My trees don't show any iron deficiency, but I still use sequestrene 330. I'm going to a second iron application this weekend. According to the UF chart, 2-4 times a year is recommended. Since my trees are nice and green, I'm sticking with the twice-a-year method. Does your chintalala have any fruit on it?
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Noel had a huge, beautiful consistent fruiting monster at his house in Coral Springs.
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Yep. You have more than 3 inches of soil :-). My pantin that is on imported sand is doing extremely well and has probably 2 dozen golfball sized fruits right now.
No fruit on mr chinta, but he's growing very nicely. Has flowered multiple times but nothing sticks (it's still too small).
Wow. My pantin is 4 years old and it is almost the size of a two story house. lol That's the 7 gallon tree I bought from you along with the tikal sapodilla. My trees don't show any iron deficiency, but I still use sequestrene 330. I'm going to a second iron application this weekend. According to the UF chart, 2-4 times a year is recommended. Since my trees are nice and green, I'm sticking with the twice-a-year method. Does your chintalala have any fruit on it?
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Correct. Noel had well over a foot of sand. Soil in Broward is hit and miss. Some parts have 3 inches of 50/50 mix on top of limestone rubble. Others have 2 feet of dark, fast draining sand with white sand beneath.
I was able to near replicate Noel's soil by trucking in 250 cu yards of sand :-). My mameys over there are doing phenomenally well.
You palm beacheans are spoiled. Most of you guys have deep sand. That stuff is super easy to grow on.
Noel had a huge, beautiful consistent fruiting monster at his house in Coral Springs.
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Noel had a huge, beautiful consistent fruiting monster at his house in Coral Springs.
"Had"? Does that tree still exist? I've noticed that Noel hasn't been on here for awhile.
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Yep. You have more than 3 inches of soil :-). My pantin that is on imported sand is doing extremely well and has probably 2 dozen golfball sized fruits right now.
No fruit on mr chinta, but he's growing very nicely. Has flowered multiple times but nothing sticks (it's still too small).
Cool :)
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He no longer lives at the coral springs residence.
Noel had a huge, beautiful consistent fruiting monster at his house in Coral Springs.
"Had"? Does that tree still exist? I've noticed that Noel hasn't been on here for awhile.
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He no longer lives at the coral springs residence.
Noel had a huge, beautiful consistent fruiting monster at his house in Coral Springs.
"Had"? Does that tree still exist? I've noticed that Noel hasn't been on here for awhile.
I also dont know if the tree still e,ists there...
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Wow. Didn't know that.
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The litmus test for determining whether or not you can grow a mamey without too much effort in coral springs(or surrounding areas is to take a shovel and push it into the ground. If you can go a full foot without hitting limestone rubble and your soil drains well, then you're in good shape; with some sulfur and iron fertilizer you can grow a mamey.
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Thanks for input