The Tropical Fruit Forum

If you check out the local craigslist I've seen a few people selling Jaboticaba plants - they're more towards seminole county than over by you in Titusville but not a terrible drive / distance.

I have 4 mango seedlings that are around 23 months old - so coming up on 2 years now at the end of this month.

Tree #1.  The seedling is from my favorite fruit that I ate in June of 2016 and picked up from a street seller in Okeechobee.  The seller called the variety "sugar cookie" - though nobody on the forum has heard that before.  The mango was the sweetest fruit I have ever eaten.  It was fantastic and the reason I decided to grow mangos at all.  I couldn't believe how great that fruit was.  The tree has two trunks coming up from the seed so its a Poly seed.  The largest trunk is already over 6 feet tall (close to 7 feet tall) and branching out on its own rather nicely and looking like a real winner.  The smaller trunk is around 4 feet tall.  I haven't done any sort of pruning on that tree and it developed a nice low set of branches and another high set at around 5 feet.  The tree, unlike my other seedlings, has kept all of its leaves from all of its flushes - ie - the trunk itself still has leaves.  The tree has limited anthracnose damage to the leaves but there is some.  Genetic winner at least the way its growing now and since its a Poly by evidence of the multiple trunks if the mangos taste anything like the one I bought from that stand ima gonna be a happy camper.

Tree #2.  This seedling is from a beautiful Kent mango.  Again it was bought from a street vendor around Okeechobee in June 2016.  Its around 4 feet tall and just pushing another flush right now.  I pruned that tree following the "Ghana pruning video" this spring and its creating a beautiful open canopy.  The internodes on that tree are HUGE.  The canopy is nice and airy and the tree is looking phenomenal.  If it keeps this up it'll be well over 6 feet tall  and fully branched out next year.  This seedling shows almost no anthracnose and is taking off into a very wide tree and has also not dropped the lower, developing leaves.

Tree #3.  This seedling is also from a Kent mango that was rather tasty.  This tree however has internodes that are around 1 to 1.5 inches each.  I pruned it according to the "Ghana pruning video" again and it is branching nicely but the tree is maybe 3 feet tall if that.  If you're looking for a dwarf tree, this is it.  It has some anthracnose damage to the leaves and has dropped all of its lower leaves.  The tip leaves are looking good now but the current flush its going through is right on top of the last growth and my guess is i'm going to have anthracnose issues on this tree.  Keeping it for now but seriously considering top-working the tree.  Genetic unknown but i don't think this is a tree I'll use for anything more than a graft - though I do need trees to graft onto so not a big loss.

Tree #4.  I'm going to pull the plug on this one and use the container for another tree.  The tree is maybe 2 feet tall and almost looks like a bonsai tree.  The seedling was a brother/sister of the sugar cookie mango and came from the same tree that seedling #1 came from.  Genetic looser.  It has around 8 or 9 branches but gets HAMMERED by anthracnose.  I can't believe this seed came from the same batch that produced tree #1.  This one isn't even worth grafting onto as it truly looks like I bonsai'd it from the beginning.

Then lets talk about some of my seedlings that were started last summer.  I've got some seedlings that I started 4 months ago that are bigger than some of the seedlings I started last June.  I gave away two of my nicer seedlings and kept the runts but I'm not going to use those for anything more than grafting material.  Again, i need seedlings to graft onto so no big loss - and in the long run I'm saying myself money by starting trees from the fruits i'm eating anyway - but neither of the 2 from last summer that I have left are worth keeping.

Its all about the genetic lottery at work.

Shot another one

Tree rat, or mango tree itself since you're mad at them for producing poorly 

Quote from: baccarat0809 on May 29, 2018, 02:11:57 PM

Quote from: murahilin on May 28, 2018, 07:58:07 PM

Quote from: baccarat0809 on May 28, 2018, 11:32:34 AM

Just bought some organic lychees in whole foods yesterday.

I paid about $8.99 for a quart of them.  Not sure the actual weight.

BTW they were excellent.

Just for a frame of reference, have you had fresh lychees before not from the grocery store?

GLPg tag:

"Redland Raised - Organically produced Lychee at Green Groves for Bee Heaven Farm.  Fresh from Florida."

Website for the farm is listed www.green-groves.com.  Organic certification #0167GLP.

Will be making a trip to South Florida sometime over the next week or so for work, so I'll make the run to a few of the mango growers on the forum and a few members to pick-up / drop-off some plants for some exchanges.  I'll probably make a stop at a Lychee farm as well.  Is there anybody who you would recommend that I stop at?  Like I said, these were excellent - nice combination of sweet and tart.  I ended up eating 3 or 4 of them and my eldest son ate the rest.  He is a soccer player and very particular about what he eats so for him to finish off the fruit is a win for me.

very interested which cultivar it is.

do you live close to florida? i’ve never seen florida lychees in store before

Andrew - I live in Longwood, Florida - a small city to the Northeast of Orlando.  The whole foods that I goto is located in Altamote Springs, FL.  I know a bunch of people nationally have been complaining about Whole Foods lately but our local store has been very well stocked with a good amount of local food available. 

Quote from: baccarat0809 on May 28, 2018, 11:32:34 AM

Just bought some organic lychees in whole foods yesterday.

I paid about $8.99 for a quart of them.  Not sure the actual weight.

BTW they were excellent.

Just for a frame of reference, have you had fresh lychees before not from the grocery store?

GLPg tag:

"Redland Raised - Organically produced Lychee at Green Groves for Bee Heaven Farm.  Fresh from Florida."

Website for the farm is listed www.green-groves.com.  Organic certification #0167GLP.

Will be making a trip to South Florida sometime over the next week or so for work, so I'll make the run to a few of the mango growers on the forum and a few members to pick-up / drop-off some plants for some exchanges.  I'll probably make a stop at a Lychee farm as well.  Is there anybody who you would recommend that I stop at?  Like I said, these were excellent - nice combination of sweet and tart.  I ended up eating 3 or 4 of them and my eldest son ate the rest.  He is a soccer player and very particular about what he eats so for him to finish off the fruit is a win for me.

Just bought some organic lychees in whole foods yesterday.

I paid about $8.99 for a quart of them.  Not sure the actual weight.

BTW they were excellent.

Orkine - I have 9 branches forming on the tree now so there should be enough material if it flushes as much this summer as last summer to harvest you a scion or two.  I've never cut-off a scion or prepared it for shipping so i'll need some help from the forum but i'll figure it out.  If you make a run to Orlando at the end of July or August shoot me a PM and maybe you can come clip the scions yourself and show me what to look for.  I can use a grafting lesson or two.

Pm sent as well.

Quote from: John Travis on May 11, 2018, 10:57:49 AM

I'm really looking forward to this show! What are you most excited to bring to the show? Anything new and exciting?

Probably grafted purple passion fruit vines (these are doing great at our place and out producing the non grafted vines with no signs of crown rot so far). Also Fe’i bananas, some Inga trees, a nicely branched Dream and grafted Jackfruit trees which look great right now.

Geo - did somebody buy that dream you brought with you?

Johnny,

How many years did it take to fruit?   I have a 1 year old seedling that is starting to put on some good growth but I know i'm still a long ways away from tasting.

thanks

dc

So the spinach gene splicing doesn't seem to be working them. Ugg.  Was hopeful.

I figured as much but since I'm going to be there anyway I figured I should just make sure.

Thanks for the feedback.

Color me jealous.